Adventures in cast bullets for the .30 Mauser

one gunner · 10-10-2002, 08:36 PM

Despite my experiece of over 35 years of reloading this caliber proved to be a real adventure to reload for.

The short neck of this cartridge makes reloading for it a real headache to say the least.

I tried the original Lyman cast bullet for this caliber mold no. 313249. The bullets design should allow the case to be crimped into the crimp grove but I found out that due to the short neck of the case the bullet ends up protruding down into the power space. This causes the lube in the grove to be burned off and worse yet it does not allow the case to grip the bullet. The bullet being gripped only by the upper band which is not enough to hold it tight in the case.

I therefore seated the bullet way out and the case mouth is seated below the crimp grove, this allows the lower band to be seated inside the neck of the case and this allows sufficient grip to the bullet to prevent the bullet from sliding down inside the case.

Using the two die set from RCBS one cannot seat cast bullets with it because it does not flare the mouth of the case enough. A Lyman M die solved this problem by expanding the neck to the desired diamenter and also put a slight flare on the case mouth to enable one to start the bullet. Well almost. It was also necessary to chamfer the case necks. The loaded rounds fed just fine.

Unfortunately Lyman only makes a two cavity mold in this caliber. I tried Lee's 6 cavity mold no. 311-93-1r but this was designed for the .32 cal. revolvers not the 30 mauser and one must seat the bullet out with one of the grease groves exposed. This is not satifactory in my way of thinking because the grease either soon falls off or picks up dirt and grit and burt powder. Too bad Lee does not make a mold for the 30 mauser and 30 luger. They also by the way make no top puches for their bullets to fit RCBS or Lymand sizers. The bullet did feed well and was accurate but if one did not grease both of the very shallow and narrow grooves the bullet leaded badly.

Loading jacketed bullets also gave problems. The RCBS expander button was too large which did not enable the case to grip the bullet tightly enough. This necessitated either polishing down the expander button to a smaller diameter or simply removing the expander button altogether. You can do this two ways. You can size and decap as normal and then size again without the expander button or you can use a Lee decapper and then size without the expander in the RCBS die.

The good news is that at least today you can get brass for the 30 mauser. In the past it was so scarce that you had to form them form .38 special cases or even .223 rifle cases. In the future when the supply of Tokeroff & CZ pistols dries up I foresee another return to the scaricity of brass in this caliber. Lets hope that I am wrong or at least that the brass will be produced for a goodly number of years ahead.

Lonnie Zimmerman · 10-10-2002, 09:15 PM

One Gunner; I share your concern about the 30 Mauser brass. I shoot two 30 Mausers. I bought 1,000 brass from Starline and haven"t done anything but flare them and load them so far. I will be reloading some soon. Hope I don"t have problems. I use 6 gr of Herco with a 85 gr Sierra seated to an oal of 1.395. Shoot VERY accurate with my scoped Broomhandle.
Lonnie

Steve Richards · 10-11-2002, 07:52 PM

I also use the 85gr Sierra bullet but with 6gr Unique. My Lee loading dies seem to work fine on this cartridge. It took a bit of tweaking to get the flair, crimping, and length right but I suspect that is normal for any cartridge.

I also hope Starline continues to carry brass for this and look forward to their upcoming release of 30 Luger.

<img src="graemlins/beerchug.gif" border="0" alt="[cheers]" />

10-10-2002, 08:36 PM	#1
one gunner User Join Date: Aug 2002 Posts: 25 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Adventures in cast bullets for the .30 Mauser Despite my experiece of over 35 years of reloading this caliber proved to be a real adventure to reload for. The short neck of this cartridge makes reloading for it a real headache to say the least. I tried the original Lyman cast bullet for this caliber mold no. 313249. The bullets design should allow the case to be crimped into the crimp grove but I found out that due to the short neck of the case the bullet ends up protruding down into the power space. This causes the lube in the grove to be burned off and worse yet it does not allow the case to grip the bullet. The bullet being gripped only by the upper band which is not enough to hold it tight in the case. I therefore seated the bullet way out and the case mouth is seated below the crimp grove, this allows the lower band to be seated inside the neck of the case and this allows sufficient grip to the bullet to prevent the bullet from sliding down inside the case. Using the two die set from RCBS one cannot seat cast bullets with it because it does not flare the mouth of the case enough. A Lyman M die solved this problem by expanding the neck to the desired diamenter and also put a slight flare on the case mouth to enable one to start the bullet. Well almost. It was also necessary to chamfer the case necks. The loaded rounds fed just fine. Unfortunately Lyman only makes a two cavity mold in this caliber. I tried Lee's 6 cavity mold no. 311-93-1r but this was designed for the .32 cal. revolvers not the 30 mauser and one must seat the bullet out with one of the grease groves exposed. This is not satifactory in my way of thinking because the grease either soon falls off or picks up dirt and grit and burt powder. Too bad Lee does not make a mold for the 30 mauser and 30 luger. They also by the way make no top puches for their bullets to fit RCBS or Lymand sizers. The bullet did feed well and was accurate but if one did not grease both of the very shallow and narrow grooves the bullet leaded badly. Loading jacketed bullets also gave problems. The RCBS expander button was too large which did not enable the case to grip the bullet tightly enough. This necessitated either polishing down the expander button to a smaller diameter or simply removing the expander button altogether. You can do this two ways. You can size and decap as normal and then size again without the expander button or you can use a Lee decapper and then size without the expander in the RCBS die. The good news is that at least today you can get brass for the 30 mauser. In the past it was so scarce that you had to form them form .38 special cases or even .223 rifle cases. In the future when the supply of Tokeroff & CZ pistols dries up I foresee another return to the scaricity of brass in this caliber. Lets hope that I am wrong or at least that the brass will be produced for a goodly number of years ahead.

10-10-2002, 09:15 PM	#2
Lonnie Zimmerman User Join Date: Jun 2002 Posts: 523 Thanks: 0 Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post	One Gunner; I share your concern about the 30 Mauser brass. I shoot two 30 Mausers. I bought 1,000 brass from Starline and haven"t done anything but flare them and load them so far. I will be reloading some soon. Hope I don"t have problems. I use 6 gr of Herco with a 85 gr Sierra seated to an oal of 1.395. Shoot VERY accurate with my scoped Broomhandle. Lonnie __________________ Lonnie Zimmerman

10-11-2002, 07:52 PM	#3
Steve Richards User Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Beaverton, Oregon Posts: 487 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	I also use the 85gr Sierra bullet but with 6gr Unique. My Lee loading dies seem to work fine on this cartridge. It took a bit of tweaking to get the flair, crimping, and length right but I suspect that is normal for any cartridge. I also hope Starline continues to carry brass for this and look forward to their upcoming release of 30 Luger. <img src="graemlins/beerchug.gif" border="0" alt="[cheers]" />