Pacos Long Range Load

For the .30 Carbine Blackhawk

Warning This is a very special load and uses a bullet longer and heavier than the caliber is designed for at pressures that are probably at the top of the range for a .30 Carbine in the Ruger Blackhawk. Use this data at your own risk. At no time substitute shorter seating depths or substitute small rifle primers in place of the small pistol primers or signs of pressure will immediately show up and damage may result. Im a pretty big fan of Paco Kellys when it comes to cast bullet loads. I think Ive read about all of his articles and I enjoy his fresh approach to loading and shooting cast bullet. I especially enjoyed his articles on the .30 Carbine Ruger since I own one of those little gems. One part of his article got my attention as he was loading the old Lyman 311440 bullet in the .30 Carbine case for the Ruger Blackhawk. He called it his long range carbine load. Since I owned a couple of the 311440 moulds, I quickly became interested and ran out a few hundred 311440s. To successfully shoot this load, you need to achieve a velocity of 1200 FPS or the bullet wont stabilize. This was clearly stated in his article and in my efforts to duplicate his load, I found out that it was gospel.almost to the last FPS. To begin with, I was shooting a stock .30 Carbine Ruger. I have an idea his had been throated a bit but no mention was made in his article. My gun wouldnt allow me to seat the bullet very far out and I ran into problems almost immediately in the form of pressure. I tried his loads of 2400 and after conferring with Felix, I tried N110. Forget 4227 as I couldnt get enough in the case. The 2400 loads worked; however, pressure caused sticky extraction and I didnt want that for sure. The loads shot accurately but it seemed as if I was at a dead end. Oh well, Ill shoot the 311440s in the .30/30.

The next brainstorm

The data sat on the computer and the bullets on the bench for about a year. Id occasionally think about the project but never messed with it any more. Then, I got the brainstorm and the desire to hollow point a 311440. We did the modification with a .100 cavity and it turned out well. The one mould I have makes finished bullets of 147 grains. The mould I hollow pointed makes HP bullets of 151.2 grains and solids of 156.2 grains so there some are not so noticeable differences in the two moulds. At this turn of events, I went back to the drawing board as I was expecting a lighter bullet and had the thoughts that the hollow point cavity might throw the center of gravity back far enough so that I could get stabilization at less than 1200 FPS. With the heavier bullet, this was out the window. I wasnt about to open the throats on the .30 Carbine cylinder and change that. So, I throated the bullets. Id normally been sizing .310 or .311. I took a .309 sizer and nose first sized the driving band down to .309. This small difference allowed me to seat the bullets all the way to the end of the chamber and pick up quite a difference

in the way of more seating depth..071 in fact over what I was using and this is significant when pressure is involved in such a small capacity case and long heavy bullet. With the hollow point, 311440, it was worth a try.

Pacos Long Range .30 Carbine Load with Lymans 311440 Hollow point Bullet

Table 1 Initial test 311440 HP in .30 Carbine Blackhawk Bullet Weight Powder Weight Average Standard Primer Sized
311440 HP 151.2 2400 10.0 Velocity 1137 Deviation 21.4 WSP

Overall Accuracy
Good acc at 100 yards

Length .310/309 1.732 front band

Testing twenty of these loads ( Table 1) gave me fair accuracy at 100 yards and more or less proved my theory that the HP cavity increased stability at less than 1200 FPS and the major factor was that the fired cases literally fell out of the cylinder now.

Table 2 Follow up testing of the 311440 HP in .30 Carbine Blackhawk Bullet Weight Powder Weight Average Standard Primer Sized Overall Accuracy
311440 HP 311440 HP 151.2 2400 10.5 Velocity 1232 Deviation 15.6 CCI SP WSP Length .310/309 1.732 front band .310/309 1.732 front band Best Accuracy Good acc At 100 yards

151.2

2400

11.0

1278

16.8

The follow up testing ( Table 2) proved to be the topping on the cake. I achieved my goal of 1200 FPS and more. Better yet, the 1232 FPS load gave very fine accuracy at 100 yards. Better than I had expected. Extraction of the cases was easy and the fired primers looked normal. I had the load that was searching for. I know that very few of you will have a hollow point 311440. With this in mind, Ill go back and work on loads with the solid version of the heavier 311440 and see if I can get a load to work for it.

Table 3
Follow-up testing with the solid 311440

Bullet Weight Powder Weight Average Standard Primer Sized

311440 156.2 2400 10.5 Velocity 1178 Deviation 14.2 CCISP

Overall Accuracy
Gd Acc @ 100 Yds Gd Acc @ 100 Yds Gd Acc @ 100 Yds

311440

156.2

2400

10.8

1198

22.3

CCISP

311440

156.2

2400

10.9

1228

11.8

CCISP

Length .310/309 1.732 Front Band .310/309 1.745 Front Band .310/309 1.745 Front Band

The one lot loaded at 1.732 overall length (Table 3) almost made the cut at 1178 FPS but I wanted to top 1200 FPS as I was now shooting the solid and I felt thats Id need the velocity to stabilize it. This load was also showing some hard extraction. Not enough to get excited about but more than I wanted to mess with on a regular basis.
As a result, I once more checked the overall length and managed to squeeze another .013 out of the cylinder length. Now, this is close to the end of the cylinder but so far, Ive had no problems with it in sliding forward and tying up cylinder rotation. Eureka! Easy extraction and 1198 FPS and good accuracy. Subsequent testing with another tenth of a grain of 2400 gave me the desired 1228 feet per second.

New Wrinkle
While I was casting some additional 311440s for these tests, I was also casting some RCBS 30-150-CM, plain base bullets designed for cowboy loads. I intended to use these to test some whisper loads in the .30-30 and .30/06. I know the weight of these to be right at 150 grains and the length looked about the same as the 311440 so I began to form an idea. When I was sizing and lubing this run of bullets, a small test portion was sized to .310 with the front band sized to .309. The two bullets were compared with the following results: Table 4 Comparison of the 311440 and 30-150-CM Bullet Weight Length (ready to load) 311440 156.2 .832 Lyman 30-150-CM 150.7 .810 RCBS Ill load these over some 2400 and see how they compare to the 311440 as far as velocity, accuracy and pressure. With the shorter and lighter bullet (Table 4) , I should be able to slightly increase the overall seating depth and pick up a bit more velocity with less pressure. An added factor with the RCBS bullet is a big, wide, flat meplat which should shoot great in the .30 Carbine

Blackhawk if it will only stabilize. Table 5 Testing with the 30-150-CM RCBS

Bullet Weight Powder Weight Average Standard Primer Sized

30150CM 150.7 2400 10.5 Velocity 1230 Deviation 30.8 CCISP

Overall Accuracy
Gd acc @ 100 yds

Length .310/309 1.745 Front Band

Initial testing with the 30-150-CM proved rewarding (Table 5) . This bullet shoots as well at 100 yards with my primitive testing methods as does the 311440 but without the pressure problems due to the shorter length of the bullet. An added bonus is the plain base which does away with the cost of a gas check. Ive increased the cartridge overall length as much as possible and both bullets seated at 1.745 now shoot at the magic 1200 FPS needed to stabilize these long bullets in the Blackhawk without me experiencing sticky case extraction. They shoot as well as the 311440 without the cost of gas checks and proved to be just as accurate.

Expanded 30-150-CM RCBS bullets recovered at 100 yards

L-R: 311440, 311440 HP, .30 Carbine loaded with 311440, 30-150-CM RCBS, 30 Carbine loaded with 30-150-CM Rules to be observed in loading this round: Trim cases. Seat the bullet out as far as possible to obtain the maximum overall length. Use small pistol primers. Use only a very light taper crimp. Start low and work up your load watching for signs of pressure.

Warning Again, this is a very special load and uses a bullet longer and heavier than the caliber is designed for at pressures that are probably at the top of the range for a .30 Carbine in the Ruger Blackhawk. Use this data at your own risk. At no time substitute shorter seating depths or substitute small rifle primers in place of the small pistol primers or signs of pressure will immediately show up and damage may result. Final loads that worked in my pistol.

Bullet Weight Powder Weight Average Standard Primer Sized

311440 156.2 2400 10.9 Velocity 1228 Deviation 11.8 CCISP

Overall Accuracy
Gd Acc @ 100 Yds Best Accuracy Gd acc @ 100 yds

311440 HP 30150CM

151.2

2400

10.5

1232

15.6

CCI SP CCISP

150.7

2400

10.5

1230

30.8

Length .310/309 1.745 Front Band .310/309 1.732 front band .310/309 1.745 Front Band

I look back over these tests which have been carried out over several years and have consumed quite a bit of powder, a bunch of primers and a whole lot of thinking and scheming. I wonder if it was worth the effort. If you have either of the moulds on hand, and if you own a .30 Carbine Blackhawk and are looking for the ultimate heavy load for it, and if you love to cast bullets and tinker, then this is the load for you. I would have no hesitation on using it on a deer and it sure is a pleasure to plink with at 100 yards and Ive enjoyed doing it but by golly it was a lot of work to make it shoot accurately and safely. John Goins /aka beagle