Ultimate .310 Cadet and .32-20 Cadet Reloading Topic in Cartridges and Reloading Forum

RSS
Email

0 Points

Ultimate .310 Cadet and .32-20 Cadet Reloading Topic

Author	Comment
MichaelNH	Ultimate .310 Cadet and .32-20 Cadet Reloading Topic	Lead	[-]
Posts: 7521 Dec 3 08 11:13 PM Autocrat Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Tags : None Let's collect all the wisdom about reloading .310 Cadet under one umbrella. I'll start it off with 6mm's post about Cadet bullets. Please add your favorite load, method for making brass, etc. Cheers, Michael I've never heard anyone complain about "too much quality" in a gun, but too little will get you a trip to the ER with your spare fingers in a baggie.
	Remove this ad
6mmIntl	Two inexpensive bullets for the Cadet rifle	#1	[-]
Lance Corporal Posts: 56 Oct 20 08 4:55 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Two inexpensive bullets for the Cadet rifle You have to slug your bore to find out your bore size, my BSA Cadet bore is .3235 diameter 1. Is a total copper plated lead bullet from Buffalo Arms for the 8mm Lebel pistol, weighting 100 grains and has a .330 diameter, .546 long, and .245 long bearing surface. You can resize this thru a standard 8mm (.323) lee sizer/lubersizer kit ($25.00) or have Lee make a custom sized sizer die to fit your bore for $30.00 Cost from Buffalo Arms was $.08 each 2. Is a 152 grain cast bullet made from a Lee two cavity .329 diameter 205 grain weight gas check bullet mold (C329-205-1R) for $35.00 I shortened this mold .300 and it cast a 151 grain (1/30) bullet .797 long with a .320 diameter nose/bore riding diameter and a .242 long bearing surface I resized to .324 diameter that I am driving at 1250 FPS I Lee Liquid Alox pan lube # 2 and it shows the most promise for longer range shooting accuracy and no keyholing. Should have added that my barrel is stamped 32-20 and my chamber measures .359" at base and .344" at 1.060 long , My cases are trimmed to 1.060. I run a 8mm mauser die expander ball down to bottom of case and expand base and decap primer, I size 1/4" of case mouth with a 32 ACP die (.3235 ID bullet opening) and then seat bullets with 32 acp seater die. 100 grain total copper plated bullet has an overall length of is 1.345", Diameter over loaaded case is .341 with a chamber diameter of .343 150 grain bullet overall length measures 1.620"", Diameter over loaaded case is .341 with a chamber diameter of .343 I tried the heeled bullet and did not have as good accuracy as with the 150 grain bullets (1" at 50 yards with two loads tried, still experimenting with powders and charge weights). You have to keep in mind that the chamber is a progressive cone then straight diameter (bullet throat relief) to rifling. Chamber cast tells all, check dimenstions to available dies and trim to length to suite non heeled bullet. Finally settled on 8 grains of A2400 under the 151 grain mod/mold lead bullet. Installed PH peep sight on the tang of my cadet and load/rifle benched has shot consistent 1.5" center to center groups for five shots at 100 yards when I do my part on my 2.5Lb trigger. I am satisfied that this project is now finished and im having a ball with this rifle. Last Edited By: MichaelNH Dec 3 08 11:05 PM. Edited 2 times.
Dark Gael	Favorite load	#2	[-]
O/R Posts: 5 Jan 23 11 5:17 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	It has been a long time since I posted here. Don't know why, it is such a great forum. In any case, I have found a nice load for my Cadet. The heeled bullets are cast from WW alloy and a 120 grain CBE brass mould. I lube them with Lee liquid alox. The cases are a mix of Bertram and 32-20 cases (at 1.1" - or so). I do not size the cases and press the bullets in by hand. Powder - either 2400 (8 grains) or Unique (4.5 grains). Target at 100 yards: the shots above the bullseye are all sighters descending on to the bull. The five tens are the last five consecutive shots. This was the Unique load and it is pretty consistent as you can see. Pete Last Edited By: Dark Gael Jan 23 11 5:42 AM. Edited 1 times.
gcrank1		#3	[-]
Veteran of the Regiment Posts: 1092 Jun 30 11 6:55 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	32-20 cases fire formed to chamber Hensley & Gibbs 8mm Nambu 101gr. bullet sized .322 is a light hand press fit into the fully expanded to chamber case neck (.321 might be just the ticket) Casting Alloy is mostly wheel weights with a dash of tin (garagalloy) 4.0 gr. of Trail Boss SR primer
martinibelgian		#4	[-]
Veteran of the Regiment Posts: 3556 Jul 1 11 10:18 PM Undefeated ISSO Champ 2003-2006 Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	32-20 cases trimmed and the rim swaged (starline, I believe) 120gr CBE bullet cast in WW + smidgen of tin 5.0grs of VV N340 No-tools reloading, bullet handseated in fireformed case, the strickyness of the Lee alox lubricant together with some friction holds it in. Shoots well out to 200yds if I do my part, burns clean.
fred2892		#5	[-]
Colour Sergeant Posts: 287 Sep 27 11 11:31 AM Corporal Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	The mould is a six cavity group buy from Lee. (http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...ight=310+cadet) It was at a time a couple of years ago when Lee were really dragging their heels and if I remember right, this mould took almost a year to materialise........It was worth the wait. The mould drops all six boolits at a consistant .322 using a 20/1 pb/sn mix. I simply tumble lube in LLA. I use 32-20 brass trimmed to 1.12". I have found that the RP and the Starline brass doesn't need the rims thinning unlike the winchester brass I tried earlier which had rims that were just a shade too thick to allow the block to close sweetly. No dies are required for loading this little sweetie. Simply decap/recap fill with 4.2 gns of Unique and thumb seat the boolit. The tackiness of the LLA will keep it in place. They go through the chrony at 1065fps with an es of 24fps. This is a 5 shot group at 25 yards. A pretty standard target where a 10p piece(roughly quarter size) will normally cover a 5 shot group. I used to use the rcbs 310-120 RN, but that was pretty much a shotgun pattern compared to this wonderful little mould. "All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible. This I did." T.E. Lawrence Last Edited By: fred2892 Sep 27 11 12:30 PM. Edited 4 times.
joelblack88		#6	[-]
Veteran of the Regiment Posts: 2525 Apr 22 12 8:01 AM Sergeant Major Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I am getting similar results with .320 round balls from Track of the Wolf over 4.8grs. of Unique in my W-R cadet.
Fred	310	#7	[-]
Sergeant Major Posts: 547 Apr 22 12 8:16 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I have found over the years that the chambers on .310 Cadet rifles are not consistent. The rim issue depends on how deep the operator fed the reamer in on seating. I have two 310s and they both work with standard 32-20 rims---any make of brass. However, they are a couple of years apart in manufacture and the reamer must have been changed, One has a slack chamber and the other is quite tight and this shows up on the chronograph with the slack chamber rifle being consistently 30 to 50 '/sec slower. It is advisable to check your chamber depth and how long a case can be used. The nominal length is just over an inch, but may cases are 1.2" long and could be even longer in one rifle. Too short a case with a fully seated bullet fired in a long chamber can result in tumblug bullets and keyholes. 4.2grn of Unique is regarded as the standard load, but if a longer case is used you may get better accuracy with 4.5grn or even more. Fred
	Remove this ad
fred2892		#8	[-]
Colour Sergeant Posts: 287 Apr 22 12 2:07 PM Corporal Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Tempted fate with my last post above. I have just aquired a Francotte Deerstalker in 310 and none of my converted 32-20 brass fits at the rim. I have a lowly 36 cases of Bertram 310 brass which works just fine, but I need more as things are just warming up after 36 shots. Gert, would it be possible to see some pics of your swage equipment please? I tried making a swage from an offcut of 1" hex steel reamed out to 8.9mm which the 32-20 cases fitted snugly. After 5 minutes of pounding I finally managed to get 1 case to chamber ok. What am I doing wrong? I took her out today and this is a 5 shot group at 25 yards. (I need to find a taller front sight as the rear sight leaves are 100, 200 and 300) "All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible. This I did." T.E. Lawrence
gungadoug		#9	[-]
Sergeant Posts: 146 Jun 11 12 4:46 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	OK, to add to this- my 2 cents worth--- In the Cadet 4.2- 4.5 of Unique are OK, but seem to give an occasional pop. The Greener double likes 5.0 of HS6 to regulate. Both with RCBS 120 gr bullet, the HS6 going 1175, approx, and don't recall vel on the Unique. I do find using florist foam to fill the airspace gives better results. Also no dies, just thumbseating. Doug
Fred	Pop!	#10	[-]
Sergeant Major Posts: 547 Jun 12 12 8:57 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I too have experienced the occasonal "pop"! It is disconcerting until you look throught the scope and see the hole in the 10 ring. It seems to be accompanied by blackened cases due to blow-back. Over the Spring Bank holiday, the Phoenix meeting was held at Bisley and I decided to shoot the 50m precision course with my Cadet. Carefully chosen fired cases were loaded with 4.5grn of Unique (these are 1.15" long) and thumb seated. I had three rounds that would not chamber but went in far enough to be tight and had to be pushed out with a rod. Still manged third place though, and no pops! Fred
gungadoug		#11	[-]
Sergeant Posts: 146 Jun 13 12 1:53 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Fred, my experience exactly- sounds like a pop, but really doesn't seem to go wild! Still, disconcerting. I feel like the Unique is position sensitive, though the foam should solve that. I must admit, I have only used the filler in the HS6 loads, and yet to try with Unique. Doug
Huvius		#12	[-]
O/R Posts: 25 Apr 14 13 7:22 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	In keeping with the name "Tightwad", I bought some of this powder for 12ga loading (and it was cheap...and on the shelf...) and was wondering if anybody here has used it in any rook rifles such as the 310? I have read of using it in .45ACP, some say yes - some say no, but could it be useful in my rook rifles and does the inherent strength of a Martini give you a little more margin over using it in a pistol?
Skirmisher	Budget Bullets	#13	[-]
O/R Posts: 14 May 10 13 11:23 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	A really cheap way to go with "converted" .32-20 Cadets is to use .323 round balls available from Dixie Gun works for about $8 per 100. You can thumb seat them in full length .32-20 cases. Accuracy with a light load of Trail Boss was good out to 100 yards which is as far I tried. I am thinking of using some 3F Goex Black Powder next time. Skirmisher
BruceHMX		#14	[-]
Lance Corporal Posts: 35 05/12/13 06:34:54 Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	What load of Trail Boss did you use?
	Remove this ad

<< Previous Topic Next Topic >>

Yuku free message boards

Ultimate .310 Cadet and .32-20 Cadet Reloading Topic

Ultimate .310 Cadet and .32-20 Cadet Reloading Topic