Paco’s Long Range LoadFor the .30 Carbine Blackhawk

Warning – This is a very special load and uses a bullet longer and heavier than the caliber is designed for atpressures that are probably at the top of the range for a .30 Carbine in the Ruger Blackhawk. Use this data atyour own risk. At no time substitute shorter seating depths or substitute small rifle primers in place of the smallpistol primers or signs of pressure will immediately show up and damage may result. I’m a pretty big fan of Paco Kelly’s when it comes to cast bullet loads. I think I’ve read about all of his articles and Ienjoy 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 theRuger Blackhawk. He called it his long range carbine load. Since I owned a couple of the 311440 moulds, I quicklybecame 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 won’t stabilize. This wasclearly stated in his article and in my efforts to duplicate his load, I found out that it was gospel….almost to the lastFPS. To begin with, I was shooting a stock .30 Carbine Ruger. I have an idea his had been throated a bit but no mentionwas made in his article. My gun wouldn’t allow me to seat the bullet very far out and I ran into problems almostimmediately in the form of pressure. I tried his loads of 2400 and after conferring with Felix, I tried N110. Forget 4227 as I couldn’t get enough in the case. The 2400 loads worked; however, pressure caused sticky extraction and I didn’t want that for sure. The loads shotaccurately but it seemed as if I was at a dead end. Oh well, I’ll 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. I’d occasionally think about the project butnever 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 itturned out well. The one mould I have makes finished bullets of 147 grains. The mould I hollow pointed makes HP bullets of 151.2grains 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 thehollow point cavity might throw the center of gravity back far enough so that I could get stabilization at less than 1200FPS. With the heavier bullet, this was out the window. I wasn’t about to open the throats on the .30 Carbine cylinderand change that. So, I “throated the bullets”. I’d 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 involvedin such a small capacity case and long heavy bullet. With the hollow point, 311440, it was worth a try.

Paco’s Long Range .30 Carbine Load withLyman’s 311440 Hollow point Bullet

Table 1

Initial test 311440 HP in .30 Carbine BlackhawkBullet Weight Powder Weight Average

VelocityStandardDeviation

Primer Sized OverallLength

Accuracy

311440HP

151.2 2400 10.0 1137 21.4 WSP .310/309frontband

1.732 Good accat 100yards

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

Table 2Follow up testing of the 311440 HP in .30 Carbine Blackhawk

Bullet Weight Powder Weight AverageVelocity

StandardDeviation

Primer Sized OverallLength

Accuracy

311440HP

151.2 2400 10.5 1232 15.6 CCISP

.310/309frontband

1.732 BestAccuracy

311440HP

151.2 2400 11.0 1278 16.8 WSP .310/309frontband

1.732 Good accAt 100yards

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 caseswas 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, I’ll go back and work on loads withthe solid version of the heavier 311440 and see if I can get a load to work for it.

Table 3Follow-up testing with the solid 311440

Bullet Weight Powder Weight AverageVelocity

StandardDeviation

Primer Sized OverallLength

Accuracy

311440 156.2 2400 10.5 1178 14.2 CCISP .310/309FrontBand

1.732 Gd Acc @100 Yds

311440 156.2 2400 10.8 1198 22.3 CCISP .310/309FrontBand

1.745 Gd Acc @100 Yds

311440 156.2 2400 10.9 1228 11.8 CCISP .310/309FrontBand

1.745 Gd Acc @100 Yds

The one lot loaded at 1.732” overall length (Table 3) almost made the cut at 1178 FPS but I wanted to top 1200FPS as I was now shooting the solid and I felt that’s I’d need the velocity to stabilize it. This load was alsoshowing some hard extraction. Not enough to get excited about but more than I wanted to mess with on aregular 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, I’ve had no problems with it in sliding forward and tying upcylinder rotation. Eureka! Easy extraction and 1198 FPS and good accuracy. Subsequent testing with another tenth of a grain of 2400gave 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 basebullets designed for cowboy loads. I intended to use these to test some “whisper loads” in the .30-30 and .30/06. Iknow the weight of these to be right at 150 grains and the length looked about the same as the 311440 so I began toform 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 4Comparison of the 311440 and 30-150-CM

Bullet Weight(ready to load)

Length

311440Lyman

156.2 .832

30-150-CMRCBS

150.7 .810

I’ll load these over some 2400 and see how they compare to the 311440 as far as velocity, accuracy and pressure. Withthe shorter and lighter bullet (Table 4), I should be able to slightly increase the overall seating depth and pick up a bitmore 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 5Testing with the 30-150-CM RCBS

Bullet Weight Powder Weight AverageVelocity

StandardDeviation

Primer Sized OverallLength

Accuracy

30-150-CM

150.7 2400 10.5 1230 30.8 CCISP .310/309FrontBand

1.745 Gd acc @100 yds

Initial testing with the 30-150-CM proved rewarding (Table 5). This bullet shoots as well at 100 yards with myprimitive 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. I’ve increased the cartridge overalllength as much as possible and both bullets seated at 1.745” now shoot at the “magic” 1200 FPS needed to stabilizethese long bullets in the Blackhawk without me experiencing sticky case extraction. They shoot as well as the 311440without 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 forat pressures that are probably at the top of the range for a .30 Carbine in the Ruger Blackhawk. Use this data atyour own risk. At no time substitute shorter seating depths or substitute small rifle primers in place of the smallpistol 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

VelocityStandardDeviation

Primer Sized OverallLength

Accuracy

311440 156.2 2400 10.9 1228 11.8 CCISP .310/309FrontBand

1.745 Gd Acc @100 Yds

311440HP

151.2 2400 10.5 1232 15.6 CCISP

.310/309frontband

1.732 BestAccuracy

30-150-CM

150.7 2400 10.5 1230 30.8 CCISP .310/309FrontBand

1.745 Gd acc @100 yds

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 ultimateheavy 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 I’ve enjoyeddoing it but by golly it was a lot of work to make it shoot accurately and safely.

John Goins/aka beagle