300 AAC Blackout / HC / CFE BLK

[lklawson]

We don't know anything about the weight of your proposed cast bullet(s).

I didn't specify a bullet because I haven't purchased any so it's a blank slate. Any published data on ANY cast bullet with CFE BLK in 300 Blackout would be sufficient. Even if there's only one published load for a cast bullet and it's either heavy or light, then I'd buy that bullet. There's plenty of vendors for cast bullets.

With most weight projectiles CFE BLK produces much lower pressures than say 1680, even though both are close to the same in velocity and case volume aspect.
In this case you "might" be safe substituting a cast bullet for the jacketed data, to a point.
Under charging could could produce over pressure (in this case it's very doubtful) but a stuck bullet may be possible if you get to far below a certain suggested starting load. Make sure the bullet actually comes out the barrel, then make sure it will cycle the gas system (if this is the case too).
Seating depth is another issue, do you use an overall length gauge? I had no data for the powder coated cast bullet I'm using, this helped arriving at a length, trial and error with a chronograph and powder charge did the rest.
Compare the pressures of 1680 (my favorite in this caliber with jacketed) to CFE BLK using the same size projectile. You will start getting a good correlation of the two.

Seating depth? Naturally, I use callipers to verify the proper COAL. What that seating depth actually is, is part of the load data, right? I don't have a seating depth or COAL because I don't have any load data for cast bullets and CFE BLK. That's why I'm asking experts.

I'm not trying to tease out someone's pet load. I'm looking for a published load. What I was really hoping for is for some one to reply, "Yeah, XYZ Manual has the load data you're after, buy that book." And I'd go buy it. I was hoping that was what the Lyman 50th would be but apparently it's not.

I'll experiment a little bit but I want a published load, or a "very close" load to start from. I'm not Mad Scientist enough to want to work up an unkown load from scratch without any published data for an entire class of one of the components (LHC). For my own safety and sanity, I'm just not interested in doing that. If that is one of the appealing things about the hobby for you or anyone else, that's great. I love it that you (or someone else) wants to do that. But it's not part of my interest. I reload in order to stretch my ammo budget. I get more rounds for the same dollars, which in my book is saving money. So I'm not reloading in order to get the most perfectly optimized load for my gun, I'm reloading to get a load which pretty closely approximates commercial loads and/or allows me to practice more for the same dollars.

It seems that there, literally, are no published loads for LHC bullets in 300 AAC and any Hodgdon powders, never mind CFE BLK in particular. To be honest with you, I find this mind-boggling. Hodgdon went on at length about how CFE BLK was specifically made for 300 AAC, stretching from sub-sonic suppressed heavy bullets up through super with light bullets but then have no data, and apparently no interest in it, for hard cast, which are common use among reloaders for heavy subsonic loads. That's a little like a company marketing their SUV to outdoorsmen and campers and then insisting that you can't put a tow package on it. :P You know that outdoorsmen want their vehicle to be able to tow stuff and you know that reloaders want to be able to use LHC.

I guess I'm just going to give up on using LHC bullets and the CFE BLK powder. For now, I've got a number of other jacketed bullets on hand which I can use. But they're a lot more expensive and I don't really want to use them for plinking. I'll probably also purchase some of the Ranier bullets because Ranier says I can use Jacketed load data and there are published COAL & related data for the Ranier. I still might buy the Lyman manual and use a different manufacturer's powder if it has any LHC data listed (I still don't know if it does).

Thanks for reading this thread and trying to help me out guys, but it looks like it's a dead end, at least for now.

Peace favor your sword,
Kirk