I know, I know. There's really no such thing. Maybe.

I've been out of the game for 15 years. I've lost all of my stuff. I'm starting over. I now live in rural upstate NY. I love rabbit and squirrel hunting. I love deer hunting. I will be moving to an area that has black bear hunting. I might do that in the future. I love turkey hunting.

I have done a lot of reading on this site in the past few days. I have gone through all posts to page 64 on this reloading forum section. I was especially interested in seafire's blue dot loads for the 30'06.

So I wonder: Is it really possible to have a rifle in one cartridge that can hunt small game effectively and also large game?

If so, it would have to be 30'06 or 308. I think. So here's the challenge. Finding a cast lead load at 1100 fps (or slightly lower - subsonic) that is accurate to hit a squirrel's head out to 30 yards that is not position sensitive or incredibly temperature sensitive. Big game loads are no mystery. I did lots of reloading with my old 270 out west.

At first I thought a 30/30. The cartridge itself is good, but I don't really need a lever action and the factory chamberings are not acceptable. So I go to bolt actions with which I'm familiar. I'm more of a single shot guy, so I thought of the encore, but again the factory chamberings would be a problem for me and the custom barrel makers seem to take forever. I don't know if it's worth all the messing I would have to do with one before I'm satisfied.

Then I stumble across the Shilen site and see they make barrels for the Savage rifle. Take it to a gunsmith and have him do the easy install. Tight, precise chamber and precise bore dimensions. Get a beater "donor" rifle and replace trigger and barrel. Ugly but effective?

With the precise bore dimensions I could buy Oregon Trail laser cast bullets for my squirrel hunting. I could have the option of casting my own for deer hunting or just getting jacketed. In any case, I could afford to do a lot of practicing with the squirrel loads in the off season.

Is this realistic? Is the type of rifling found in this type of barrel OK for lead cast? Can you go back and forth between jacketed and lead cast without problems? Can you find a load with Unique or something like it that would work for the squirrel load as described above?

I'm sure there are reasons this will not work well, or else a lot more people would be doing it. The "one gun" idea has been around longer than me and I still don't see anyone really using it. I could afford one good gun and one good scope. I was thinking a low powered Leupold and have the factory reset the paralax to 50 - 75 yds. I don't think I'll be shooting anything over 100 yards here and I doubt if it will be over 50 yards very often.

I figured the 308 would be best for this, but I still have my Remington M700 BDL in SS chambered for 270 AI. So obviously one of my options would be to get a rebarrel with a match 30'06 chamber.

There are more thoughts on this, but you get the idea. Stop me with some cold, hard facts before I get too carried away with this. Your ideas, opinions, thoughts, etc. Thanks for any help getting me back into hunting and reloading.

Can all you want be done? Absolutely! Not a perfect solution, but if you don't mind changing the sighting when you change loads, yes it's not only doable but I do it all the time.
Unique is an excellent powder for this. In my .308 win. and .30-06, I use 5.0 gr. of Unique with anywhere from a 110 to 120 gr. cast bullet. (I cast my own.) I take a piece of toilet paper and cut it into fourths and stuff a wad lightly onto the charge to hole it in place. Velocity is slightly supersonic in the .308 and barely makes subsonic in the 30-06. Accuracy is within one inch at 40 yards in my rifles.
Actually, you can probably do this with your .270AI as well if you can cast your own bullets.
Regardless of which way you go, you must thoroughly clean the barrel of any metal fouling prior to changing bullet metal type. A barrel with copper fouling will never shoot a lead bullet worth crap. You have to clean down to bare metal. When you go back to jacketed bulelts, you will again have to clean down to bare metal to get the best accuracy.
While you discount the 30-30 as a viable option, it is a cartridge that is well suited to cast bullets. If you can chase down one of the old Savage 340s in 30-30, it should be accurate enough for what you want. If you get really lucky, you might find a Winchester Model 54 in 30-30, the Cadillac of 30-30s. They're rare and pricey as hell, but they are accurate. I used mine for iron sight offhand rifle matches between friends shooting cast.
You said most of your shots would be under 100 yards. A 30-30 with cast bullets in the 170 to 190 gr. weight works just fine for deer to that range. You can even load them to full power for deer if that's what you want.
Paul B.

Paul, good info on the barrel cleaning between lead and jacketed. That's the kind of stuff I need to know. I would prefer not to have to do that. Now I know why serious cast bullet shooters have dedicated rifles. Would using the berry bullets solve this problem?

I have considered just getting a Marlin XLR and going all cast.

How do those Berry bullets work in a regular 308 barrel that has been shooting standard jacketed bullets? Just wondering if that might be a decent alternative to a squirrel load if I didn't get into casting.

FOr a project like that, I think the .308 would be easier to get plinking loads with. The smaller case cap. lends itself to downloading. I've never been a fan of the one rifle concept because you have to resight your rifle for each load. Shooting lead bullets requires a thorough cleaning for best accuracy when switching back to jacketed. The plated bullets wil work well up to 1500fps or so & do reduce lead fouling, that might work for you. For squirrels you want to eat, nothing wrong w/a good cheap 22lr.

Ive got a 180 gn Lee mold that I use with my 300 Savage, havent got around to using it on the 308 yet but Im sure it would shoot very well, its quite accurate from the 300.

As mentioned before the small case capcity is fantastic for loading down to cast velocities.

Hey JWK, With the M700 you currently have, considering the various Game you are interested in Hunting, and your expressed interest in using a good many Lead Bullets - your choice of the 308Win or 30-06 would indeed be a good selection. And since you already have the M700 Long Action, the 30-06 seems like a fine way to go. Plus it can be down-loaded to 30-30 levels with ease.
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However, you might want to consider the 358Win and 35Whe, with the 35Whe getting the nod for your M700 Long Action. One of the great benefits of this Caliber is the ready availability of huge amounts of Lead Bullets available "On the Shelf". The 35cal Lead Bullets are normally cast 0.358" and they obturate just fine in the 35Whe.

And with a bit of judicious Load Development, you can get those 148gr-158gr Lead Bullets down to 38Spl velocities from the 35Whe. Then stick in a 200gr Hornady SP or 225gr Partition throttled-up and be ready for any size Deer and Black Bear you will ever stumble across.

You can make do quite well with any of the ones you are considering as well as the 35cal versions.

Best of luck to you.

Sorry but I find the question silly. The 22 Hornet will work just fine as an “all in one caliberâ€, as long as you have the expertness to get close enough to your animal.

Hot Core makes an excellent point with the 358 lead pistol bullets. If I understood you correctly, you don't plan on getting rid of your 270 AI. If you are going to keep that, why not get a 243 or 250 Savage? Plenty for deer, easy to download, small case, etc. You could do it with the Savage action you mentioned easily for relatively little coin. Get some fancy, expensive bullets for the 270 for your black bear, and use the small case, smaller bore for everything else.

quote:

Originally posted by JWK:
How do those Berry bullets work in a regular 308 barrel that has been shooting standard jacketed bullets? Just wondering if that might be a decent alternative to a squirrel load if I didn't get into casting.

As far as repeatability goes the 150 gr Berrey at 1700 to 1850 fps. FUN-TASTIC. 30-30, .308, 30-06 all great so far. For some reason, however , haven't been able to make it perform in my MAS. Beyond 1900 fps. the repeatibilty starts to deteriorate in all rifles.Sub MOA groups are not uncommon.Best powder for that as we have found was Blue Dot. Be glad to send you load info roger

for a 150 gr. lead bullet in .308 or 3006 13 grains of red dot is great. if you want a bolt action in 30/30 an old remington 788 is great. i've decided to work with a .35 remington.