This weekend I took my NEF Handi and spent a couple of hours looking for Thumper. I loaded up some Oregon Trail 170 gr. cast bullets in front of 10.0 grs. of Unique. At 50 yards the accuracy wasn't all that great at about 2" but good enough I felt for a little spot and stalk on bunnies. To not go into too much detail, it worked fine on head shots for the two rabbits I did see. If you have a big game rifle and wish to use it more often, try reduced cast loads and head out after small game. Hopefully, like me, it'll add a new twist to your shooting and hunting enjoyment.

Greg Mushial has lots of data on using cast loads and pistol powders for plinking if anyone is interested...

http://www.gmdr.com/lever/lowveldata.htm

Wyo, I do it with Townsend's load and a 170gr GC. Pretty much my summer plinking load. I can't get it to regulate to my hunting load, though, like Townsend recommended. He had a lot of time on his hands to experiment...

I allmost forgot how much fun it was hunting rabbit's with my 45/70 Buffalo Classic. I used a 300gr cast bullet over a load of unique. Some year's ago Pa made it unlawfull to use anything over 23 cal for small game.It's just not as fun with my 223**************ogo

Not to change the subject but...Charlie Z if that picture comes from where I think it does all I can say is Geez yer creepy dude :D

Yep, come from Aintry. Made me laugh.

RCBS's Cast Bullet Manual has a lot of great loads for reduced plainking. It's only about $5 in a hard bound book.

Trailboss seems like it would be perfect for reduced loads like this....anyone know why they are not publishing anything on it yet?

This weekend I took my NEF Handi and spent a couple of hours looking for Thumper. I loaded up some Oregon Trail 170 gr. cast bullets in front of 10.0 grs. of Unique. At 50 yards the accuracy wasn't all that great at about 2" but good enough I felt for a little spot and stalk on bunnies. To not go into too much detail, it worked fine on head shots for the two rabbits I did see. If you have a big game rifle and wish to use it more often, try reduced cast loads and head out after small game. Hopefully, like me, it'll add a new twist to your shooting and hunting enjoyment.
I used to use my 30-06 on the big jacks we had in Az. but I didn't use cast bullets just what ever I had handy and at ranges that made the shot interesting you see you have to place it right in front of thumpers nose. then he rolls over from the shock. i used 150 to 180 grn jsp. usually what ever I happened to have on hand. head shjots only thoug, anything else and there just is not anything left.

About 25 years ago I purchased an adapter that supposedly allowed one to shoot .32 ACP cartridges in a .30-06. I was concerned about the safety of shooting a .32 diameter bullet in a .308 diameter barrel and so never tried it. I probably still have it in a drawer somewhere. It was shaped like a .30-06 cartridge and the .32 ACP was to be inserted into the adapter and then the adapter inserted into the chamber.

Any experience with these - if they are safe to use, I will try to find it. I have used the .22 long rifle adapter for the .22-250, but was not impressed with the resulting accuracy.

Irv, your adapter is perfectly safe to shoot, assuming it's in decent condition. It sounds like a Marbles, and that company made them for years in a variety of calibers.

The point is, the ".32" ACP isn't really a .32, it's a .311. So, it is only .003 larger than a .308, and will swage down just fine.

All you really need to know, if it is a Marbles, is you need to seat the cartridge fully in the adapter, with only the bullet poking out. If you do as I did the first time, chamber it with the adapter mouth gripping the .32 case rim, you will be removing the .32 with a cleaning rod. The bullet will enter the forcing cone, but the case will not (Duh).

Magtech makes an inexpensive .32 cartridge. The cases are aluminum, which both reduces the price and makes a pocketfull easier to tote.

While I'm giving all this advice, remember: When hunting wabbits, be vewy, vewy quiet!

Irv, your adapter is perfectly safe to shoot, assuming it's in decent condition. It sounds like a Marbles, and that company made them for years in a variety of calibers.

The point is, the ".32" ACP isn't really a .32, it's a .311. So, it is only .003 larger than a .308, and will swage down just fine.

All you really need to know, if it is a Marbles, is you need to seat the cartridge fully in the adapter, with only the bullet poking out. If you do as I did the first time, chamber it with the adapter mouth gripping the .32 case rim, you will be removing the .32 with a cleaning rod. The bullet will enter the forcing cone, but the case will not (Duh).

Magtech makes an inexpensive .32 cartridge. The cases are aluminum, which both reduces the price and makes a pocketfull easier to tote.

While I'm giving all this advice, remember: When hunting wabbits, be vewy, vewy quiet!

Thanks, Ill try to find it and give it a try.

Markkw - I loaded some cheap 405 grain plain base cast with 12.0 grains of TrailBoss in my Marlin 1895 and it did OK. The IMR website claimed 970 fps and that is exactly what I got, average of 10 shots through the chrony, and got sub 2" groups at 50 yards without trying. I'm going to do some more experimenting with it and some other cast bullets for plinking, trying to get around Mach 1 and/or get a bit more accurate.

I like using it so far as it fills the case much more than the typical low power pistol powder load will, and thus reduces the possibility of no charge or double charge errors. Downside is that it is so fluffy that you only get 9 oz in a 1 lb sized can.

I have used both full power Surplus Fmj 30-06 and hand loaded cast stuff to "Bark" Squirrels. The Idea is to shoot the tree close enough to cause enough head trauma to kill the squirrel. This is not too tough with Korean 150 grain fmj at around 2800 fps but it really tears up the trees(and I not to comfortable with launching those babies without thinking of where they are going after they glance off the tree) Down loaded stuff will work, but if your gonna down load, you might as well load it way down and shoot the squirrel in the head. Cast 110 grain ment for the 30 carbine or 32 H&R at 1200 fps shoots flat out to 50-75 yards. Just one warning: Make sure the head traumatized squirrel is really dead not unconcious. They tend to to clamp down right in the web between the thumb and pointer finger. No matter how good the squirrel perlo is, having your brother the story of how he saw you screaming and violently shaking a squirrel at arms length because you didn't use the shotgun like he told you to EVERY Thanksgiving, can be a little irritating.

35fan

Cast bullets! Granted, that can be fun as well, but we hunt them with our deer/elk rifles and loads. Makes for great practice. You can't shoot them standing still under a hundred yards, but anything moving nder a hundred is free game. A couple rabbits per box and your doing great. Now if I can get Marshal to make some 100-120 gr bullets for the 7/30 Waters, I'd certainly spend some time with that.

I have killed squirrels with my 44 mag and 300g XTP's before lol while out deer hunting. I don't recommend them for that purpose. Accelerators in a 30-30 will work very nicely so I assume that in your 06 they will be fine but whatever you do don't handload your 30-06 accelerators ( about 4200 fps is norm ) with TNT varmit bullets. The last rabbit I hit with one looked like I had used a 10g slug on him.

Have to admint, I'd take small game quite often with whatever ceneterfire I was working with....lead bullet.lite-loads...but ran across this in the Louisiana game laws:

It shall be illegal to hunt or take squirrel or rabbits at any time with a bre e ch - l o a d e d
ri fle or handgun larger than a .22 caliber ri m fi re or a muzzleloader ri fle larger than a .36 caliber.

This kind of puts a damper on things...still use lead loads for pest/varmint shooting and a WHOLE lot of range practice.