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NavyVet1959 wrote:

jimlongley wrote:A whole bunch of years ago I tried to work up a load for Woodchuck in my .30-06 using single 0 buckshot (not legal to possess in NY State at the time) with very mixed results. The soft lead made a mess of my bore and I kind of gave up and went back to underloaded jacketed bullets.

Did you try it with a harder alloy like wheelweights?

No, I wasn't casting, just trying something out. Later I tried paper patching for soft lead projectiles, ZigZag papers were pretty good, but in the 70s buying them did draw a raised eyebrow or two. Kind of fun to fire a shot and have confetti blowing around just past the muzzle.

I did work up a load, once, that used some the projectiles out of some .30-40 ammo I "inherited." The ammo was green with age, so I gently pulled the projectiles and loaded them in my .30-06. I estimated them at around 110 grains and dissected one to see why such a large bullet weighed so little. Almost a third of the copper jacket was virtually empty, with a little hole, almost the size of a .22LR hollow point, out at the tip. I was told, back in the 60s by some "old timers" that these were "mushroom tip" ammo that was intended for use on thin skinned, smaller, varmints. I shot a Woodchuck with one of these loads and there was pretty much nothing left except skin and legs.

NavyVet1959 wrote:If you reload, a .30-06 can easily be used for squirrels. Lee has a .311" round ball mold that drops at around 45.16 grains. Load it on top of 2 or 3 grains of a fast shotgun powder (Red Dot, etc) and you are ready to go. If you want a bit more weight, there's also some 113 grain .309" bullets and you could use some of the .32 S&W Long and such that could work in a .308 bore with resizing. I probably wouldn't bother resizing the .311" round ball since it's going to resize on its own as it is being seated or shot. If you have a chrono, just try to keep the velocity subsonic for the round balls.

A whole bunch of years ago I tried to work up a load for Woodchuck in my .30-06 using single 0 buckshot (not legal to possess in NY State at the time) with very mixed results. The soft lead made a mess of my bore and I kind of gave up and went back to underloaded jacketed bullets.

OldCannon wrote:

longtooth wrote:Good job OldCannon.
Not many of the YoungCannons ever heard of it.

Frankly, I would imagine that anybody that shoots black powder rifles would know about it. It's part of "Black Powder Rifle History 101," which you are forced to listen to by your knarly, grey-haired mountain man of an instructor as he teaches you the sacred art of _______ (and don't ever, EVER say the word "Pyrodex" near him)

EDIT: Apparently "f l i n t l o c k i n g" is some odd kind of bad word? No clue why it's blanked out above.

I have shot a squirrel with a .45 caliber percussion rifle. There was plenty of meat left because as luck would have it, and it was indeed luck, because I hit it in the neck. I was aiming for a head shot.