I am always looking for a way to reduce my cost of shooting and reloading. Bullets for 300 Blackout are the most expensive piece in the cartridge. I shoot a lot so even saving 5 or 10 cents a round means a lot to me over a year. And will mean even more when I retire and go on a fixed income. I am buying high quality lead bullets locally and had my source cast some 135gr hardcast Spire Point with gas check. I decided to load supersonic since it is cheaper than a proper subsonic load. Instead of the 23 - 31 cents a bullet in the 125gr - 135gr I have been buying, the lead bullets cost me only about 12 cents a round. A considerable savings if I can get this to work. If it doesn't work I will try reloading a proper subsonic round. Which will cost more overall but will still be less than a jacketed bullet.

I did try loading some lead bullets I got from a friend but I don't think they were hard enough. And I was not impressed with them overall.

Before I start loading these I am curious to hear from others if they have tried reloading lead bullets in 300 Blackout?

Didn't lock my screen and accidentally posted, sorry nothing beneficial to contribute. Best of luck with your experimentation

I don't know anything about 300 blkout.
But I know a little about cast bullets.
Generally, the diameter of the finished lead bullet would be a little bigger than a jacketed bullet.
So if the 300 bullet is normally .308, then a good place to start would be .309.
The other possible problem I see is neck tension.
Lead bullets are typically lubricated with something, eg. Grease or moly.
Those are slippery little bastards.
You might have a tendency for the bullet to set back hitting the feed ramp, or pull out under recoil.
The new generation of plastic coatings for lead bullets might work better....no grease
Sns casting makes a 115 gr plastic coated bullet sized at .309. Designed for 30 carbine.
They have sample packs of 100 for 9 bucks, plus shipping I presume.

I don't know anything about 300 blkout.
But I know a little about cast bullets.
Generally, the diameter of the finished lead bullet would be a little bigger than a jacketed bullet.
So if the 300 bullet is normally .308, then a good place to start would be .309.
The other possible problem I see is neck tension.
Lead bullets are typically lubricated with something, eg. Grease or moly.
Those are slippery little bastards.
You might have a tendency for the bullet to set back hitting the feed ramp, or pull out under recoil.
The new generation of plastic coatings for lead bullets might work better....no grease
Sns casting makes a 115 gr plastic coated bullet sized at .309. Designed for 30 carbine.
They have sample packs of 100 for 9 bucks, plus shipping I presume.

Thanks for the info OF. I have not had any probs with neck tension as I understand the need to use a lead bullet that is .001" to .002" over diameter. The source I use for cast bullets uses a home made proprietary lube which works quite well with blackpowder and smokeless powder in most applications I have used them for. I have not seen much in the way of set back or pull out because most of my loads with lead are of the reduced type. So I'll look out for this as I am working with them. I can always crimp if need be. But I must say the idea of plastic and/or moly coated bullets is very intriguing. If things don't work out with straight lead I will certainly look into these. Thanks again!!!

I wasn't too thrilled with moly bullets, though other people swear by them.
I read somplace that bullets were  moving around during feeding causing inaccuracy.
Interesting project.

Is it out of a bolt action or ar with DI. If DI it's a no go lead will plug the gas port.

Is it out of a bolt action or ar with DI. If DI it's a no go lead will plug the gas port.

I forgot to say I am running an AR with DI. And I have read the same things you have about using lead bullets. For every person I found on the Internet that says they have had lead plug the gas port there is another saying that they have been running hard cast with gas checks for 1,000's of rounds with no plugging of the gas port. So who is right? I have personally been running hard cast with gas checks through my M1 Garand and have not seen the gas port get plugged with lead. But I am not sure how many rounds it would take to plug a gas port? I have not run more than a few hundred rounds through my Garand with lead so I guess I can't say yet. Worst comes worse I will clean out the gas port and tube and either continue or stop. I guess I'll find out some day. Thanks for your comments.

heard of some loading 145-150 mil-spec fmj ($.18-$.19 ) with lil gun for sub load. need to have a pistol gas length to work. don't know how accurate the load is. able to get sub moa @ 50yds using 190-200 gr jacketed and 4198 and small pistol primers.

heard of some loading 145-150 mil-spec fmj ($.18-$.19 ) with lil gun for sub load. need to have a pistol gas length to work. don't know how accurate the load is. able to get sub moa @ 50yds using 190-200 gr jacketed and 4198 and small pistol primers.

It seems a lot of people are loading a proper subsonic load using a 200gr - 250gr lead bullet. Which is supposed to function okay in a DI carbine. The only reason I am not trying this is due to the disappointing accuracy people are getting with subsonic rounds. Seems subsonic loads without a can are not as accurate as supersonic loads. This applies to jacketed and lead bullets. Generally speaking of course. This AR already shoots sub MOA with jacketed bullets loaded to supersonic velocities. So I want to try something others are not trying just to see if I can do it and get it to work with reasonable accuracy.

It seems a lot of people are loading a proper subsonic load using a 200gr - 250gr lead bullet. Which is supposed to function okay in a DI carbine. The only reason I am not trying this is due to the disappointing accuracy people are getting with subsonic rounds. Seems subsonic loads without a can are not as accurate as supersonic loads. This applies to jacketed and lead bullets. Generally speaking of course. This AR already shoots sub MOA with jacketed bullets loaded to supersonic velocities. So I want to try something others are not trying just to see if I can do it and get it to work with reasonable accuracy.

If your wanting to shoot cast boolits at  supersonic speeds you might wanna check out powder coating methods (EX.dry tumbling) which will let you do so with out leading issue.but your definitely going to want to have a coating over the boolit like hi-tek and might need a gas check.

It seems a lot of people are loading a proper subsonic load using a 200gr - 250gr lead bullet. Which is supposed to function okay in a DI carbine. The only reason I am not trying this is due to the disappointing accuracy people are getting with subsonic rounds.

You also shouldn't rely on other peoples issue with accuracy each firearm is different. There are a lot of people using cast boolits for subs and get good groupings with them and most likely will be your cheapest option for this platform

I forgot to say I am running an AR with DI. And I have read the same things you have about using lead bullets. For every person I found on the Internet that says they have had lead plug the gas port there is another saying that they have been running hard cast with gas checks for 1,000's of rounds with no plugging of the gas port. So who is right? I have personally been running hard cast with gas checks through my M1 Garand and have not seen the gas port get plugged with lead. But I am not sure how many rounds it would take to plug a gas port? I have not run more than a few hundred rounds through my Garand with lead so I guess I can't say yet. Worst comes worse I will clean out the gas port and tube and either continue or stop. I guess I'll find out some day. Thanks for your comments.

Think this through.  If there's enough lead shedding by the time a bullet reaches the gas port to cause plugging, you would expect to see many other symptoms, such as keyholing or corkscrewing at the target at the minimum. 

I am thinking subsonic rounds shouldn't shed that much lead at all.  Lube buildup might cause more issues.

Inspector, Let us know what you end up with. I am in the same boat as you and in my opinion, the accuracy and range of the 300BLK doesn't merit spending over 30 cents a bullet. Just sucks that the sierra 125gr OTM-FB bullets shoot way better than anything else I tried in my rifle.

For powders, W296 has been great for me. IMR4227 is not as good and runs at a higher pressure. I have a pound of lil gun that I haven't opened yet. A source of cheap bullets would be sweet for my experiments. I have a few that I loaded with m1 carbine bullets, just to see.

I have a hard time believing that lead shaved off the bullet would clog the already oversized gas port and hold back more than 30,000psi.

Inspector, Let us know what you end up with. I am in the same boat as you and in my opinion, the accuracy and range of the 300BLK doesn't merit spending over 30 cents a bullet. Just sucks that the sierra 125gr OTM-FB bullets shoot way better than anything else I tried in my rifle.

For powders, W296 has been great for me. IMR4227 is not as good and runs at a higher pressure. I have a pound of lil gun that I haven't opened yet. A source of cheap bullets would be sweet for my experiments. I have a few that I loaded with m1 carbine bullets, just to see.

I have a hard time believing that lead shaved off the bullet would clog the already oversized gas port and hold back more than 30,000psi.

I will let you know Justin. I have been really busy lately and I have not been getting to the range much lately. But as soon as I get some results I will post them.

I have tried most of the Sierra bullets, Hornady and a couple of others. But the bullets I found that shoot the best out of my gun are the Speer Hot Cor 130gr JHP and FN. I get them for $23/100. They are about the cheapest jacketed solution I have found so far without trying pulled or bulk bullets which I have not had a lot of good luck with.

I have had similar experience with H110 which is supposed to be exactly the same as W296. And I have had similar experience with IMR4227. I would like to hear what you think of Lil Gun if you try it.

I will let you know as well if my experiment doesn't work and I go with a heavy bullet and load it subsonic. I think my source might be able to come down a bit in price since I buy so much lead from him.

I believe the same as you about the lead. Though I don't want to say it can't happen either. It just seems most of the people who say it happens don't usually say it happened to them. Which to my thinking is that they are just repeating what they hear. While most of the people who say they have not had a problem are at least saying they are shooting lead. So before I come to a conclusion I want to make sure I put a lot of lead down range so I can figure out if it happens or not.

Item Name   Image
.300 Blackout - Hi-Tek
.309 Diameter
245 Grain RNFP
Brinell 20
For Subsonic Work
Note: Approximately 238 grains @20 BHN
Hi-Tek 2-Extreme Coating
Price per box of 250
Price: $40.00

.300 Blackout - Hi-Tek
Details

Sorry Link didn't work.  anyway  Missouri Bullet Company has some coated bullets for 300 blackout no need to lube. Thinking of trying these.

Ah yes.  Coated bullets, forgot about those!  I have been using them in 9mm, zero leading and no lube!  Might work for you! 

http://palmettoprojectiles.com/collections/all

Haven't tried this just looked into it at one point.