Am I the only one who thinks that the 311291 is a bad idea in a tubular magazine?
Going by memory here, but I read while researching heavy for caliber bullets in various calibers, an article by Frank Marshal on cast loadings for the 30-30. He was loading the 311284 which weighs in at 210 to 218 depending. Anyway I don’t have anything but drawings to compare the 311291 and the 311284 but the noses look similar to me. In preparation Frank would put the 284’s in a little jig he made and hit them with a file to further blunt the noses.
The interesting part of the article for me was the performance of this heavy 311284, which I don’t own, and Frank’s reference to the Walt’s NEI 308220, which I do own. Frank said he thought the NEI bullet would preform as good and had a nose profile that was perfectly fine in tubular magazines.
30-30 150, 32SPL, 30-30 with the NEI 220, 35 REM 200, and a 348 200.
My point is that while the 311291 and 311284 are slightly more pointy, they shouldn’t cause a problem in tubular magazines.
The reason I say that comes from a member here who shall remain nameless other than he’s lost himself in building and shooting front stuffers over in Western Texas. Kinda a rocket scientist kind of a geek. But exceptionally informative and inventive.
Anyway Ian pointed out that if you take the 30-30 or any of the standard cartridges used in tubular magazines and laid them on a flat surface bullet to base it becomes obvious that the pointy end will be against the brass rim of the cartridges just ahead and not the primer. These are tapered case after all and gravitational pull will have an effect.
Ian pointed that out when I was inquiring about the catastrophic explosions everyone here’s about but can never point to one in the wild. Yes there have been I think about 3 but they were working to create that explosion. At that time I used the picture above to illustrate my question “are round nose bullets safe in tubular magazines”.
Ian pointed out that the 4 factory Remington loadings were safe and the lawyers agreed.
So this gave me the “head slap moment” when I thought about it and dismissed all the BS I’ve heard over the years at gun shows and gun store coffee pots.
I have slept like a baby ever since, well except for the middle of the night bathroom trip.