30-30 afternoon

[Ian]

I've been trying to sort out a good common load for all five of my .30-30s and finally may have it. The problem is (of course) is each rifle might as well wear a different cartridge designation due to vast differences in throat, bore dimension, and headspace. I went back to my Lee group buy commercial copy of the 311041 with the lovely little .305" band at the nose base which makes it SO much better than Lyman's. Of course I powder-coated them to bump the nose up to .3025" for the Marlins. Final sized to .310" as a compromise fit. Coated them this morning which knocked the BHN down to 8.5, but I'm impatient and decided tobshoit them anyway, a nice mild 30K PSI load of Reloder 7.

I took the sloppiest and tightest rifles of the bunch and got them on target at 75 yards with the new loads, then on to 100 for some groups. Since the Marlin only got 2.5" I loaded five more at a grain less and shot the 1-5/8" group. The 1899 with peep and bead did about the same with the 23 grain load and me just aiming somewhere in the middle of the paper.

Now to go gas check and coat a bunch more and let them age out to try again, then get the rest of the fleet sighted in for the load.

 

[Spindrift]

Very nice, Ian! Seems you are on to a good, accurate, pleasant and versatile load, there. Interesting challenge, to make one load for several rifles. Think I might try the same, for my 30-06

 

[JWFilips]

Hey anytime I here 30-30 in the morning aftenoon or what ever I'm going to read It!

 

[Creeker]

Hey anytime I here 30-30 in the morning aftenoon or what ever I'm going to read It!

Me too.

 

[waco]

The 30-30 has got to be one of my favorite top three cast cartridges. From mild to wild it is Just. Plain. Fun.
I have my old mans win 94 and a Savage 340 bolt gun. I get to buy a new gun in February and have the chance to get a clean Rem 788 in 30-30 but I am being drawn to a Lipsey Ruger Single Seven in .327 Fed Mag.

 

[Ian]

I keep forgetting how much I love this little cartridge, then I go play with it some more and it all comes back. Maybe that's why I keep buying rifles chambered for it?

The point of this load was to be able to grab any of the .30-30s and a coffee can full of cartridges on any given day and go blast steel, deer, or whatever and not have to think about what load it is, how it's sighted in, worry about wearing out the antique rifles, wearing out my shoulder, blah blah. Just know it's on at 100 and 3" point-blank from 60 to 125. Only one of my rifles has a scope, so if the load will do 1.5 MOA that's good enough for me because I can't aim any better than that.

The cool part was the soft, powder-coated bullet that made the Savage snick the lever closed (I set the headspace to "go" plus .001" and it has virtually no throat) literally rattled in the Marlin if I shook it up and down or front to back. The Marlin will eat a "no-go" gauge and has the "Cathedral Throat" as Spindrift puts it, plus has been firelapped. I could seat the bullet out another full 1/8" and it still wouldn't hard jam, yet after backing off a grain it still demonstrates useful accuracy.

 

[waco]

Ian. What are your other favorite powders for the 30-30 besides Rx7?
I like 2400, SR 4759, 3031, and H335 to name a few.

 

[Ian]

Big fan of Titegroup for subsonic 120-grain bunny-getters and 3031 or 748 for maximum velocity. I think H110 is the only powder I haven't tried over the years.

I was going to load some of Fiver's Load today because it's easy and accurate, but it's kinda hard on suppressors.

 

[Brad]

Never tried H110 in 30-30 or at all? H110 is a great powder, used lots over the years.

 

[Creeker]

Big fan of Titegroup for subsonic 120-grain bunny-getters and 3031 or 748 for maximum velocity. I think H110 is the only powder I haven't tried over the years.

I was going to load some of Fiver's Load today because it's easy and accurate, but it's kinda hard on suppressors.

+1 on the 3031.

 

[waco]

I was going to load some of Fiver's Load today because it's easy and accurate

And this load is?...

 

[Will]

It’s amazing to be what the PC allows you to get by with on alloy.

 

[RBHarter]

IMR 4350 is nice in the 325 30-30 I shoot , I haven't found a bad bullet yet . I get full jacket speeds with WW and no extra efforts .

 

[Ian]

And this load is?...

Case full of 4831, any flavor.

 

[waco]

Case full of 4831, any flavor.

Kinda like the .308....

 

[CZ93X62]

Another fan of WW-748 in 30/30 WCF with the redcoats at full strength. I keep forgetting to order some of the Barnes 30/30-specific copper slugs. I will be trying Lyman #311041 in the 87/12/.75 alloy shortly. January has NOT been very good to us financially, and it has been this way for years--2 car tags ($900+), a new tire on each vehicle (sidewall punctures), boat pay-off and insurance, and Christmas drained the gold a bit as well. Things should even out this coming month and into March, this happens every year. Long way of saying I have yet to buy Condor Cuddler alloy or furnace. It will happen, just not as fast as I would have liked it to.

 

[Ian]

I shot most of what I had except for the Lyman 45 Devastator HPs that one day will perforate all these gallon milk jugs the wife has been saving for me. Fiver wanted me to try the alloy full-tilt in the .308 without a gas check but I chickened out....and admittedly lost interest after proving the concept.

 

[freebullet]

Nothing wrong with universal loads. Save moocho time & frustration for a fleet. Tis a fun little game to figure out how well mixn' match stuff can do.

Don't be scurd ya ain't lived till ya launch linotype @3k.

 

[Bret4207]

Looks good Ian. I second, or third, whatever, on 3031 for full bore stuff in the 30-30 and 303 Savage. Works pretty good.

You've got a can on the Savage (you rebel you!). Does that make a big difference with cast as opposed to a plain muzzle or is it a non-issue?

 

[Ian]

I use the same can on one of my Marlins and all my full-power .30-caliber rifles, with cast bullets. Lots of people have packed in around my property in the past few years and I've been trying to play nice and only shoot suppressed stuff here (no revolvers or shotguns at all), but now since almost all of the households have acquired at least two huge, loud, obnoxious outdoor dogs (not to mention the Mexicans breeding fighting chickens= 30-40 roosters competing for volume, and the hillbilly with the unmuffled rock bouncer across the road) and there is a household every 1-3 acres surrounding me, I'm about to stop caring about loud gunfire. I have a safe range and it's legal to shoot anything I want out here, so when I do they'll just have to cope.

All that to say I don't know. I've had very little opportunity to test with/without the can to see the effects. I did do a little bit of comparison a few years ago just to see how my Form 1 cans were affecting the point of impact and the groups were mostly unaffected (some actually better with the can), but the only testing I did was with subsonic loads.