Joshua
Taco Aficionado/Salish Sea Pirate/Part-Time Dragon
Fun Fact: If It is Saturday and your RCBS #2 shell holder hasn't arrived in the mail yet, you can still deprime on press without it. A 30-30 fits just perfectly into the top of a standard ram.
Today my shell holder arrived and I got started. In the last two weeks I have been trading and dealing, I now have everything I need to start loading.
I did a quick slug of the barrel with a .451" round ball(yes, I will be doing a proper pound cast later). It came out at .3086". My whole 30cal sizing and expanding set up is based on my M1917 30-06. The 30-06 has a much larger bore. I only have the one 30cal expander, it is a NOE .313" x .309", and one Lee .311" push through sizer. For this reason I am going to start off with lubed bullets. This way I will still have sufficient neck tention. When I load PC'd bullets I'm gonna want to size them smaller somewhere around .309" to 3095". So I have some tools to buy before I start with powder coating for this gun.
I already have about a hundred 45/45/10 lubed and GC'd Lyman 311291 bullets that are sized at .311". I put together a dummy, and seated it at the crimp groove. I ran it through the action and it cycled just fine.
The more I read about the 30-30 the more I realize that it is a real dumpster of a cartridge when it comes to powder. It seems that you can throw just about anything in it and you can get it to run. Slow ball powders like 760 and H-414 that I wouldn't use in cast loads in my 30-06 are right at home in a 30-30. It pays nice with 748. It also likes slow stick powders like 4831. It seems to do fine with all the medium and fast rifle powders. Most all of the pistol and shotgun powders play nice with it. Hell, I even found published data from Winchester in 2001, they had a load using 296(not gonna touch this one with twenty foot pole). What a dumpster!
I've got lots of go fast, slow powder, PC'd ideas! But to start off I’ll be boring and run with 15 grains of 2400, over a lubed and gas checked 311291, that is sized .0024" over. It will probably work just fine.
Josh
P.s. What is your favorite 30-30 load? Fast or Slow?
Today my shell holder arrived and I got started. In the last two weeks I have been trading and dealing, I now have everything I need to start loading.
I did a quick slug of the barrel with a .451" round ball(yes, I will be doing a proper pound cast later). It came out at .3086". My whole 30cal sizing and expanding set up is based on my M1917 30-06. The 30-06 has a much larger bore. I only have the one 30cal expander, it is a NOE .313" x .309", and one Lee .311" push through sizer. For this reason I am going to start off with lubed bullets. This way I will still have sufficient neck tention. When I load PC'd bullets I'm gonna want to size them smaller somewhere around .309" to 3095". So I have some tools to buy before I start with powder coating for this gun.
I already have about a hundred 45/45/10 lubed and GC'd Lyman 311291 bullets that are sized at .311". I put together a dummy, and seated it at the crimp groove. I ran it through the action and it cycled just fine.
The more I read about the 30-30 the more I realize that it is a real dumpster of a cartridge when it comes to powder. It seems that you can throw just about anything in it and you can get it to run. Slow ball powders like 760 and H-414 that I wouldn't use in cast loads in my 30-06 are right at home in a 30-30. It pays nice with 748. It also likes slow stick powders like 4831. It seems to do fine with all the medium and fast rifle powders. Most all of the pistol and shotgun powders play nice with it. Hell, I even found published data from Winchester in 2001, they had a load using 296(not gonna touch this one with twenty foot pole). What a dumpster!
I've got lots of go fast, slow powder, PC'd ideas! But to start off I’ll be boring and run with 15 grains of 2400, over a lubed and gas checked 311291, that is sized .0024" over. It will probably work just fine.
Josh
P.s. What is your favorite 30-30 load? Fast or Slow?
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