30-30 brass, I begged Starline to make it!

Good luck with that! I hope they listen to you though. It's the nature of the beast as the brass is thin by design. I get better case life with mine by partial length resizing for each rifle so the brass will just chamber easily in it (I make a dummy round and set the die to that setting) and annealing every time. Lots of extra work but I get on average 10 reloads from a piece of brass so IMHO it is worth the bother.

I'll be the second customer. I want something with a wall thickness like a 375 Winchester.

SARuger said:

I have a terrible time with 30-30 brass. The current offerings just don't hold up for the price you pay for it. Range pick-ups are good for one or two reloads before the case heads split or the necks split on resize.

I sent Starline a email begging them to make 30-30wcf for us old guys that like our lever-guns

Fingers crossed........

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You could always anneal the cases to prevent the necks from splitting. The brass has always been thin so annealing will help.

Hmm...

I have absolutely no issues with once fired range brass in .30-30...

I have some I have been using for years, and some I picked up last fall that are on at least five loads...

Maybe it's because after I fire them in my chamber, I only neck resize...Maybe it's because I don't push to max loads...

Dunno...

yep I have one every now and then split but its not very often so I love reloading the 30-30 and my load is at the bottom of the chart as I don't run mine hot at all! infact I load the sierra prohunter 170gr with 33.6gr Winchester 760 powder and it works well and that's the starting load in my old reloading manual!

I'm shooting through a 5 gallon bucket of 30-30 brass, all R/P headstamp. I neck size them for my 94 Winchester & Handi Rifle. So far I've lost very few but I use cast loads.

SARuger said:

My 1981 model 94AE Winchester has a chamber issue and kills the R-P brass and Winchester brass after two reloads, Hornady lasts about 4. I am FLS before each loading. I never have tried NS because they won't plunk test for me if I do. I do not load it near hot, middle of the road loads only.

My Savage 340A is a different story, brass does well for me with that rifle and I do NS it.

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maybe time for a new barrel!

SARuger said:

I have a terrible time with 30-30 brass. The current offerings just don't hold up for the price you pay for it. Range pick-ups are good for one or two reloads before the case heads split or the necks split on resize.

I sent Starline a email begging them to make 30-30wcf for us old guys that like our lever-guns

Fingers crossed........

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I hope they do as I load 30-30 and some places have gotten high on the once fired brass

midland man said:

I hope they do as I load 30-30 and some places have gotten high on the once fired brass

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Didja check diamond k?

SARuger said:

Its a new rifle. I bought it NIB, NOS. I have 200 rounds through it now

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wow that's not good!

I own a Winchester 94 ranger 30-30 had it 39 years never a problem!!

I anneal mine... Makes a big difference.

Most all of my 30 30 shooting is with a WFN cast bullet at about 1950 FPS. Cases last a very long time. I only size them as much as necessary and they do get annealed initially. You dont need fancy equipment to do it. A simple candle can get good results. Your fingers will tell you when the case needs to go in the water lol. You dont need full annealing temperatures really I dont think, you just want to relax the brass a bit.

You dont need to neck size, but you should be able to only minimally set the shoulder back from your fired cases. That WILL extend your case life, and function should be just fine. The only trouble there is that you will often not be able to mix that ammo with other rifles.

Some fired case measurements would tell us a lot if possible. Even a photo of a fired case and a resized one could help maybe.

sorry to hear your having trouble with that Winchester as mine has ran smooth for years! but I hope what ever the issue is it is fixed soon! someone on here hopefully will see what's wrong and can help as I have never had that issue before!

I emailed Starline last year asking them to consider making 450 Bushmaster. They announced a few new calibers recently, and 450b was one of them. If they start making 30-30, I'll buy some, too.

PPU or Hornady brass would be worth checking out.

Have you looked at Everglades? They have once fired 30-30.

I would suggest taking that rifle to a competent gunsmith and having the headspace checked and see if someone has buggered up the chamber. I have some 30-30 brass from RP, Federal, Hornady and Winchester that are over 40 years old and still going strong. Only cases I've lost is to operator error at the reloading bench.

SARuger said:

Winchester is the only people that touched this rifle before me! I bought it brand new still in the box from a friend who's dad bought it in 1981 and never shot it. Still factory packed, still had 6 full boxes of ammo with it, that he bought the same day.

Whatever is wrong with it, its been that way since the factory

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Exactly. That's part of the reason the Winchester plant ended up shutting down, QC was hit and miss at best, and that was having a huge affect on market share and sales.
Take it to a gun smith and have the thing checked out. Something is terribly wrong with a chamber that is splitting the case heads and necks after only a couple of firings..