.30-30 Reloading

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Harriw said:
The "Pick your favorite rifle bullet manufacturer poll" thread started up some interesting side conversations. One of them concerned bullet choices for reloading .30-30. In order to avoid de-railing the poll thread too badly I'd like to move the .30-30 discussion here.

I don't have a particular direction in mind for the thread - it's just that I'm just now adding .30-30 to the list of calibers I reload for, and thought I'd pick some brains a bit. Here's the side conversation from the Poll thread:







Just to status where I'm at, I have a few boxes of Hornady's 150 grain InterLock RN (#3035) that I'm going to be loading up tonight in a test ladder. I have some Winchester Large Rifle Primers and some H335 to use. I understand H335 may not be the BEST choice, but I have quite a bit of it on hand for 55 Gr. .223 loads. So it's what I have. I'm curious if others have used it in .30-30? What sort of down-sides should I expect to see? Dirty cases? Heavy Recoil? It looks like it's a bit faster-burning that most of the powders listed in the Hornady manual for that bullet, but it's not the fastest... This will be used in a lever gun with a 20" barrel.

Any other bullets that people suggest trying besides what GeoDudeFlorida mentioned above? I like the idea of a 110 grain bullet for light, cheap plinking loads. Particularly because I'd like to pick up an M1 Carbine some day, and it would be handy to be able to use the same bullet for both .30-30 and .30 Carbine loads.

Thanks in advance!
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Hey Harry, you never did say exactly what kind of lever gun or what you were planning on shooting in.30-30. Or maybe I just missed it? I think it does make some difference. I load a lot more stout for my Marlin lever guns than for the Stevens bolt action. And while the Contender is plenty strong I only have the 10” barrel for it so I load more like a magnum handgun load for it.
 
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HowieG said:
Yeah, we are way off of 30-30 reloading as interesting as this is.
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I was suggesting the.300BLK bullets for.30-30 more as a subsonic experiment with a lever gun. I had no intention of dragging the topic out of whack. Sorry all.
 
Just looking through my reloading manual, the 30-30 offers versatile options. Were things normal regarding supplies, I would like to try a hollow point load that replicates a souped up 357 magnum with a 125 grain hollow point, find a heavy 170 grain load, and maybe get into casting. It handles a wide range of weights and powders. Another benefit is its typically a manual action round so it is not as sensitive as semiautomatic actions for reliability, similar to how I got a Henry lever action 22 to run everything from Short CBs to Interceptors.
 
30-30 will eat anything, just ram a 30 cal whatever in and about 25gn of IMR 3031 (easy to remember) and shoot a deer
 
Mark_Mark said:
a .22 we going rabbit hunting ?
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You
DMW1116 said:
Just looking through my reloading manual, the 30-30 offers versatile options. Were things normal regarding supplies, I would like to try a hollow point load that replicates a souped up 357 magnum with a 125 grain hollow point, find a heavy 170 grain load, and maybe get into casting. It handles a wide range of weights and powders. Another benefit is its typically a manual action round so it is not as sensitive as semiautomatic actions for reliability, similar to how I got a Henry lever action 22 to run everything from Short CBs to Interceptors.
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Another thing to mess around with would be the Hornady FTX. I haven't as of yet, and obviously probably couldn't find any, but the concept is a good one.
 
GeoDudeFlorida said:
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This is what I shoot and recommended:

MISSOURI BULLET COMPANY CAST 30-30 .311 165gRNFP 4WHTL COATD 250b
Product Information
#HT-311165FP
.311 Diameter
165 Grain RNFP
Brinell 18
For Marlin Lever Guns
Hi-Tek 2-Extreme Coating from J&M Specialized Products P/L
Color may vary
Price per box of 250

That's from the Graf's & Sons site.
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Too hard for cast lead and while .311 may work in your rifle, in my 336, .311 is too large and, depending on ogive, may even shave a ring. However, with coated bullets, exceeding 1800 FPS becomes much more feasible and may well even allow use of such a hard alloy.
 
I miss my Winchester 94, trade it for a X-bolt, then trade that for a Ruger #1 45/70 with a Minox scope!
 
DocRock said:
Too hard for cast lead and while .311 may work in your rifle, in my 336, .311 is too large and, depending on ogive, may even shave a ring. However, with coated bullets, exceeding 1800 FPS becomes much more feasible and may well even allow use of such a hard alloy.
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Yup. That was part of the point for the OP, too. Everybody’s rifle is different. That’s why we try new things. :)
 
I load 150&170gr round nose or flat nose bullets over 3031 powder, you can do a ladder to check but I found between 30&31gr was my most accurate. I tried the 110gr rn and found the 125gr shot better in 30-06, I've never tried it in 30-30
 
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