What part of the cannelure to seat to on 30-30?

[bison]

I'm starting to load some 30-30 for the first time and understand to seat to the cannelure and crimp. I have MBC #1 whitetails and 150 grain Hornady RN's. What part of the cannelure should I seat to though? Since the overall cannelure is maybe 0.030" there's lots of room between one end of it and the other.

Somewhat arbitrarily I seated the Hornadys to the top of the cannelure, thinking that this would give the maximum amount of recess for the crimp to bite into. This gave a COL of about 2.530" vs. the 2.550" I found in the manual.

I then gave it a pretty solid crimp (about a full turn in using the Lee FCD). Looked about right when compared to factory ammo.

Thanks!

 

[NCsmitty]

Using bullets designed for the 30-30, the COAL is not critical, and a consistent crimp in the cannelure, to your liking, is all that's necessary. You probably don't even need to use the FCD, just the seater, but that's up to you.
Good shooting.



NCsmitty

 

[Walkalong]

Pics?

I would get a roll crimp seater and roll the case mouth into the center of the cannelure myself. The FCD for rifles is a good design, and works pretty well with jacketed bullets, but doesn't really lend its self to crimping lead bullets with a good deep cannelure IMHO.

 

[Jech]

Bison, I seat these bullets to a COAL of 2.530" for use in my Marlin 336ss. However, because this bullet has a slight shoulder, anything between 2.500" and 2.550" is *extremely* unlikely to cause any feeding issues or get the bullet in contact with the rifling.

As long as you're seating/crimping at the same length fairly consistently between each round, you should not notice any real difference. If you were shooting full power loads, I would advise caution when using max or near-max data with the bullet deep seated but these were not meant for full power anyway. Best results are obtained under 1500fps according to tests done by myself and several members here on THR.

Good luck!

~ Jech

 

[CraigC]

Half to three quarters of the way into the cannelure. When loading such cartridges, I never worry about OAL, as long as it cycles in the action.

 

[blarby]

As luck would have it, you've made great bullet choices.

Please see the attached pics

Jech and I both use what I have found to be identical procedures in feeding our leverguns.

I think their dinner plate looks something like this :

 

[rcmodel]

Half to three quarters of the way into the cannelure.

+1
You want more then half of the cannulure inside the case mouth so the crimp has someplace to go when you crimp it.
The edge of the crimp should end up pretty close to the front edge of the cannulure when done to prevent bullets creeping back any further under recoil.

If it is already as far in the case as the crimp & cannulure will allow, it can't get a running head start and jump crimp in the magazine.

I don't even bother measuring 30-30 OAL.
Where the cannulure is on the bullet determines proper OAL, all by its lonesome.
Whatever the OAL turns out to be is what it is.

rc

 

[bison]

Here they are...

Here's what I'd loaded - Hornady 150's on the left, MBC 165's in the middle, and Win factory on the right. Based on helpful comments I won't worry about COL as long as it's crimped mid-way or better, and it looks like the crimp is about the same as the factory. Now just got to go to the range to try them out!

 

[Jech]

Let us know how they shoot!

 

[MarkDozier]

FYI y'all MBC now does the WhiteTail in .311 for you marlin lovers. And if you anit shooting Marlin why have a 30-30?

 

[x_wrench]

i run the crimp at the top edge of the crimp. so that if the bullet were to try to move deeper in the case, it would be locked by metal to metal contact. that way, in the rare occourance of the bullet shifting, it could not. and the o.a.l. could not be changed. shorter than 2.550" will never have a bad effect on feeding. it can raise chamber pressures however, so be certain to allow for that. longer o.a.l. can cause feeding issues, so the 2.550 is usually the longest i will go.