For anybody who is interested I recently completed some tests using Hodgdon Leverevolution powder and the 30-30 cartridge. My brother in law has a 1894 winchester chambered for the 30-30 cartridge and he is new to reloading and he wanted me to help him with developing some accurate loads for close range deer hunting.. We settled on 150 gr sierra flat nose bullets and after going through some of my reloading manuals we decided to try winchester 748 powder, I also had some Leverevolution powder on hand that worked well with my Tc contender 25-35 so we decided to try it also. We worked up to 34.5 gr with the 748 powder, we got 2182 fps with that load, the leverevolution ran away from the 748 loads, 37.5 gr got us a five shot average of 2353 fps. Accuracy was next, using open sights at 40 yards the 748 shot groups that averaged 1 3/4 inches, the leverevolution shot a group that measured .409. The other suprise was when we chronographed five rounds for average velocity we got an extreme spread of 12 fps and a standard deviation of 4, prior to this the best standard deviation I got was 9. We were using new winchester brass and federal 210 primers, the rifle we used had a 20 inch barrel, Hodgdon reloading data shows 2530 fps with 38.5 gr of Leverevolution, they used a 24 inch barrel. I was not sure what to expect because I tried Hodgdon superformance in my 300 wsm and it was a dissapointment.
