I have a few 30-30's in the stack. Couple of M94's, couple of M64's, a Marlin 336 and a Winchester M54 with factory installed receiver sight. All I shoot in them are my home cast bullets.
Someone comments that the shot 190 gr. cast in their rifle. A book if you can find it by Sam Fadala, "Winchester's 30-30, Model 94 is well worth the money. I met him once. Hell of a nice guy. Anywat he's very very fond of the 190 gr. Winchester Silvertip bullet for the .303 Sav. that "Big W" has never seen fit to sell to handloads and uses it only in one of the rare "seasonal" runs they do on that cartridge. He actually pays the uber high prices for the ammo, pulls the bullets, dumps the powder and sells the brass just to get those bullets. I've still got 100 rounds of that 303 Sav. ammo. Last I heard they were selling for around $50+ a box and probably a hell of a lot more these days. Anyway, I cast the RCBS #30-180-FN bullet for my 30-30 and in my alloy get a bullet right at 190 gr. I've taken two der with it so far but 15 others with the Lyman #311291, both bullets loaded in rge 1900 FPS range. I've always felt Winchester screwed up by not providing the 30-30 with that 190 gr. Silvertip or at least making it available to handloader. IIRC, factory .303 Sav. did about 1950 FPS from a 24" barrel and the Savage I had certainly dropped some fairly big Mule Deer quite rapidly.
I don't shoot the 30-30 much anymore as my poor old eyeballs can't properly focus on that front sight. I've since had caratract surgery so maybe the front sight will be more visible but just have not had the time to load up some ammt and go see. pun intended.
Paul B.
