Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles 30 30 dies

Any suggestions for 30 30 dies?

I just picked a nice used JM marlin.
Loads will not be warm.

I have a choice of hornady and RCBS locally.
About same price.

Does one give a better crimp perhaps?
Do guys normally use a Lee FCD die on 30 30?

thanks

I use the RCBS 30-30 dies with the Lee factory crimp die with excellent results.

Exact combo I use.

Same here.

The .30-30 was the cartridge that convinced me that crimping was something best done as a separate step, due to the thin case.

If you weren't too careful setting the die, you could bulge the case and they wouldn't chamber, and I felt that a separate die was easier than resetting the seating die. That, and the fact that the Lee die was less susceptible to inconsistent crimping due to lack of case length uniformity.

It's worked for me for years.

I load all my .30-30 stuff on a set of Redding dies but I've always liked those Lee factory crimp dies for a couple other things that I reload. Then; Lo and Behold, I came across a Lee crimp die for .30-30 at a yard sale some years ago. Things seem better for my .30-30 loads since I started using that crimp die in a separate step. Discovered the same thing reloading .22 Hornet also. Even do the Lee crimp on 7.62x54R ammo for an old Mosin-Nagant but haven't as yet noticed any big difference on that one. But then, I'm still in the early stages of load development on that cartridge.