Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters .35-30

Researching reboring a 30-30 to .35-30. The unanswered question thus far is reloading. Does one need .35-30 dies or can a combination of 30-30 and .358 dies work?

Thank you in advance.

How exactly would a combination of 30-30 and 358 dies even begin to work?

Oh boy.

you will need 35-30 dies your other thought/ ideal will not work ever. just find a 35 Remington lever rifle and you will have your dream rifle then

He's talking about using the .358 as a seater. I don't know if that would work, but you could likely just get dies from C4HD.

It wouldn’t be pretty but I think I could make it work. Expanding 30/30 cases in a couple of steps works. I’ve done that when I needed some 38/55 cases. Necking 38/55 cases down might work too. Using a 38 or 357 die to neck the case down might be a way to set the shoulder where you want it.

Ok but how would he resize?

Just do a .375 win

I am usually all gung ho about finding complicated ways to achieve a simple result. For some reason, this whole idea sounds like a fool's errand to me. I cannot imagine going to the trouble and expense to get a rifle rebored but not getting an appropriate die set. I have no doubt it could be managed, but any such solution I can think of other than the proper die set, would be problematic with regard to getting bullets seated straight.

I'm assuming you are talking about a 94 Winchester and want to keep that platform, but with a bigger bullet. If that's the case, I would take the easy route and go .38-55 or .375 Win. If the platform doesn't matter, .35 Remington is the obvious solution, but might want to stock up on components.

Whatever you choose to do, best of luck. Let us know how it goes.

i have a Winchester m94 in 35/30-30 that JES Reboring has done. i use CH-4D 35/30 dies, but your 35 Rem dies can neck size and seating the bullet. i use Starline 30-30 brass and CH-4D FL die and i don't have a problem. about 5 or 6 years ago, i called CH-4D, i gave them my info and 2 or 3 days later, the dies came to my mailbox. it was $115 or $120.

i use 200gr RCBS FNGC and 2400/tuft of dacron that goes from the muzzle 1726fps. it kills deer at that speed, my longest shot with the 35/30-30 was 53 yards, but normally the 35/30 shots deer at around 30 - 40 yards. i like the way the 35/30 shoots, with next to no recoil.

you can go near the 35 Remington's velocity, but you can't find 35 Rem brass anymore. you can find 30-30 brass on the range or new. i bought 500 cases of Starline 30-30 brass new and i can make the 30 and 357 Herrett brass too. i made a 100 cases of the 35/30 and i've shot them 11 or 12 times with no annealing and next to no trimming. i just want to see how long they last for.

i shot in the Williams FP aperture sight (2 shots at 100 yards)


fire forming the 35/30-30 with open sights at 100 yards (25 or 30+/- shots)



i was going to use a custom 35cal 270-280gr WFN mold, but i shot the 200gr RCBS mold and i was impressed with that (using an aperture sight).


**** i think you can use the 357 Herrett dies too.

I kind of want to build a .338/30...I have plenty of .30-30 brass and quite a few bonded 185gr bullets, just not sure if I could get enough velocity to make them reliably expand.

I always thought Winchester should have done a 33/30 instead of the 32 Spl

I believe I saw a Remington M788 that had been converted to 35-30 many years ago

Seems like there is some potential in a .338 caliber .30-30 case. You can push a 170gr bullet out of a .32 Special around 2400fps staying at 36k CUP, 2400-2500 should be doable with a 185gr out of a .33/30 case. It would be a neat round out of a T/C Contender carbine, but the big thing is still whether the bullets would reliably expand.

i did a much simpler rifle rebore that is a much better finished rifle with some value , this is what i had Jess rebore a Ruger #1 into a 35 Whelen , brass is easy to resize out of a 30-06 brass case , new Hornady dies were $50.00 and its a heck of lot more accurate and powerful .

i think Winchester used a 338 bullet in the 45-70 called the 33 Winchester.

MGM barrels (TC Encore and Contender) make a 338/30-30 along with JES Reboring (i think). in a lever action, i know of two bullets, a 250gr Hornady RN and a 200gr Hornady FTX. you could a two shot lever rifle, one in the chamber, one in the tube, then you could go pointed.

i do cup-n-core and cast bullets, so you are on your own with bonded bullets.

This all sounds interesting but for those States that need a .358 bullet to kill deer, the 35 Remington should make a huge comeback. Now would be the time.

kwg

What about reboring to .360 Buckhammer, which uses a .30-30 based case?

There is an article in the Nov. issue of Shooting Times on this very subject