I have a 30-30 14" Contender bbl. The cheapest mold you'll find will be a Lee. They have a few designs that may interest you. My 30-30 shoots their 173FP very well. I plan on hunting with it next year. I'll not mess with subsonics though, and I think your best bet is to stick with tumbling heavy bullets if using at sub-sonic speed in a 30 cal for deer. If you can hit the shoulders/spine, then any bullet 150gr and up should do enough damage on the way through to put down big game.

Like others here, I suggest a bigger caliber bullet when planning to hunt at subsonic velocity, with a minimum being 35 cal, and 45 being ideal. Otherwise, your best bet is to tumble the bullets. There's nothing wrong with that, and it is certainly effective.

Why the noise/speed limit? Your Herrett should do almost what my 30-30 will do for velocity. You could easily get a cast 150 to 2k, and that would be the nutz for deer.


I belong on eroding granite, among the pines.