Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats 30-30 AI

Would be nice with an extended octagon barrel.

Case life, assuming that you're a reloader.

IIRC, Sam Fadala wrote that his 30-30AI was a 2-shooter with pointed bullets, 1 in the chamber and 1 in the magazine.

Wouldn’t you be limited to light hand loads to start out with? In order to fire form.

I have been told that the primary PITA associated with the 30-30 AI is that the thin 30-30 brass tends to split at the shoulder when fire forming, light charge or not. I went the 307 route with a minty Marlin 336 SC and regret every minute of it.

In "most" improved rounds you're not limited to light loads on the first firing.....you actually want enough pressure to form the brass, you lose some pressure to the forming process. I usually load a max load for forming in bolt guns (after a shot or two working up to check speeds/pressure/brass).

260Remguy mentioned 30-30 brass being a weak point with splits occurring... I'd not considered this before. I'll be working with a single shot 30-30 AI over the next several months so this thread caught my eye. I'll be starting with the 125 ballistic tip since it won't be limited in bullet choices.

What velocity do you predict for the 125gr?

I would second the motion for a .35-30. A quick trip to JES for a rebore and a quick and easy session with a chamber reamer and voilà, a real woods thumper. Been threatening to do one myself since forever.

The easiest way to add oomph to a standard .30-30 is to load it with heavy bullets. Barnes is making their "original" soft copper/pure lead style in the form of a .30 190 grain, and there's the alternative of cast 190 grain lead bullets which can be loaded to that velocity no sweat- making the .30-30 the equivalent of a factory .303 Savage which had a lot of followers back in the day. You would open up a whole new realm of .30-30 performance (not to mention the fun of load development) without the expense/hassle of re-chambering or re-boring.

Since I started loading my .30-30 (and .303 Savage) hunting loads with 190's I haven't looked back.

I've always been interested in doing a 30/30 AI, just because. If I had 3 working 30/30 rifles, I guarantee I'd AI one of them; why not? Sometimes it's not about making the numbers make sense; if you want to do it for fun, go for it. As long as you're not messing up a collectible rifle, you'd probably never regret trying it, but always wonder if you didn't.

Honestly I've never had much interest in a 35/30 though, having put a lot of miles on the 35 Rem I would (and did) just go with that factory round instead, for both levers and pumps.

I haven't looked at numbers yet, but I'm guessing around 2600 with a 24" barrel. Anything with good accuracy from 2500-2600 should be fine for how it will be used.

Would be a nice handi rifle in a single

If you anneal the top third of the case before loading and fireforming, you'll likely reduce the case splitting problem to near zero.

some TC data down below for 14" barrels, so add 20-25fps per inch for longer barrels

My 30/30ackley is a 22" by Match Grade Machine, was looking at notes on my phone from load testing a couple months ago, got 2575fp with 150 SST's , using 41.0gr LeverEvolution. Found mine shot pretty well with bullets in the 125/130gr weight class with 8208XBR also, but didnt clock those yet.


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.30-30 Ackley Improved (T/C Contender Super 14) Data

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110gr Hornady V-MAX / 35.0grs. IMR-4198 = 2700 FPS
110gr Hornady V-MAX / 37.0grs. A.A.2015BR = 2700 FPS
110gr Speer Round nose / 34.0grs. RL-7 "not chrono'd yet"
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125gr Nosler BT / 34.5grs. H-4198SC = 2689 FPS
125gr Nosler BT / 34.0grs. IMR-4198 = 2683 FPS
125gr Nosler BT / 34.0grs. IMR-4198 = 2627 FPS

125gr Nosler BT / 33.5grs. IMR-4198 = 2617 FPS
125gr Nosler BT / 38.0grs. A.A.2520 = 2560 FPS
125gr Nosler BT / 36.0grs. A.A.2015BR = 2550 FPS

125gr Nosler BT / 38.0grs. A.A.2230 = 2507 FPS
125gr Nosler BT / 36.0grs. H-322 = 2498 FPS
125gr Nosler BT / 38.0grs. IMR-3031 = 2480 FPS

125gr Nosler BT / 37.0grs. IMR-3031 = 2375 FPS
125gr Nosler BT / 41.5grs. W-748 = 2473 FPS
125gr Nosler BT / 38.0grs. A.A.4064 = 2434 FPS
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130gr Hornady SSP / /33.0grs. IMR-4198 = 2588 FPS
130gr Hornady S.P. / 38.0grs. A.A.2520 = 2520 FPS

130gr Hornady SSP / 36.5grs. H-4895 = 2490 FPS
130gr Speer Flat Nose/38.0grs. H-335 = 2486 FPS

130gr Berger H.P. / 35.0grs. A.A.2015BR = 2371 FPS
130gr Berger H.P. /36.0grs. H-322 = 2346 FPS

130gr Berger H.P. /36.5grs. IMR-4895 = 2257 FPS
130gr Berger H.P. /35.0grs. H-322 = 2245 FPS
130gr Hornady SP /34.0grs RL-10x = 2450fps
130gr Hornady SP /36.0grs. RL-10x = 2580fpsMax. load
------------------------------------------------------------------------
135gr Sierra SSP / 33.5grs. IMR-4198 = 2517 FPS
135gr Sierra SSP /33.0grs. IMR-4198 = 2488 FPS
135gr Sierra SSP /38.5grs. IMR-4895 = 2435 FPS
------------------------------------------------------------------------
150gr Speer / 36.0gr.s IMR-3031 = 2450 FPS
150gr Nosler BT / 36.0grs. IMR-3031 = 2437 FPS
150gr Hornady / 36.5grs. IMR-3031 = 2416 FPS

150gr Speer Flat Point / 36.5grs. IMR-3031 = 2410 FPS
150gr Sierra / 36.5grs. IMR-3031 = 2396 FPS
150gr Hornady S.P. / 38.5grs. Reloader15 = 2390 FPS

150gr Hornady S.P. / 36.5grs. IMR-3031 = 2380 FPS
150gr Speer Mag Tip / 37.0grs. H-335 = 2372 FPS
150gr Hornady / 36.5grs. W-748 = 2370 FPS

150gr Hornady SST / 36.5grs. IMR-3031 = 2369 FPS
150gr Rem PSPCL / 35.0grs. H-322 = 2350 FPS
150gr Hornady S.P. / 37.5grs. A.A.4064 = 2350 FPS

150gr Rem PSPCL / A.A.2520 35.5gr = 2340 FPS
150gr Rem Core-Lockt / 36.5grs. IMR-3031 = 2311 FPS
150gr Hornady S.P. / 33.0grs. Re-7 = 2350 FPS
------------------------------------------------------------------------
165gr Hornady B.T.S.P. / 34.0grs. IMR-4895 = 2255 FPS
165gr Speer Spt.B.T. / 34.0grs. IMR-4895 = 2240 FPS
165gr Hornady B.T.S.P. / 31.0grs. Re-7 = 2126 FPS

maybe just the particular lots i was dealing with, but R-P cases split quite a bit if not annealed...i had fewer problems with Federal or WW.

formed about 200 pcs of WW into 30/30 ackleys last year, had only 3-4 per hundred split when using virgin cases; dont think any of them split after i had annealed them.

i also neck them to .25 & 6.5, those split a bit more often when i didn't anneal before making .25x30/30ackley or 6.5x30/30ackley.

Thanks for that info FyrepowrX!

.30-30 AI, .35-30, 38-55, none of them makes any sense to me. The .30-30 does what it does, kill deer in the timber, as well as it can be done. If I wanted more "thump" or range I can take my .308 or .30-06. I've used those two plus a .35 Rem., 44 mag. and 12 gauge slugs to kill many deer in the timber. Never noticed that any of those killed them any better or any deader than my old .30-30's.

Lapua has a round nose. And Hawk Bullets www.hawkbullets.com has several different round and flat nosed 7mm bullets

I have a 30-30 AI in a 14" Contender. While it is fun and a performance jump - I'd go the 307 route too!!

Been using Winchester model 64a in 30/30 Ackley for a while. 170 partitions at 2380 are good medicine for what ails this country ( Absorkas). Also a 200 grain cast at 2200 works well. I think the improved version isn’t needed but that what fell into my hands with dies so I use it.

How hard is it to find the 307 brass? Cheers NC