Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles 30-30 Bolt Action

My friend has a Savage 340 bolt action in 30-30 Winchester. I assume this action isn't much stronger than a lever action. He wants me to load him some pointy bullets for him. I have a few concerns. I have 150 gn Sierra Pro Hunter and 130 gn Hornady Spire Points.

1. The Sierra's are recommended 1900 fps minimum for accuracy and 2600 fps for hunting. I guess they are going to be limited to target work as I can not dream that the little Savage action could handle that much pressure for 2600 fps.

2. The Hornadys are older and do not have a product name or product number, just Hornady 130 gn Spire Point on the box. The current 130 gn Hornady Spire Point appears in the product name under Varmint. I do not have any Hornady manuals for data for these.

3. What experience does anyone have in reloading for a Savage 340 with these or any pointy bullet in the 150ish bullet weight? How strong is the little action?

.30-30 load data is framed by SAAMI specs, deviate from the data and you're on your own. That said I have been loading Sierra 150 gr spitzers for the Contender using book data for that weight bullet w/o issues for 20 years. They kill stuff.

I should clarify that I am definitely not looking to turn a 30-30 into a 300 win mag, etc. I am essentially hoping to find a pointy (spitzer, spire point, etc) bullet compatible with 30-30 velocities, i.e. 150 grain bullet at about 2,200 fps max.

DigitalDan, Am I correct in your using 30-30 data for 150 grain 30-30 specific bullets, and then using a different bullet? Are you using Sierra Pro-Hunter (flat base) or Gamekings (boattails)?

Correct on the .30-30 data for 150's and using Pro Hunters. MV is somewhere in the 2300 and change area as I recall. 3 deer and a few hogs did not survive the introduction.

You might want to consider some 150 Ballistic Tips.

You're right in not hot rodding a 340. Much better platforms exist for tweaking the nose of that old cartridge.

Spitzer bullets? Meh. If you got 'em and just want to shoot them up, why not. Honestly though, within the .30-30's traditional effective range the old blunt nosed ones do just fine.

150 Pro Hunter is rather soft, it will expand at much slower velocities that 2600. Load it to .30-30 max and don't fret.

Consider the Speer 130 gr 30 cal jacketed hollow point with a bit of 3031. We were using it for deer in the 30-30 back in the '70s and '80s. It ought to work just as well today. With the advantage of a bit flatter trajectory than typical 150 or 170 gr 30-30 loads.

Load him up some 125gr ballistic tips. My son used them for years on whitetail deer w/complete satisfaction. powdr

FWIW, a target pic from initial load work with the Contender with BLC2. This isn't the final load I settled on, just one of the better ones, that is still below book max by a couple grains.

Thanks to all for the insights.

I'm going to go this route with a single shot 30-30. The 125 seemed like a good fit for the expected speed and shorter ranges it will be used at.

It is a single lug action, not amenable to hot loads. Stay within the SAAMI limits.

With 150+ grain bullets, there will be a gap between the mouth of the case and the bullet. You'll have to cut the case back about 1/8". So 125/130 grain bullets with straight sides are a better solution.

Best solution is Hornady FTX bullets and LeverRevolution powder.

Before you go all nutz on pointy vs RN/FN you might just want to take a look at some ballistics data for velos in the 30-30 range and see just what LITTLE you actually gain going to the "Pointy' ones. Check the drop figures, the end yardage figures and the end energy numbers...something that HARDLY ANYONE ever does, most just look at the velo figures and think that means something.

I've been playing with the 30-30 for 60 odd years and other 30 cal single shot and bolt guns. I usually used pointy bullets in my 30-30 just because I had more on hand for the larger cased cartridges and got "lazy" and didn't want a bunch of extra bullets on hand, but when RN/FN's were on sale or I could trade for a few I never turned those down. I loaded my fathers Rem 788 308 down to 30-30 velos and used 100 - 130 gr RN bullets because he had medical problems and couldn't handle the recoil of a full house 150 gr 308...He NEVER lost ANY game with those loads. I also built him a 250 AI Savage on a Rem 788 action, OEM 22-250, and used 60 gr RN's way back when and later 70 and 75 gr RN and SP's.

Keeping within the "normal" 150-200 yardage for a 30-30 and staying closer to the <150 yd number and you won't have ANY problems gathering in your dinner...IF YOU CAN SHOOT AND YOUR AMMO/RIFLE IS ACCURATE.

But Hey nothing wrong with trying new nose forms, you might just hit the magic combo and have a bugholer..it happens all the time.

Good Luck