Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters What's out there in 30-30 land these days ?

I could hunt the rest of my life with a 30/30 and cast bullets

Same here, but I enjoy the little needle-blowers I've got, and glass, while not absolutely required yet, is a help. Closest thing to a.30/30 I have now is my .44 Low Wall, which may get violated with a scope mount if I can summon the courage. Half will decry the destruction of a "collectable" while the other half already hate its Japanese origins. Guess I should just do what I want; what a concept!

I would be interested in a simple Remington Model 7 in 30-30 Win. I am a hunter that packs in a climber, backpack and weapon. A mile is common. I doth mind 1 mile through a swamp and marsh grass but lighter is better. I have started taking my TC Encore in 45-70 gov. It's a light set up but half a dozen shells is actually noticeably heavier .

I'ld like to think of myself as a modern guy, having moved on from the antiquated 30-30 to the futuristic 300 Savage.
Disappointed in myself that it took so many decades to appreciate just how effective these rounds perform, particularly for a woods hunter.

High, wide and lonesome? Don't tell anybody but I know a fellow from out in the WY/MT region that hunts speed goats with a flintlock. Operative word there is "hunts".

For sake of clarity he is seldom unsuccessful.

Dan, I will never make fun of the 30-30 nomatter how old Ingwe is. It took the biggest deer I will likely ever shoot one morning. Much respect.

I surely enjoy my old 30-30 Glenfield with the silly pressed-in checkering & designs. Don't hunt with it all that often, but I do enjoy it. Often have it in the Jeep for short or long trips into the hills when it's just kinda nice to have a rifle along.

Tend to load good ol IMR3031 and one of the conventional 170 gr bullets; Remington, Sierra.

Have played a bit with a very light load, a cast bullet over Unique. That's fun to shoot for sure!

Guy

I just looked around the board for poster's portraits.

Mark, when you stop droolin' try this.

http://www.castbullet.com/shooting/rb30.htm

I do it a little differently, but over the years I've been surprised from time to time at the repeatable accuracy.

Rest of you wankers might give it a go next winter when you're snowed in and bored senseless.

My I pad kept auto correcting me when I tried to spell lever lotion. So that's how it got named!

It's economical, meters well, and out performs the other powder I used h 4895 in shorter barrels in the 300 savage.

I noticed how much higher the bullet would hit when I was shooting rocks etc across canyons with my 94 when I shot the Hornady lever lotion cartridges compared to the other factory stuf.

I like the powder, kinda makes it boring.

Dan, I seldom carry a rifle loaded that light. Out at the ranch you may get between a mama bear, and her cubs, coyote at 200 yards, antelope, deer, or elk during season - and I've been expecting feral hogs for several years now.
I like your thinking, but, it's not for me.
Sounds fun, though!

Was jokin' mostly. Such things are good fodder for the kids at short range, and perhaps amusing adults at times. I don't do it often myself even down here were 50 yards might be a different zip code.

Don't ask me about multi-ball loads in straight wall cases. I'll deny having done such things. In a .30-30.

any consensus on best sizing diameter for cast in the pre-64 Winchesters?

65J, the first step for casting for any gun, regardless of vintage is to slug the bore. One can do a chamber cast if so inclined, but that provides info on chamber/throat dims. Slug it and you'll know what the bore/groove geometry is. For smokeless loads look for a finished bullet of groove to groove +.001".

On my trips to Wyoming for mule deer/antelope I never killed one much beyond archery range. First time out I lugged a .25-06 because all the gun scribes, seasoned friends, bar hounds, and other self-described experts said it was minimum for the long shots I was to expect. One guy chastised me for not glomming onto a .257 Weatherby as shots were that drastic. Two animals, 50 yards each. The rest of my sojourns found me with a .257 Roberts (M1952 Mannlicher-Schoenauer w/2-7x scope) figuring that a repeat performance wouldn't find me so heavily overgunned. Never mind that again all my shots were that close and closer. I swore if I repeated the trip I would just take a .30-30 with an aperture sight and call it a day. (Of course, up will jump the devil. Or not.) (Rolling prairie/high desert not far out of Gillette, guided by Randy Greer- a guy who liked that I wanted to "hunt" and not "snipe".)

Yeah, the best scope turrets and high vel cartridges can't beat one's hind legs, calloused stomach (I'm still plucking prickly pear needles years later), and grey matter.

I'll debate you over a wee dram of the old nasty on that one, Dan. Instead of slugging the bore I would do a chamber cast to include a one inch section of the throat and bore (via pound cast or Cerrosafe, take your pick). Then size the cast bullet to throat diameter minus a half thousandth or so (.0005") and ignore groove diameter. the whole idea behind uber cast bullet accuracy is to guide it as straight into the bore as possible and easing it through the throat into the leade as form fitting as possible. The chamber cast will divulge bore diameter too so one can size the nose (or pick a nose diameter) that will lie gently on top of the lands aiding in the objective of straight-down-the-barrelness.

On the other hand, selecting a bullet diameter that is a couple thousandths over groove diameter may well slop a guy into achieving the nirvana I described above. Or it may not. "Modern" throats are pretty uniform and forgiving in that regard, older rifles, especially 19th/early 20th century guns not so much. It's not uncommon to encounter ancient rifles with throats smaller than groove diameter in which case one is kind of screwed.

Oh, I don't think there's much to debate about that, but....not everyone is as looney as you and me.

One thing slugging the bore will tell you that a chamber cast won't is if you have reasonably uniform bore dims. I've run across a few surprises in the past. It isn't uncommon to find old barrels with loose dims approaching the muzzle.

There is that. Usually from horny-handed chaps long stroking from the muzzle without benefit of a bore guide. Not that I've never done that, in a previous life long ago in a galaxy far away.

Thanks for the visual!

To the OP, RL-15 and 170gr Partitions is a very good spot to be in.

Yep, if it ain't broke....