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

After shooting Remington factory ammo out of my Model 64 Winchester for many years and accumulating quite a bit of brass along the way I'm considering loading some for this years rifle season.
In the past 748 was my powder of choice but as my supply is dwindling it's time to reorder which brings me to ask what's out there today ?
BTW, same goes for bullets.

Thanks in advance, gents.

Hodgdon Leverevolution is the powder that first comes to mind. It has done an amazing job of boosting velocity in my 30-30 loads.

W748 has been my long time go to for the .30-30, but next time I start experimenting in addition to the Leverevolution I'll try CFE223 and maybe Power Pro.

Care to share your loads/velocities shaman.

24 inch barrel on my ancient 64 and I've no intention of "maxing" it out. I'm pretty conservative.

Thanx.

Boring ole 3031 here, and Hornady 170's and Nosler pt 170's. Thought about trying the Leverevolution powder, but I'm plumb happy with this tried and true ole 3031.

CFE-223 works sweetly. Truth be told the .30-30 in general is so forgiving that you can almost close your eyes and pick one.

Yes it does and just a tad slower burning powder than Hodgdon's "LVR" powder. A sleeper powder for the 30-30...who knew!

Varget is very accurate in my G2 Contender. I am not trying to increase velocities.

Here:
Reality Sets In

and here:

Reality Sets in . . . Again

Bottom line: there are improvements. However, it does not turn the 30-30 into a 30-06.

284LUVR,

Not long ago I did a bunch of testing new bullets and powders in .30-30, by coincidence my own Model 64 rifle, along with a few old favorites. There's a chapter on the results, with a table of loads for bullets from 100 to 170 grains, in GUN GACK II, if you have a copy or know somebody who does. Aside from Leverevloution, several other newer powders did very well.

There is a poster here who calls that powder by Leverlotion.

My friend Angus1895! I call it that too just for him. Funny dude that one!

Re 15 does well for me with 150gr bullets

Same here. I have a few pounds of IMR3031 that I don't use for much else. I figure there's not much sense trying to make a 30-30 something it ain't.
Anyway, I'll probably fiddle around with some different powders once I retire just because any self respecting rifle loonie just can't leave well enough alone.
It seems like IMR8028XBR shows good numbers in several cartridges I load for, including the 30-30.

River Ridge,

One of the powders that did well in my tests was IMR3031, along with IMR4895 (duh!). In fact in GUN GACK 1, in my chapter on the .30-30 I pretty much suggested IMR4895 as THE powder for those people who absolutely have to handload the .30-30.

But then some readers started asking for more than that. (Actually some kinda whined.) So I tried a bunch more, and other powders that did very well in certain applications were Accurate LT-32 and 2015, Alliant Reloder 7, Vihtavuori N130, Hodgdon CFE223 and Varget, Ramshot TAC, and Norma 201.

I knew an old ridge runner in the Blue Ridge of Virginia who stuffed the .30-30 case full of Surplus 4831 behind a heavy cast bullet (200 grain). I doubt he ever chrono'ed the load but I'll bear witness that he killed an ungodly number of deer with that load out out of a Savage 340. The case won't hold enough 4831 to get in trouble with.

Some years ago I decided to test the .32 Special with black powder, since one of the reasons (and probably primary) it was introduced in 1901 was so old-timers used to handloading their cartridges could use black powder. This was because reloading with smokeless was consider dangerous in its early years, apparently because early smokeless was pretty touchy.

I had a Winchester 94 carbine made in 1952, which shot very well with black and a bullet cast from a Lyman mold that weighed around 165 grains, as I recall, with the alloy I used. Muzzle velocity was around 1300 fps, which may seem pretty pitiful to modern hunters, but I doubt the bullet would have done a deer much good at "woods" ranges.

MD, will be ordering a copy of GG II soon. Been reading yer fish wrappers for around 35 + years and see no reason to stop.


Thank you for many, many hours of enjoyment, Sir.

You're welcome--and thank you too!

If you want to PM me with whatever bullet weight you might want to use, I can send some loads that might work.

I have not looked any farther then 29.5 of AA2230 and a 170 grain bullet with a CCI MAGNUM primer from my old marlin 336 Rifle. My rifle has a 24" barrel and a half magazine as well as a Lyman Peep Sight and I have shot 1-1/4" groups with that load with my rifles on several occasions. I might do even better if I were to scope the rifle, but for what I want the rifle for, a scope just makes the rifle bulkier and less handy. I have plenty of scoped rifles so I think I'll leave the 30-30 as it is. I would not fire at a deer or antelope past about 250 anyway with this gun, so the peep suite me very well.

I chronographed it and it averages 2155 FPS and the deviation in a 5 shot string was 12 FPS. The same load with standard primers gave me a 2-5/8" group at the same 100 yards.

So once I found this load I just quit trying anything else. I have used Remington, Speer Nosler and Sierra 170 grain bullets and I can't see any real difference in how any of them shoot, but I have yet to kill a deer or antelope with the 170 grain Sierra. The Speer Noslers and the Remington all work perfectly, and so far I have not recovered one from any game I have killed. All gave exit wounds and did all I would every ask of a 30-30.