Home Forums Lever Action Central Marlin 336 Lever Actions 336 with Hornady 150gr spire point?

Looking for something fun to try down at the range with my 336 30-30....

Am going to load up a few Hornady spire point 150 grain interlocks, and shoot some as a "single shot", and see what happens with accuracy compared to round nose pills.

Might even see if the lifter would handle taking a single shell from the magazine, and who knows, this might even work as a "two-shooter"!!

Anybody ran some like-experiments on a similar trial?

The Hornady 150 gr. Spire Point is probably gonna have to be seated way below the crimping groove to function through the action. It's an overall length issue there. Tried it years ago with this bullet. But, should be ok and might find an accurate load.

Thanks for the heads-up!

My brother in law used some i loaded for him in his Marlin.

He put the sptizer in the chamber then a regular round in the mag.tube.

This worked well down around Slidell.

Sam Fadala wrote about this some years back,
but I can't remember exactly what story(stories)
that the subject was in
I've tried it myself, and never found any advantage
over the regular Sierra #2000 for what hunting I do.

I shoot a 125 gr pointed bullet in my 336 as a two shoter. Works fine. Wallace

Not enough velocity for proper expansion.

Sam's book was titled "Winchester's 30-30, Model 94", isbn 0811719057 or 978-0811719057

Round and flat nose bullets seem to kill better at 30-30 velocities.

No quite 30 but is revelant , I have a friends Marlin here in 356 and am in the process of getting it ready for a carry rifle. The 35.com forums have people sanding, grinding off the tips of 358 Hot Cores. The end result is a flatnose 240gr and a good strong bullet. I bet a 30 cal Hornady 165 SP snubbed off to 150grs would be a dandy bullet. With the Lee Factory Crimp Die a cannelure is not as important anymore.

150g SST is what I used as a two shot. I also used a 150g Speer btsp. Rarely if ever needed a second shot. The 30/30 is more capable than most think. Hornady's are the toughest of the 150g btsp.

I mostly load for hunting and loaded the Hornady 160gr FTX over Leverevolution powder.

It's a safe "spire point" to use in tube fed rifles.

I now have an easy 200 yard 30-30 deer gun.

I've loaded this same pill for my 308MXLR and I can tell you from firsthand knowledge that this bullet is devastating.

I hit the doe I took at around 85 yards 2 seasons ago as she was quartering away behind her left shoulder and it exited through her right shoulder.

When we dressed her, her lungs were literally vaporized. No tissue to be found, and the exit severed her right leg completely.

The only thing holding it on was her hide.

Complete pass through, a 2 yard sideways jump, and DRT.

I have a few 336’s. I like them with one main exception and that exception is their lack of ability to handle longer than SAAMI length cartridges. That includes Keith style cast and bullets with long ogive.
I sold many of my earlier Marlins due to the lack of being able to handle long cartridges. It is a pain trying to clear a cartridge that is too long.
Since then I’ve bought a few Marlins and lived with their big shortcoming.

Try the Speer hot Cor's, I like the 130, the 150 would work nice too. Get the LFCD so you can find the max length the feed system will feed at & crimp em in place if thats yer thing. They're not pointed but much better than a wad cutter shape. Like a semi pt.

I owned a 30-30 for a short time. I just prefer more cartridge.
But the Speer 130 flat point did well with higher velocity.

Why not load the Hornady 160 gr FTX designed for the 30-30 and be done with it......the 160 gr FTX kills deer plenty dead.

FWIW, the 30-30 doesn't have the ballistics to take advantage of a pointed bullet. I know that someone on here will tell us of a shot longer than 100 yards, but in all honesty, that is rarely the case. I have only ever shot two deer over 100 yards. The last 4 have been from 16 to 45 yards.