Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters .30-30 Powders

The thread on "first deer rifle" got me thinking I need to dust off my .30-30 and work up some loads for it, it's a Marlin 336. I stopped hunting with it before I got into reloading so never loaded for it. Found some brass and bullets and ordered some Hornady FTX 160s and Speer 150 flat points.

I have Varget, H4350, RL-15,Tac, and some others on-hand. What has worked for others with 150s and 160s?

smokepole;
Top of the morning to you my cyber friend, I hope the day is a wee bit less snowy in your part of Colorado - unless of course you need it and then there's that - but regardless I hope you're well.

Without going into my notes and going off of a semi-geezer memory this morning I'd offer the following thoughts on reloading a .30-30.

Watch the OAL very carefully as it'll tie up the gun in magnificent and mysterious ways - when you're up chasing whitetail in the snow, in the late season, when you'd rather not disassemble the rifle on your frozen tailgate....

In 4 or 5 different rifles in that chambering I've had good luck with IMR3031 and 4064 and also 748 wasn't terrible. A shooting/hunting buddy runs RL-15 with 130gr and they work great.

I'd guess that H4650 might be a tad slow - that's a guess - since it works wonderful in say the Swede or .270.

Regarding Tac and Varget either should work but haven't tried them in the .30-30 yet, only in the .223 where they both of course gave nice consistent velocities.

Hope that made some sense and was useful.

Happy New Year to you all.

Dwayne

Thanks Dwayne, I hope you and yours are well and Happy New Year!

Pretty hard to nuts up a .30-30. Acknowledge that the loading manual authors know what they're doing, and stick with fast-to-medium burning rifle powders and you'll find it harder to create terrible loads than you will good ones. Of your powders you listed I would employ the Varget, RL-15, and TAC. If you can acquire a can of 3031 I would give it a whirl, as it's always been my go-to for the .30-30 and is a bit faster burning and more in line for the purpose than the medium burners you have. But, they're all good. Heck I even experimented with 4350 and Surplus 4831 once, and with heavy (190 grain) bullets they returned excellent accuracy but velocity wasn't anything to write home to Mom about.

On the other hand, 28gr. 3031 gives me exactly 2000fps with a 190 grain soft flat nosed cast bullet out of a 24" barreled M54 Winchester bolt gun. Right in line with factory performance of the old ballistic twin .303 Savage. (With startling accuracy, no leading, and a bullet that smacks/expands with authority. What's not to like?)

The .30-30 lends itself wonderfully to reduced loads too. It's a very efficient case capacity for .30 caliber for burning reduced charges of relevant powders, with a sterling reputation for accuracy among cast bullet target shooters. I'll go so far as to say if all I had was a good accurate .30-30 bolt gun or single shot to play with I would be content. Not every shot one fires needs to be capable of whacking an elk at 500 yards.

Thanks. Don't have any 3031, but might try some Hodgon Leverevolution.

Have used primarily 3031 and 4064

CFE223 is excellent in the 30-30

I have loaded 30/30 since the early 1960's with 3031 for jacketed 170's. That said, we had good luck with RL15 with 150's in my wife's Win. 64. YMMV. Regards, Woody

Don't know if it would translate to a lever action..but accuracy testing a scoped Savage 340 good old Reloader 7 turned in some jaw dropping groups...slightly better overall than 3031.

I’ve been running 36 Gr of RL15 under a 150 Win Power Point in my model 94 for years and it’s killed a lot of stuff.

The .30-30 is so forgiving that you could funnel in a handful of beach sand and it'll shoot good.

I've used Win 748 and a Barnes 150 FN HP for our M 94's. Works very well in them.

Rx15 for 150/170 grain jacketed bullets for the last 20+ years, fiddle with other powders with cast.

Smokepole, I looked in my logbook...another sleeper powder not often mentioned is BLC-2. My notes say a .66" aggregate (5 shot grps) with Sierra 150 RN. All this took place before Varget and Rl-15 were on the market...but you can't have too many powder choices these days, ya gotta burn what ya got.

3031 has been the go to powder for 30-30 for a lot of years. I loaded it back in the 60's and the again in the early 2000's. Also used it in 45-70.,
, 375 Winchester, 38-55, some .06 and .308, of late in the AR, .223

As others have said, 3031 works really well, and I’ve found decent accuracy with TAC and RL15, but I’ve gone to leverevolution under the Speer 150 for my .30-30. Great accuracy and 2400 fps from a 20” Marlin. More than a match for any whitetail if applied properly. Good luck with finding a load.

Old70

Thanks for all the replies!

Old70, if you don't mind, how much leverevolution are you loading with the 150? I've looked online but can't find data for that powder, not even on Hodgdon's website.

Another vote for 3031

Looked at the .30-30 list in Gun Gack IV: The Little Book of Rifle Loads That Work, and found Accurate LT-32, Benchmark, CFE223, IMR4895, LEVERevolution, Norma 201 and Reloder 15 listed for jacketed-bullet loads, and Red Dot and IMR-3031 for cast-bullet loads.

I inherited my Graddad's Marlin, 1/2 can of H335, 20 or 30 150 gr Speer bullets and 100 loaded rounds. I took it to the range and determined why mess with success.