Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles How many of you guys load for 30-30?

I got a new rifle a few weeks ago, chambered in 30-30. I've never loaded for one of these. When I got the rifle, it came with die sets. The original owner supplied all sorts of brass with the rifle. The strange thing was he was using 375 Winchester brass to make 30-30 brass. His records go back to the early 80's. I don't really know why he was using 375w brass. For those of you that load for 30-30, is there a good reason for doing this? I weighed the 375w brass and it is heavier. Maybe that brass is stronger because it is thicker? Anyway, I would have preferred it if this would have been virgin 375w brass, I would have used it in my 375 winchester, and not this new 30-30. I recently bought 100 pcs of new 30-30 brass and have 50 pcs of new Starline heading my way. What are your preferred powders for this cartridge? I have W748, IMR3031, Leverevolution, H335 and IMR4198. I just got some 160gr FTX yesterday for a good deal, so I bought 300 to play around with. I also have a couple hundred 150gr Hornady rn bullets. I was watching some youtube videos, but those are almost useless since most of those guys are shooting 2-3" groups and a lot of those guys are shooting at 50 yards, even with scoped rifles. What say you 30-30 guys? I'll be loading for a bolt action, if that makes any difference.


Not asking for loads per se, just wondering what you've had the best luck with. I know this is an old cartridge, but it's a good one and I know some of you load for it, but it's rarely talked about here. Thanks for any info you can share.

LVR is the new darling powder for the 30-30. It definitely spices things up. My favorite has been H4895.

I have only just started playing with my Savage 340 bolt gun in 30-30, but so far it seems to like 170 grain Hornady RN bullets the best.

I'm gonna guess he wanted stronger brass.
Then took advantage of the strength of the 788.

Nice thing with a bolt gun is you are not stuck loading FP or RN bullets. You can also spice it up a little more due to the action strength.

First thing I ever loaded was 30/30

Never had any problems with the plain
flat/round nose cup and core bullets
I used. Every one launched at an animal
did it's job. FWIW I've tried the Lever
powder and bullets and haven't found
any appreciable difference other than
some increased velocity and noise.
Same with the factory ammo.
The purpose built bullets and the
run of the mill powders I've used have
done the job just fine.
Used mostly 748, but H4895 and RL15
have given good accuracy. I've been
trying some TAC I came up with, but
haven't used enough to say ok. Looks
very promising.
30/30 and 308 are similar in that you
almost have to try to load it wrong.
Every shot I've ever fired from either one
at game was a success

Good Luck

I have had good luck with 3031 with round nose and Lever with the 160 FTX.

This ^ ^ ^ snippet says everything.
Yes sir, they are useless

I've watched several yoofloob videos about
loading metallic cartridges, and most of the
procedures I've seen seem to be borrowed
from other yoofloob videos.
Some are fairly laughable. I do feel bad for
new inexperienced would be loaders looking
for sound advice.

3031 gives excellent velocity and accuracy, with both the 160 FTX and every 150 RN I ever tried in my M94. I’ve got loads for both that shoot 1-1.5” at 100 yds using a 4X Bushnell Banner scope.

I’ve also had good luck with H4895 and LVR, but IMO the LVR didn’t really live up to the hype. With 150s I ran out of case capacity also.

Interestingly, IMR-3031 gives top velocity according to QL. Even more so than LVR.

LVR is the shining star of all 3 my Lever 30-30's! 748 and 3031 are good but nowhere near lvr. A max load of LVR & the 160 FTX and the 30-30 is biting at the heels of the 300 Savage.

LVR and either a 150 or 170 bullet has worked excellent in my old M94 and a few buddies Marlins as well. It's pretty quick as well, not that it matters too much for typical 30-30 stuff, but it will boot a 170 Speer/Hornady or Sierra along at 2300 pretty easily from my little M94. No big trick to reloading that old bird I've seen.

The Hornady 160 FTX's get good press but I have never fired one of them either.

LVR and either a 150 or 170 bullet has worked excellent in my old M94 and a few buddies Marlins as well. It's pretty quick as well, not that it matters too much for typical 30-30 stuff, but it will boot a 170 Speer/Hornady or Sierra along at 2300 pretty easily from my little M94. No big trick to reloading that old bird I've seen.

The Hornady 160 FTX's get good press but I have never fired one of them either.

The FTXs have shot excellent through a couple rifles for me, and very meh with a couple others. I sold a buddy of mine my last Marlin quite a few years back, and it is a 100yd cloverleafer off the bench with 34.4gr of LVR and a CCI BR2 primer under the FTX.

One thing to bear in mind with spire points in 30-30 is you're still limited by mag length. I've not dealt with the 788, but with the 340 it limits your options to shorter, stubbier profile bullets a bit.

Had some RL7 I needed to use and it worked well with 160 FTX in a lever gun.

My go-to's for jacketed loads are the old traditional ones like 3031 and others with similar burn rate. Another powder I've had good luck with is CFE-223. For cast bullets Unique, 2400, RL-7, 4198, 4227, and my all-time fave SR-4759 fills the bill. (And I can drive a 190 cast bullet at 2000+fps with my standard load of 28gr. 3031, out of my 24" barrel. Accuracy, cheapness, and devilish death to deer with that package- what's not to like?)

Hell, there aren't many powders that don't work in the .30-30. An old timer I knew who haunted the Blue Ridge for deer and black bear, and who owned a rifle collection that would be the envy of everybody here, used a well-worn old Savage 340 .30-30 for most of his hunting. His favorite load? A 220 grain soft cast bullet and a case filling charge of 4350. Pure death on four legged critters, it was.

Long ago in a galaxy far away when I was experimenting with my first of a couple M54 .30-30's I've owned, I got it in my head to load for it at the shooting bench, with 180 grain cast bullets (the same RN cast bullets I sent you, Lawrence). I had them sized at .310 or .311" (I don't remember exactly which), worked with but one cartridge case which I primed and charged with a powder measure right there at the bench repeatedly- no resizing-, and inserted the slightly oversize bullets into the case with finger pressure. The bullets had tiny dimples on them which allowed for repeated exact orientation into the case each time, and the cartridge then inserted into the chamber oriented the same each time. A devilishly slow way to shoot a ten shot group, but accuracy was phenomenal.

I initially used "standard" commercial .30-30 brass but that stuff was problematic as the case neck walls were on the thin side for holding even the oversized cast bullets, and accuracy was only so-so because of the loose bullet fit. Then a light bulb went on over my head and I thought "why not squeeze down a .375 case to .30-30 shape to get slightly thicker neck walls?" Bingo! It worked - the thicker neck wall gave just enough tension to hold the bullet straight yet allowed finger seating of the bullet in an unsized case. The .375 brass revolutionized my experiments in that regard. I recall getting infinite case life - one box of brass lasted me all summer for hundreds and hundreds of shots (no re-sizing, remember).

I still shoot my .32-40 single shot target rifles much the same way, with but one cartridge case, but I seat the bullets completely into the rifling ahead of the case in a separate operation. It's called "breech seating". Easily done with soft cast bullets, but don't even think about trying it with jacketed!

So to wrap it up, maybe see if those cases formed from .375 brass will hold your bullets, jacketed and cast, without the need for re-sizing. Perhaps that was the gun's first owner's intent.

I don't remember loading any jacketed bullets for my .30-30 but, I've used a ton of cast in it from 125 grains to 220 grain. My favorite powder for up to 150 grain plain base is Unique in 6 to 7 grain doses. I've used H-335 mostly with Lyman 31141 with acceptable results but, my all time favorite is RCBS 30-180FN which tips the scale at 195 grains with enough H-414 for 1970 fps out of my Marlin's 24 inch barrel.

Good info shaman. I appreciate it. As luck would have it, I just bought some Leverevolution and some 170gr Hornady RN bullets the other day. The local shop had 1 box with dust on it and it was priced right, so I bought it. I was hoping that was not a poor decision on my part.

Very good info. That is what I was hoping for, since I picked up a few hundred of the 160 FTX (30-30) bullets yesterday:


I thought the price was right and I shot some factory ammo in the rifle right after I got it:


For factory ammo and irons, I thought it looked pretty dang promising. The guy that owned it before me, loaded up some pointy bullets in this rifle. I have some of his data and targets. He used 150gr Nosler ballistic tips and some sierra's. I'm sure he was single feeding because the OAL's he wrote down were much longer than the magazine. I have heard it is not a good idea to single feed one of these 788 30-30's because you may break an extractor. Does anyone here know if that is true??? I do look forward to trying some of those 160 FTX bullets in the new brass I just got though. Thanks for everyone's input on this one!!

I totally agree with you sir^^^^

Very good info. I don't know if I want to put my BR2's in a 30-30 case for an iron sight rifle though. I'm down to 1,000 BR2's and I need to save those for my competitions and 6.5 Creedmoor rifles. Love those primers though. I have a buddy in Oregon that may sell me 2 bricks for cheap. If that happens, I may throw a few in the 30-30 case and see how they compare to the CCI200's I normally use.

Awesome info buddy! As luck would have it, I did use the 375 win on some of your cast bullets. I'm waiting on a good day to go to the range. We've been getting snow off and on here. The last time I went to the range when it was showing, it plugged up my rear aperture sight and I got covered in snow!!! That was frustrating. Yesterday was another one of those days, so I took a 120 mile trip to a near by town to look for bullets and stop by my favorite gunshops there. A farm and ranch store there, always has great deals on bullets, and one of the stores had 30-30 brass, so I was in hog heaven. I appreciate the tid bit on not resizing the case with the cast bullet. I set up the expander you gave me in one of my spare dies and it seems to be working great. I just have to be careful I don't go too far because it bells the mouth out too much. Got to feel for that and it works great. I then only crimp just enough to remove that flare on the end of the case neck. I was surprised that the OAL is very short though, as the bullet contacts the lands pretty quickly. I am excited to try out your cast bullets and really appreciate your kind generosity on that one buddy!!!! Let me know if these look acceptable to you:




I didn't load very many because I wanted to wait until I found some IMR3031 powder. Luckily the shop in town had some. Now I will try your 28gr load with these bullets as well.