Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors 30 30 Win in a 303 Savage

PLENTY BRASS HERE
http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.aspx?Item=458665779

this is good brass. couple of guys throw in on it and your all set

plab

A good rule of thumb for making brass from other brass: If the cartridge has been around a long time and almost nobody does the change, it is probably a bad idea.

Still it’s an interesting topic from a survival(ist) perspective. You wouldn’t want to try it if there’s no necessity to take the risk but someday or in some circumstances it may be necessary to try it. I would hazard to guess that if the story about the guy who routinely fired factory 30-30 rounds in a 303 were true, it’s probably because the larger dimension of the Savage chamber at the base caused the case to instantly shorten as it expanded so that catastrophic pressure at the case mouth was avoided.

Cartridge dimensions in loading manuals and reference books are chamber dimensions (don’t forget) and loaded cartridges are always some measure narrower and shorter than chamber dimensions. The 30-30 chamber is additionally .020 narrower at the base and .025 longer (1/50” and 1/40”) respectively than the 303S. Either is roughly the thickness of the paperboard used to make bandaid or cigarette boxes. The rims are effectively the same, .505 and .506, they do not expand so are not a factor.

I haven’t tried it but I predict that the 30-30 shoulder is further forward enough that you couldnt chamber and fire a factory 30-30 round in a 303S chamber (being a lever action). I do think that you could take a 30-30 case and essentially neck size it by running it thru a 303 sizing die, trim it to 2.015, load it using the 303 die and then you could fire form it. There would be a substantial pressure ring and you could probably only do it once but I think that it could work IN AN EMERGENCY

303 Savage ammo is not hard to get just have to pay for it

Normally reasonable people will take bigger risks in an emergency, so if shooting 30-30 ammo in a 303 SAV in an emergency situation was your only option, it would also be your best option. Of course that begs the question of why you would ever find yourself in an emergency/survival situation with a rifle chambered for 303 SAV in the 21st Century.

IMO, shooting ammunition in a chamber that isn't cut for that cartridge is a sub-optimal choice to make unless you know what you're doing. I shoot handloaded 308 ammo in my 307 and 358 in my 356, but it isn't loaded to factory ammo pressures or factory ammo COAL.

about halfway through last century i acquired a 94 win in .32 win spcl. being young, dumb, and full of ideas, and due to a situation where 32 win spcl ammo was unobtainium, i fed it 30-30.
case dimensions being close i got fire formed brass. accuracy was non existent.
at that time the Lyman manual had a conversion list in the back. using that i never got into trouble but with good head stamped brass available, that is the way to go.

I’m a neophyte to loading. I ask Gary questions, and do all of my loading with my friend John. I’m pretty stocked up. I don’t have any guns without ammo, and if I find I have ammo with no gun, I give it away or go buy one. There is no imaginary matrix that can be made up to force me into using the wrong ammo. I’d rather take my chance with a stick than blow the trigger finger off my right hand. I practice shooting left handed, and don’t like it.

I have been told that the 32 WS was popular in northern Canada during the 1st half of the 20th Century and maybe beyond because in a pinch 30-30 ammo could be safely fired in a 32 WS rifle with enough accuracy to harvest an animal for food.

If I was freezing, hungry, and unarmed while in the Woods and there was an old trappers cabin, and a hungry bear chased me into it, and all I could find inside to fend of the hungry bear was a Savage 99 in .303 and a box of 30-30 cartridges, I would try it! 😄

1. the 32 Special was brought out with a slower twist than the 30-30 to allow reloads with black powder and cast bullets.
2. 30-30s will fire in a 303, they swell a lot but cases usually stay intact.

I'd wait for you and see how it turned out?

I'd make a video for Youtube.

You're welcome.
LOL

Not to get too far off in the weeds but one thing I can tell you is that 1000s of rounds of 257 Roberts went through 6.5 Japs that WW ll veterans brought home from the war, that resulted in 1000s of lbs of venison.

Well, even if you can safely fire the 30-30 in a 303, which is doubtful in my mind, the next question is can you hit anything with it. Years ago I ran an experiment with cases .010" undersize in a group of 6 22HPs, many with oversize chambers. Firing them initially, I got about 6 moa accuracy. I indexed them all according to where the case swell was most prominent, usually upward. I then tried some with the swell up and got around 4 moa. Those I fired with the swell down often missed an 8 1/2 x 11sheet of paper at 100 yds. Case life was horrible, usually less than 3 firings.

I ended up doing the opposite of what we are discussing here. Thinking I had an inexhaustible supply of 303 cases, I first swaged them in a 30-30 die, then turned them in a lathe to fit the chamber in question. That led to a study in bullet, primer and powder, but the general result was around 2 moa for bullets shorter than 70 gr. None of the 70 grainers I tried ever consistently beat 4moa.

I can't imagine what the result would have been had I used cases .020" undersize, like the 30-30 in a 303 chamber.

😂

There appear to be multiple "reasons" for Winchester introducing the 32 WS, including the one that you expressed.

Who's gunna try it?

Lots of things that I'd like to try in this lifetime.

Shooting the wrong cartridge out of a gun isn't one.

I might fireform some cases if it's the same family (243/308/358 type stuff), but that'd be all.

Winchester wanted to do something bigger on the 30-30 case as they had already done smaller with the 25-35. They already had the .33 WCF so they skipped that caliber although that's what I think they should have settled on. Apparently 35 caliber didn't interest them and they already had the 35 WCF. The .32-40 was reasonably popular and they knew a bottlenecked case would improve on that calibers performance. So they initially advertised it as "more powerful than the 30-30 but less so than the 30-40". So it was advertised as an in between. It would take another year or two until their literature promoted the blackpowder reloading angle. I've used the 32 Special a good bit and am fond of it but I can't say it's any better than the 30-30. I personally wish they had brought out the ".33-30" instead