Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors A pointy bullet load for a 30-30

I recently got a Stevens 325-B rifle, After cleaning it up,
patching a couple of wood cracks, and refinishing the stock
(again...somebody had sanded the wood so much that the trigger
guard is completely above the level of the wood).

I loaded some full length sized once fired brass as follows:

brass length = 2.028"
CCI 200 primers
30.0 gr. RL-7 powder
Sierra 125 gr spitzer #2120 bullets seated to a cartridge
overall length of 2.160" (so they would work through the clip).
The bullets are probably a long way from the rifling, but we'll
see how they work.

Shot 4 of these shells & they all worked through the clip fine
with no pressure signs and ejected ok.

The gun has no scope, but I'll be taking it back to the range
to see how it shoots off sandbags. I'll set it up for 50 yds.

I have 2 99's in 30-30 & I'll probably try these loads in them
too.

DO NOT try this load in a tube magazine rifle!

This gun will live in my Jeep. Total investment $125 & 8 or 10
hours of my time.

Al,

Did you try them through one of the 99's to see how they cycled?

Not yet. I'll let you know.

Note: the 2.160" cartridge overall length in my post above can't
be correct. I'm too tired to go out into the shop to get the
correct length. I'll post it tomorrow am.

The actual overall length of these cartridges is 2.610"...not
2.160" as originally posted. Haven't tried them in my 99's yet.
Sorry about the transposed numbers.

Should work fine.. I tried the same thing a while back. You might find though that if you're looking at 150 yards or less that doing a flat nose heavier bullet works just as well.

Let us know how it goes though!

Set up a lifesize standing woodchuck target at 50 yds. 1st 3 shots all in the head. Next 3 shots also in the head...but the
last shot ruptured the brass right at the shoulder...bummer.

Looks like I've got some work to do.

PS On the way to the range I passed a Mobil station & regular was $3.49. I doubt I was at the range half an hour, and when
I passed that same station on the way home, regular was $3.55
a gallon (this is on the N.Y. Pa border about 90 miles south of
Syracuse and 12 miles west of Binghamton).

Turns out the last shell fired wasn't cracked. There was a black
oily ring around the shoulder where I thought the brass was cracked. Possibly because there's so much space between the ogive and the beginning of the rifling. After wiping the crud off the fired shells I checked them with a Wilson case guage and
they were all within overall length and headspace limits. I'll
use a Lee factory crimp die to hold the bullets in the brass
a little longer so more powder burns before the bullets leave the
brass. This will probably raise pressure some, but should
reduce or eliminate the soot on the fired brass. Stay tuned.
Still haven't run them through a 99, but like Calhoun said I'm
expecting them to cycle through them ok.

It'd be neat if you ran factory ammo alongside your hand loads to show the actual difference.

Sorry...I'm not that curious (Remington managed recoil 125 gr.
shells are about $25/box), & I'd rather stay with Winchester
brass. As long as what I'm working with now is ok, I'll be
content with them.

Wouldn't be much of a comparison anyway since I would have no
idea what kind & qty of powder, primers, and different bullets
would be in the Remington the shells. Also, the external
dimensions and the internal capacity of the Remington shells
would be different from mine.

Al

The comparison I'd be interested in would be whether the pointy bullet is more accurate, as accurate as, or less accurate than a Winchester or Remington 150 grain factory load.

See my previous post. Al