Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Ballistic tips in30/30

Anybody ever try 125 or 150gr. B'Tips in a 30-30 on whitetails? Shots under 100 yards.One in the chamber only one in the magazine.SAFETY FIRST.Comments please.

why?

I'm with martin here, Why? Under 100 yds, if that's your limitation, any common 150 grain bullet made for the 30-30 will perform as good as you could want. After all these 100 some odd years, the manufacturers have pretty much got this round figured out, as far as deer bullets go.
It's a rare thing to hear of a properly placed 30-30 bullet not performing up to par, on deer under 100 yds.
Perhaps you could explain where you are going with this line of thought.

Maybe it is the concern that the trophy of a lifetime will step out at 250 yards and the much higher ballistic coefficient of the Ballistic Tips would be some measure of insurance. I had the thought years ago while hunting with the cartridge, too.

It is a only a couple of hundred feet per second slower than a 300 Savage which is good for much longer shots with pointed bullets than a flat nosed 308 bullet at 2200 fps.

I have a friend who's only deer rifle is a 30-30 marlin. He has a scope and hunts on the edge of a field. The deer up here aren't so dumb as to walk accross a wide open field under normal conditions but he still was hoping to extend his possible range. I loaded some spitzers for him. They didn't shoot any more accurate than the flat noses. (We had also hoped for that). The one thing that we did find is that they are so long that if you seat them as deep as possible (till the taper of the nose makes it so you can't do at least a light crimp) the cartridge is so long that you can't eject it. We basically had it so that it was like a muzzle loader--once loaded the only way to unload it was to shoot it.

Anyhow after a little more experimenting we went to the 150 grain fn barnes x bullet. It shot more accurate than anything we had tried and retained all it's weight. He's done in a ton of deer with that bullet and hasn't needed that long range shot.

I've seen and read of people using spitzers with good results in bolt action and single shot 30-30's. I guess if I had one and had the time I'd probably play with the idea a little too.
Hell people take ruger #1's hunting all the time--what's wrong with a single shot lever??

Just something different to possibly play around with.I know there are many bullets that are designed for the 30-30 as well as others that will work and I have several of them on my bench.Currently I am shooting the Speer Fp over 29.5gr. of 3031 As far as the range limitation goes,where I hunt in the woods I'm lucky to SEE 100yds!!!As for the rest of my hunting, the 284 is hanging on my shoulder. Sometimes it's fun to play outside the box especially when you have too many guns. LOL

look for 30-30 CONTENDER data. 130gr bullets are wicked out to 250yds.

Be careful here!! The one in the chamber is probably OK but the one you put in the magazine may not feed because of the length unless you make it really short overall, like the FN/RN bullets are. You may put it in the magazine and then be unable to lever it into the chamber because the tip catches in the magazine well and will not allow the feed ramp to lift it up. Regards, Eagleye.

Can't say I have, but I hope you try the 150's and the 125's. I would like to hear your results!

Sounds like something i would try. I was looking at trying the 125 bal tips in my 30-06 Garand but think they are a little lightly constructed for such use. (don't know for sure though...) I do know the 130 gr hornady's are a little lightly constructed but they did the job for me. Next time I'll go heavier, 150's...

I shoot 150 gr. spitzers from my 30-30, Sierras and BT's average sub MOA if i do my part. I don't think they'll kill a deer any deader than a RN, JMO. I have proven to myself they are deadly out to about 15 yards though. I don't know why I do these things...

Loaded up some stuff for my friend once who said he wanted to shoot LR with his model 94. 180 gr Sie MK's as I recall. He said it was pretty deadly on rocks out to 300 yards or so, at least after he got the hold over figgered.

I've shot a few 125 grain BTs in a Remington 788 and they did pretty well. I like them better in the 7.62x39 SKS or Ruger 77 R Mk2.

Jeff

I've shot a few 150grn BT's in my 30/30 and they did very well with the max loads but I seated the bullet out to just off the rifling and it would not unload unless you fired it or popped the extractor loose with a knife or screwdriver, then shook it out into your hand. Would make a good first shot and then have regular loads in the magazine. But am unsure how much better this would be over regular ammo. I like to experiment also was the reason that I tried it. The BT's seemed to give pretty good accuracy. BM

Bill

I have a single shot NEF handy rifle in 30-30 and loaded 150 balistic tips. They shot well but after looking at the muzzle velocity I was getting and calculating the down range velocity I came to the conclusion that it did not realy extend the range of the cartrige. Yes they shot flatter than the round or flat nose but out past 200 yards there was simply not enough velocity left to reliably expand the balistic tip. I know the balistic tip opens easily but she was just not moving fast enough to make me feel good about using it on long range shots. So I was limited to 200 yards, not any different than a round nose sightted in 3" high at 100.

284LUVR,



Safety first would be to insert a plug in the magazine to make sure it couldn't hold more than one cartridge. I don't trust a person remembering. Lawdog
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284 LUVR, my own experience with the 125 gr. BT is limited to a .30 Herrett Contender, but it did a fine job at 70 yds. for me. A buddy has taken several whitetails with the 125 gr. BT's from a 16.5" barreled Ruger M-77 Compact, but he's only getting a bit over 2700 fps., and at those speeds he's gotten full penetration on all but one deer. Can't remember how many he's taken with that rifle so far - somewhere over 4 and less than 10, though.

He's also tried the lighter PSP's in a .30/30 levergun and had good terminal results, but I believe that was back before the BT came out.

They DO flatten the trajectory and retain velocity on "out yonder" a bit better than the RN's and FN's, and that little 125 BT will open up reliably out to maybe 250 yds. - possibly a bit further. A buddy shot a whitetail at just a mite over 300 once with 150 gr. RN's, and at that distance, velocity had dropped enough that expansion was minimal. It was a heart shot, though, so it didn't matter. It ran 35 yds. and piled up. The boy can SHOOT, has eyes like an eagle, and had shot a lot of watermellons, citrons and such at 300 and then some, so he knew exactly where it hit at that range, and has the ranges down in half the county, I think. Aerial photos from the Ag or tax offices really helped a lot before the laser rangefinders.

If you can SHOOT, those loads may extend your range a bit, and those 125 BT's are short enough you can load them to a suitable OAL to feed that 2nd rd. through the magazine.

Interestingly enough, I posted a similar question over at www.noslerreloading.com earlier today. Nosler feels like the 125 will open and penetrate reliably down to 1600 fps. The person that responded to my post today said he was going to get another tech to answer my question in more detail tomorrow. Assuming an initial velocity of 2600 fps and sighting in 2.4 inches high at 100, drop is 9.9 inches at 300 yards, velocity is 1927 with 1030 ft lbs of energy remaining. I think that is an appreciable difference over the 150 gr flat point started at 2300 fps.

Paul

It looks like the 125 is the way to go. When I was loading the 150 balistic tips I was only able to get just over 2300 in my rifle, I still do not feel it offered any real hunting advantage over round noses of the same weight.

Paul:Now I'm starting to get some feedback.I guess in my original post I should have asked how the BT's would perform at the lower velocities of the 30-30 on deer.My rifle is a Win. model 64 deer rifle with a 24" barrel I really don't want to be crankin' up the pressure just to gain another few feet per second. I will be going to the range soon and I think I'll take the cronograph.My focus will be on the 125s but I'm thinkin' the 150s are going to be the way to go.As I said the range is under 100yd and I shoot with a peep on this gun.Very thick in the mountain laurel.More comments please.It's been fun.

After further review, 2600 might be a little optimistic out of a 20" barrel. Should be doable in a 24"er. Nonetheless, I think it puts the 30-30 into a different performance dimension provided an accurate reliable load can be developed. I'm still looking for Nosler to give me a little more info. I'll post back when they do.

Paul

Eagleye:thanks for your post and your observation on the potential second shot feeding problem.Measured a Rem. 170gr. factory load.2.500 inches.ran it through the gun a few times.Very little if any space left as it was being toggled up.OK ,now I know how much room I've got to play with.Can we say [bleep] hair here? oops. Anyway,I made up a dummy round 2.550 inches.This is the max COL according to my Lyman 46th edition manual.The case mouth is actually out past the begining of the ogive.Very strange looking.That big lip would be a definite feeding problem.So unless I want to single feed it this goofy idea is over and that's what reloading is about to me.Fun and learn learn and fun.