Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Low recoil deer rifle for my daughter

My youngest started deer hunting this year, but she doesn't really like any of my rifles, or my wife's 308, because of the recoil.

This week I picked up a Remington 788 in caliber 30-30. Today I loaded some 130 grain Hornady spire points over 36 grains of Varget for around 2500 fps. They are quite accurate and a joy to shoot. This is the maximum load per Hodgdon and also the info that came with my Lee dies, but even though the powder is compressed, the load is quite mild. The primers back out a bit but the pressure is not sufficient to stretch the case back and reseat the primer. I want to try a bit higher pressure load, but I don't think it will be with Varget as there is no room in the case for more powder.

What loads do y'all use in 30-30 with 130 grain bullets?

You may want to check the Hodgdon web site. Look for Youth Loads in a drop-down menu.
H4895 is the powder of choice as it will burn properly in reduced loads.
For real soft loads I like TrailBoss check their site for load data on both. Good Luck

That is an indicator of headspace in a low-pressure round.

If you are running max loads according to the books, you may want to stop there. The .30-30 is not a high-pressure round.

To deal with the headspace issue, you could neck-up/neck down to form a false shoulder so as to have some resistance when closing the bolt, and size in the future to headspace off of the shoulder instead of the rim. Or live with the protruding primers. Or consult a gunsmith(my recommendation).

If you run the pressure up to cause case stretch, you may have case separations in short order if you continue to full-length resize and headspace off of the rim.

The 30-30 in a bolt action is a very nice solution for a youth shooter. I predict that it will work out just fine.

You may be better off just neck sizing using your full length die. That is one of the joys of a bolt action.

Redhead,

Model 77 Hawkeye compact in 6.8 SPC. Size; low --almost no -- recoil, accuracy qand lethality out to out to 250-300 yards; reccomend it over most others.

1B

Excellent advice, all. Thank you. I will do neck-sizing once I get the cases to fit the chamber. I think Vic has it right about headspace. Often, headspace is rather long on guns chambered for rimmed or belted cartridges. I have had good luck in the past seating a bullet long to jam into the rifling and shooting a somewhat reduced load to move the shoulder forward, rather than just increasing the pressure to stretch the case (I used this method when creating 9.3x62 cases from 30-06 cases). I will try that first, and if that doesn't work I will go the false-shoulder route. I think a faster powder is in order for the fireforming step as I can't get enough Varget in the case to produce the needed pressure, even with the 36 grain max compressed load where the powder goes half-way up the neck. But according to the data I have, Varget does produce the highest velocity with mild pressures, so after the cases fit, I will go back to Varget for the first try at finished rounds. Blowing the shoulder forward might make enough more room in the case to eliminate the powder compression.

1B - That 6.8 SPC round sounds great! I'll keep it in mind if the 30-30 doesn't work out.Thanks.

Thanks again for the excellent tips!

Check to make sure that your reloads feed properly.

The neck of the 30-30 case is long enough that at the mouth, a spitzer does not completely fill it. Depending on the geometry of your barrel, the lip of the case may snag on the back of the barrel. You may have to trim your cases a little shorter to get them to feed properly

It sure is easy to run any of the standard rounds, such as the 308, down in velocity until you hit whatever recoil level that you want. 4198 works great for this.

Oh gesh..... Just get a youth size .243 Winchester!

I have a thick, soft Kick Eez recoil pad on an old Savage 340 that really soaks up quite a bit of 30-30 recoil. It's about the size of a magnum pad.I also put a Kick Eez cheek pad on it as well. An absolute pleasure to shoot. Any youth could handel it.
I like it too!

Dan

You might want to reconsider jacking up the pressure in a Remington 788.It is a rear locking lug action and though generally superbly accurate can be subject to case stretching with high pressure loads,regardless of what cartridge it is chambered for.

It handled the 7mm/08 and .22 centerfires w/o difficulty. I doubt the pressure would be a problem but I would stay in the manuals recommendations.

Thanks again for the tips. I don't really want to jack-up the pressure above pressure-tested loads. I just want the primers to stay put. One thing I didn't mention is that when the primer backs out, the extractor slips over the rim causing the case to stay in the chamber about half the time. If the cases fit the chamber and the primers would stay put, this would not happen because the headstamp would stay against the bolt face, and the extractor would stay engaged on the rim. The extractor on a 788 is nothing like the extractor on a 700, and not nearly as strong.

I think I have the info I need now. Thanks again.

Ok, maybe I should have stayed at the Holiday Inn last night, but WHAT PROBLEM are you trying to solve? FWIW, Dutch.

He likes the load, but has a slight headspace issue that is causing extraction problems.

Sounds like he has a handle on how to work around it, though.

I use the Sierra 125 Spitzer and RL7 in my Stevens 325. It shoots very well at 2500fps. I have taken caribou with this load at 150 yards and can report very good bullet action.

RL 7 is very dense and can be zipped up a bit velocity wise but I see no need to do so, especially in the Stevens design. A Rem 788 can probably digest some pretty stout 30-30 loads ala the 45-70 +P. Nothing much been written about this however.

Sorry, can't help much with the specific 30-30 load issue. However, if considering other cartridges, I would recommend .250 Savage in the scenario outlined. Best of luck with it in any case.

Ok, he posted the extraction bit at the same time I asked the question.

Fair enough. If you want to move the shoulder forward by seating the bullet long, try seating the bullet base forward. That way the firing pin doesn't drive the bullet into the lands near as easily.

However, creating a false shoulder by slightly necking up and back down works a little better, IME. HTH, Dutch.

Your idea is good, too.

Remington's Reduced Recoil Rounds (my three small daughters shoot my Remington 5 1/4 lb Ti in 7mm-08) have allowed my daughters to shoot with no problems whatsoever.

I just double the ear protection for them, as blast can make kid's flinch more than actual recoil.

I think I would use that ammo in your 308 - or load something similar.

I highly recommend these loads for kids and beginners.