Long time back I abandoned Remington brass for a variety of reasons and started using Winchester stuff for the .30-30s. I don't shoot them much these days but for the sake of it I went thru the stash, sorted and so on.

There was a box of WW brass that had never been prepped or shot, so I ran it thru the mill. This was purchased probably 15 years or more in the past and I have to say I was very disappointed. One case had a factory split neck. No biggie I say. Rest had significant mutilation of the case mouth such that I had to bump them with a flaring die in order to get them thru the size die w/o mutilation. Last thing that caught my attention? It was all shorter than max OAL SAAMI spec., on order of .010-.020+". Scratching my head over that...and God bless Starline and the remaining sources that make first rate brass.

All of my once fired .30-30 and 32 Winchester Special cases from Remchesteral measure less than the trim to length.

On a side note, the fired cases also are considerably longer than what the resizing die will return them to.

If all factory rifle brass came about 0.030" shorter than trim-to-length it sure wouldn't break my heart.

Yeah, but with 30-30 where you want a nice consistent crimp for use in tube magazines, it is sure nice to have every case exactly the same length. Sure, you can cut them all to less than "trim-to" length to make that happen, but I much prefer being able to make them "right" for not particular reason.

I just began processing all of my saved once-fired 30-30 brass and noticed quite a few of the Winchester and some RP that were about .006 under trim-to length. Resizing got them a lot closer where they should be.

Cheers,
Rex

Well, guess I ain’t the Lone Ranger!

😁

Oh man! Now I have to check all my old 30-30 brass! Lol!

The one thing I like about Remington 30-30 brass over Winchester, Federal, and a few others is how much more case capacity it has. I wouldn't have thought it mattered much until I made 357 Herrett cases. The difference in load data between cases made from Winchester and that made from Remington is surprising, at least with powders that are compressed.

when you make one case into another how do you tell them apart?????

By looking at any part of the case besides the headstamp.

I would do the paperclip test just to make sure there is not any incipient head separation. Most lever actions I would rather not know how they handle gas leakage. If it really is off then you could bump up in the 32 Win. die and then create a false shoulder. Not only are the chambers frequently on the big side but to compound the brass issue the dies are almost like small base dies from some manufacturers. The 30-30 is one I will shoot factory loads in as they are so cheap.