I recently acquired a nice 100+ year old Savage 1899A .30-30. that I want to use for squirrels at 20-40 yds. Those that have got one(or more), what is/are your favorite .30-30 reduced loads for cast bullets?

170 Lyman cast, gas-checked. 11-13 grains of Blue Dot. There should be a really fine shooting load around there.



I was looking for the right load for my 30-30 at 50 yards. These two groups were two different Blue Dot loads fired out of a 25 year-old M94 levergun. It's not hard to see that they show promise. It's about all I can get out of iron sights with my eyes anymore.

My best much-reduced load is 7.0 of 700X (easy to remember, huh?) under a standard 150 to 170gr cast bullet. It gets 1200 fps and prints tight cloverleafs at 25 yards. Ought to be perfect for squirrels. My Lee mould #C309-170-F drops a beautiful flat-nose gaschecked bullet designed for the 30-30. I can shoot it with or without the gascheck at that speed. I use simple Lee Liquid Alox lube and run them through a Lee .309" sizer just to smooth them up a bit. I could probably shoot them as-cast but lubed and do as well.

Recently tried Trail Boss with a 160 grain Cast bullet.. that recoils like a big spitball gun...

10 grains of Unique also worked well with the 160s...

for jackets bullets, I use a charge of 18 to 20 grains of SR 4759...

I like 15 grs of 2400 with 150's. 18 grs of 5744 is plenty accurate, but it's got a bit more zip than you need for squirrels etc at close range.
Might want to slug your bore so you can get your cast bullets sized .001 to .002 over groove diameter.

My small game and gallery load is a Lyman #311316, a semiwadcutter type bullet that takes a gas check and weighs 115 gr.. I load them with 5.0 gr. of Unique using a 1/4 square of toilet paper lightly set upon the powder to hold it against the primer. Bullets are sized .310"
I shoot them in single shot mode from either an M64 or m94 Winchester in 30-30 as they do not feed in the winchester action. They feed just fine in a Marlin 336 and a Winchester M54 (bolt action rifle) They also worked quite well in a replica Remington Rolling Black baby carbine in 30-30.
naturally, there must be some sight redjustment with these loads but they do in jack rabbits, tin cans and paper targets quite well. I never chronographed theload bit I'd estimate about 1,000, maybe 1,100 FPS, give or take a few FPS.
The TP filler comes out like very fine confetti and does not seem to be a fire hazard as none has ever been burning when the wind blew some back in my face.
Considering the fed mechanisn of a savage 99, I think they;ll fed just fine.
Paul B.

Thanks to all for the load data. I've got most of the powders mentioned and can try them out.


Carbon12