I've got a Win M94 in 30/30 that I've used for bear hunting for years. At the end of every season I notice most of the bullets ( I use the same 4-5 rounds all season) have sunk into the brass. I've used Winchester & Remington rounds and toss the rounds that have sunk. Is this from loading & unloading the same rounds over & over? The gun never gets bounced around, I do my loading & unloading in the stand. Anyone else have this issue?
30/30 bullets sinking down
- Thread starter shakeyjake
- Start date
- Location
- Southern Vancouver Island
I use a Lee factory crimp die for jacketed bullet loads in my 30-30's. Set the die for a light crimp and problem solved.
No need for a Lee "Factory" crimp die to crimp 30-30 ammunition for tube magazines. Just crimp the bullets in the crimping groove with the standard seating/crimping die and the bullets should never compress in the magazine.
I was talked into buying a Lee crimp die for loading heavy bullets into 45-70 cases for the Marlin rifles. The standard Lee two die set is all that is needed for crimping them.
Would have to know more about the OPs procedure to figure out what goes wrong with his.
I was talked into buying a Lee crimp die for loading heavy bullets into 45-70 cases for the Marlin rifles. The standard Lee two die set is all that is needed for crimping them.
Would have to know more about the OPs procedure to figure out what goes wrong with his.
Its not uncommon for bullets to become further seated in a tube magazine, from both spring pressure and recoil. Just set those rounds aside for shooting/sighting in and use fresh rounds when out hunting. Unless you're a reloader there is not much to fix.
fingers284
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Alberta Cowboy Ranges
Very common fix I do to every lever gun I work on ( 6 in. isn't a hard & fast rule tho). All you need is enough spring pressure to feed the last round onto the elevator in a Winchester. Marlins needs a little more pressure so the next round/follower hold the elevator in the down position until lever movement/pressure raises it firmly.
Your loading thumb will thank you as well...not as much push or pinch required to load multiple rounds.
Recoil, yes. Spring pressure, no. Mag spring isn't strong enough.
However, shakeyjake doesn't mention of any firing. No need to pitch the cartridges either. I suspect they're getting pushed in further in your pocket or vehicle in transit. Excrement happens.
However, shakeyjake doesn't mention of any firing. No need to pitch the cartridges either. I suspect they're getting pushed in further in your pocket or vehicle in transit. Excrement happens.
mudgunner49
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
Once again, bad data - nothing in your pocket is going to push in a straight line with enough force to cause set-back (the correct term) of the projectiles. This is happening in the rifle, and to those advising using them later to sight in, the pressure will be higher and as a result the POI will probably be different. Depending on depth of set-back the pressures may actually get high enough to be dangerous...
Ok, so then here is what I would do. Hopefully you know someone with reloading equipment. I would do it for a friend as I have 30-30 dies.
1. Pull the bullets ever so slightly to expose the cannelure above the neck. I have made myself a locking bushing that fits on my ram so that I can pull only so far and to the same place each time.
2. Now, with the seater die, seat the bullets back to factory OAL, likely when the end of the neck is dead center of the cannelure.
3. Now, crimp. I would prefer to use a Lee factory crimping die. If the reloader doesn't have one, he can use the seating die to crimp.
A bit of an effort,yes. But certainly better than shooting the deeply seated ones which will produce higher pressures and likely result in a different POI and inconsistency since all may not be pushed in equally.
I do reload but not for 30/30. I'm concerned about pressure issues, which is why I tossed the sunken rounds. Sorry about the terminology, bullet/ projectile.... You know what I mean. I like the suggestion of cutting the spring down though.
Absolutely. I have shown on another forum using Quickload, that a bullet seated 0.075" deeper will cause a 4000 psi increase. In that case, it brought it over the SAAMI spec.
Darn, I hope that you didn't toss a whole bunch as it can be fixed as per my previous post.
That sounds good too. Might have to get some dies, only thing is I don't shoot this gun too much. Aaahhh what ever, dies are cheap!
