Model 94, 7-30 Waters advice.

islander2011 said:
Good day,

I recently purchased a Model 94 side eject chambered in 7-30 Waters on a whim from this site. I figured this might be a nice light recoiling medium game rifle for my wife and kids. I’m usually more of a Marlin guy, but while I was waiting for the rifle to arrive, I went down the 7-30 rabbit hole about as far as I could go. I purchased a bunch of ammo and reloading dies for the caliber. When the rifle arrived, I was surprised and amazed. The rifle came in the Original box with matching serial number and appears to me to be unfired. It still has the factory oil in the action. Now I’m wondering if I should even start firing this thing or is it more of a collection piece. The serial number puts it at around a 1988 date of manufacture.

What would you guys do? Anybody have an idea of a value?

Any opinions and advice would be welcomed.
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How did you make out finding bullets for that rifle? I recently went down the 35Remington rabbit hole. Had to scrounge big time for brass and bullets and with the help of 2 or 3 good members here got it rolling. I'm thinking bullets for yours would be a lot more hassle than what I had.

Brass is easy enough by resizing 30-30 brass. Depending on how it feeds, you might be able to load 120gr spitzers in it with only ONE in the magazine and another in the chamber.
 
ive seen guys machine off the tips of the SPs when they had too, cant remember what it was for exactly.

an option if its all ya got an 7mm SP is plentiful.... tinker for a few nights one week an do a good 200 X... keep'er goin a while
 
SuperCub said:
How did you make out finding bullets for that rifle? I recently went down the 35Remington rabbit hole. Had to scrounge big time for brass and bullets and with the help of 2 or 3 good members here got it rolling. I'm thinking bullets for yours would be a lot more hassle than what I had.

Brass is easy enough by resizing 30-30 brass. Depending on how it feeds, you might be able to load 120gr spitzers in it with only ONE in the magazine and another in the chamber.
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The option of finding reloading components has been a challenge for us in Kanada for sometime and this choice of caliber makes it even more so.
Even when I owned this same choice of gun/cal combination, but I lucked out and found some old new stock and bought the last four boxes from Reddle Sports (now bought out).
One can find factory ammo at such places as Reliable in Vancouver and this place here https://store.theshootingcentre.com/federal-sierra-gameking-7-30-waters-120-gr-sgbtsp-ammunition/ another site sponsor.
When I bought the factory ammo it was $35.00 a box/20 and now many years later $38-$39.98/20.
I like your idea about the 120grn spitzer ;) as that was the allure back then pre-CGN membership/inception.
If Islander2011 ever decides to change guns I hope he shoots me a pm ;)
Rob
 
I finally got out to shoot it today. I didn’t mention that I bought a shooter grade ‘67 Canadian Centennial like a week before, so I’ve been working with that lately.
Ok, back to the 7-30. I decided this is now my rifle and went all in on it. I put a Banner-2, 3-9 scope and swivel studs on it (yes I drilled into the butt). So, today I could not get better than 2” groups at 100yards with Federal Premium ammo ($38 plus shipping from Barton’s Big Country). Mind you, I was shooting off an old shot up freezer with a 5gal bucket for a seat. The odd thing is, in all my groups, the second shot was a flier high left.
And the trigger… I’d say it’s probably the most awful trigger I’ve ever had the pleasure of squeezing. It feels kind of like a two stage trigger with what feels like a quarter inch of play then a soft click, then it’s ready to shoot. It breaks soft and crunchy at around 6lbs measured on my RCBS trigger pull scale (the ‘67 Centennial breaks like glass at 3lbs).
The recoil is very pleasant. Federal says a 24” barrel will launch their 120gr FN bullets at about 2700fps. Mine’s a 20” barrel and I wasn’t chronographing so I can’t confirm. I fired 30 rounds today and my shoulder feels great tonight. My phone died out there or else I would have taken some shots of the Winchester in action.
I’ve gone down the .284 projectile rabbit hole hard since getting this gun. Midway has 120gr FTX’s for sale but they couldn’t tell me if they’d get across the border or not. There’s a member on here selling 150gr GC cast, but I probably couldn’t push those much past 30-30 velocities. Tiger Arms has Leverevolution pre-rolled for $45 a box which is what I’m probably gonna try next. Other than that, I think this country is dry for FN/RN 7mm bullets. If I find some, I’m gonna buy lots.

Anyway guys, sorry for the long winded rant. I know it seemed like I complained a lot but the bottom line is, I really like this rifle and it’s just another project to work on and tweak and practice with and brag about. Again, thanks for all the input. And if you have some light 7mm FN’s, SELL THEM TO ME!!!
 
The 7-30 is a neat cartridge, but the .30-30 was a great deer round to begin with.

I have several single shots that I load 120 Nosler Ballistic Tips for which is better than the flat point IMO.

If someone is recoil sensitive, keep it, otherwise consider dealing it and getting a .243, .260, or 6.5 CM.
 
The 7-30 is so much fun. I bought one in the box also. Had to strip it to get it to work as the oil was all gummed up. It shoots 120’s, 139’s and 155’s very well. I was lucky and have a stockpile of bullets for mine. I use 30-30 range pick up brass and resize/fireform.

Congrats on an excellent rifle
 
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