Reloading 30-30 in a pinch...

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aletheuo

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My cousin offered to lend me his 336 in 30-30 while he's guiding for a couple months so that my daughter can hunt deer this year.

I'm an avid reloader and have everything to make up some nice reduced practice loads for my daughter... everything except dies. I'll have some once-fired brass but I don't have any 30-30 dies. I do have 303 british and 30-06 dies - anything I can do with these to necksize the brass or anything or should I just pick up a set of 30-30 dies?
 
Thx Ben - I'll be picking up a set in the not too distant future then. I've never worked with levers before and I understand because of the rear locking lever the case needs a FL resize everytime... unlike my bolt actions. Thought I could find a trick but not so.
 
Speaking for myself, I've done partial full length sizing for my 30-30 and it has worked well. I treat it like any other rifle cartridge with a full length size for the first time, and back off for the next time around. When I start getting a few that are harder to chamber (have to give a light wrap on the lever with my palm) I size them a little more.

I've only done this with light shooting reduced loads so I was never worried about bullet setback. YMMV
 
IMHO forget about a partial resize with a rear locking lever gun. Fully resize your brass every time and make sure each round chambers easily before you go hunting.
 
I've reloaded cast bullet loads using light charges of 700-X for an 1894 30-30 Winchester for years. I use partial resizing until the cases have been reloaded several times and start getting hard to chamber.
 
With full power hunting loads, and a tube magazine lever gun, I would, and do both crimp, and full length resize.
If you do neck or partial resize, run every round through the action before the hunt, set aside any sticky rounds for practice.
Actually, considering you are going to be reloading the relatively thin walled 30-30 for the first time, maybe you best run the full length ones through as well.
Crimping the 30-30 can buckle the case enough to stick. And you need to crimp for a tube mag under hunting conditions. Crimping it is easy to do, but the case is not as forgiving as say your 30-06.
Nobody wants the buck of a lifetime in front, with a round that won't chamber.
Lever guns do have enough power to chamber such rounds, but only if the shooter has enough grip to crank the lever home. Extraction after firing a tight fitting round has never been an issue for me. The case fire forms, and extracts easily.
 
34.5gr Win 748/150gr jacketed bullet.............32gr for the 170gr same powder......deer to moose............Harold
 
mbogo3 said:
34.5gr Win 748/150gr jacketed bullet.............32gr for the 170gr same powder......deer to moose............Harold
Click to expand...

Hi Harold - just pulled apart a box of win 170 grain ppoints - it appears to be filled with 32.5 grains of a ball powder. Good call on it being win 748 just looking at the data.
 
If you started with virgin brass it would be possible to assemble the initial loads using your .308 dies.
However, John Y Cannuck's post is filled with good advice.
 
OP here again... Dies arrived and I loaded up some frontier 110 grain plated RN's behind 5 grains of Trail Boss and headed for the hills just before dark with my 7 year old son (who won't be using this to shoot a deer this year). Anyways, we had an absolute blast putting holes in the side of an old computer case at 25 yards. Even caught a few bullets. My son could shoot it with that load and his shoulder was just fine... but it hit him enough to put a big grin on his face, too. He said... and I thought shooting a 22 was fun. I don't want a crickett anymore dad, I want my own 30-30. Does it come in bolt action cuz that lever is just too hard for me to work right now? I really wish I had brought the camera.

But I have a question on the same topic... I currently only have these 110 grain Frontier plated bullets and am wondering about using them in the tube magazine. They aren't real pointy and the loads are very light - would it be ok to load a bunch in the mag?
For safety's sake tonight I pounded the tips flat with a hammer before I seated them... and I also seated a few backwards to see if they would feed and they do just fine. In fact they make a much bigger hole in the computer case while heading backwards!

Anyways, is it safe to load up RN's in a 30-30 mag or does the end of the bullet need to be flat?
 
if you load 2
1 in the chamber and
1 in the mag you can almost load anything
as long as recoil from the first one does not do anything to the 2nd round
 
thanks guys - I'm into this full bore now - took my daughter to the range for the first time today. She can't seem to get a clear picture with the irons either left or right. Says she gets two images on either side. Me thinks I might have to take her in for an eye exam in the near future. Finally I put a piece of tape over one side of her shooting glasses. That helped but she can't hunt that way LOL
 
aletheuo said:
Hi Harold - just pulled apart a box of win 170 grain ppoints - it appears to be filled with 32.5 grains of a ball powder. Good call on it being win 748 just looking at the data.
Click to expand...

Usually the powders that commercial companies load with is not cannister powder, that you can buy on the shelf.
 
Good 30-30 load that I use for target and small game shooting.

30-30 case FL resized.

any LR primer.

Lee 170 gr. .310 RNFP shot as cast two coats of Lee Alox no gas check needed.

8.0 grs. SR 4756 no filler MV runs around 1100 fps.

no felt recoil and more accurate than you can hold it.
 
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