Slow 30/30 load

G

g-manz35

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I have an old savage 340a 30/30 that I was hoping to use for deer hunting. It's a bolt action with a 22" barrel. I ran some 150gr Winchester factory loads through it and I got 2100 fps on the chronograph. Then I fired my handloads with a max of 37 gr BLC2 behind a 150 gr Sierra BTSP over the Chrony and go t roughly the same 2100 fps. This is 300 fps slower than the published numbers for the factory loads and my hand loads. Is it realistic to expect 2400 fps out of a 30/30? Am I missing somehting? Any experience would be appreciated.

Thanks. G
 
watching this thread-

is that a reccomended powder to be using?

most stated velocitys from factory is 24in barrel, less your 2 inch should not be 300FPS.... maybe 50-75fps..

anywho someone with knowledge on this will chime in soon
 
I fired some factory loads in the same rifle and got 1900fps or so. I was pretty amazed. You can load hotter, just work up. No experience with the powder you are using, but 30-30 published loads are often soft due to old guns. But work up to be safe.
 
With a 150gr try 34.5gr of win 748 and you'll be getting closer to 2400fps and 32gr of the same powder behind a 170gr bullet is a gooder too........Harold
 
Your bolt gun has the advantage of being able to load pointed bullets to slightly higher pressures. I load pointed bullets in my 94, but use it as a 2-shooter when I do. I think you might find 125s can be loaded to 2600 and 130s to 2500. Both Game Kings and TTSXs perform well at those velocities, and flatten typical .30/30 trajectories.
 
I was just making sure it was not my gun that was the problem. It is pre serial number so I wasn't crazy about doing it, but it is showing no signs of pressure so I will go over max on this one. I usually go about 1/4 gr at a time and work up very slow when I do it. Boomer. I did look at using 125 Nos ballistic tips but could not find them when I was at Cabelas. I instead went for the Sierra which is a boat tail spire point. Being that I'm using open sights on it I will not be shooting out past 150 yards the 150's will be fine, but I need to get them going fast enough that they expand for sure. First time using open sights for deer so shooting out past 150 would be unethical. To be honest I think 100 yards is lots for me.

Background: I bought this gun for $100 about 12 years ago to use as a bush gun because I canoed a lot. I never did take it out even once and instead carried pepper spray to keep the bears away. So it sat around for these twelve odd years taking up space in my safe. I got bored this fall and took it out and refinished the wood and blued the barrel. Being that I got into reloading this year I thought it would be cool to load up some spire points and see how well I can shoot with it. I'm now thinking that I want to take it out deer hunting. I hunt fairly open country so it's not the most practical gun to use, but I'm not really needing to shoot a deer that bad either as I already have a moose in the freezer. Other than that I want to use it for plinking. I thought it would be cool to load up some 110 gr Vmax and blast them through the Chronograph at 2600 fps, blast some pumpkins with it etc etc

It's interesting to run the numbers through a ballistics calculator and see the difference a between a Boat tail spire point and a Round nose.
BTSP at 2100 muzzle = 1832 at 150 yards
Round nose at 2100 muzzle = 1685 at 150 yards



Thanks for all the imput guys. G
 
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Bottom line to the story is factory loaded ammunition does not usually reach the velocity it is supposed to, and is often well short of it, be it 30-30 or 7mm Remington magnum.
American rifle loading books show velocities that are not achieved by their loads given, and again, are often a way short of given velocities.
The old Norma loading charts were the only loading charts for rifles I have ever seen, that gave very accurate velocity figures.
For some reason, pistol loading charts tend to be accurate. The old Lyman book of pistol loading, and such, is extremely accurate, as to velocities shown.
 
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