Stevens 325 bolt .30-30 circa 1947 (savage)

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irrelephant1

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Found a vintage Stevens 325 bolt .30-30 at the Victoria gunshow - I am pleased with it. - Average to good condition and very clean with little metal wear.

Built quickly like the M1 30 carbine using similar manufacturing methods and materials. Available from 1947 to 1949 for returning ww2 military vets who wanted to hunt with a familiar military bolt rifle styling. This is not the later 325a,b,c so must be from the first 1947 run of "325" only. No serials on these rifles.

Has the feel/carry of a M1 30 carbine with the short beech stock and barrel using .308 calibre bullets which can interchange with my .30-06 reloading stock while using the smaller .30-30 brass - A nice complimentary .smaller 30-30 cartridge without the RN restriction.

I did not want RN only lever for a variety of reasons and the Browning BLRs were too pricey, beautiful and large to be carried as a small game bush gun in a rainforest. Small removable magazines were a minimum requirement as was a commonly available calibre/cartridge so I was kind of stumped.

I also now have a total of 3x magazines each with a 3 cartridge capacity.

Thinking of 3x bullet weights. 110gr, 125gr, 160gr - I am an all-copper fan - tsx, ttsx, gmx, etip etc - so it will be fun to workup. Maybe a slow moving 110gr RN in lead to imitate a .22 rimfire.

Now looking at/for a Williams FP-340 peep receiver sight somewhere inside Canada.

A good day overall at the Vic show.

Steph
 
It's not the "Best Story Ever" without pics. :)



I wouldn't use a TSX or similar in a 30-30. Might not be enough velocity for expansion. Standard SPs would work fine.
 
Maybe try hornadys offering of the flex tip. Most mono metal bullets don't expand at 30/30 velocities unless you're shooting point blank. If that's your plan I'd stick with the lighter weights.
A good old Hornady interlock or Sierra game king would work perfectly
 
Try using the TSX FN 30-30 bullets. They will expand well at the velocity you would be pushing them.
I load them down to about 2500 fps in my 308win and have found them to be an accurate bullet.

I believe hornady makes a mono metal 140gr that's designed for 30-30 velocity

(TSX on the right)
 
The magazine length may not fit your traditional bullets. We bought one for my wife, a CIL built one, the Hornady flex tip shoots great but I don't think I would be able to load boat tail 150gr or anything heavier than 150gr in a spitzer bullet and still fit that magazine length.
 
Thank you everybody, I hear a lot of what you all are saying because I too have similar concerns. The fun will be in finding what does work mixing the old with the new. The bullet overlap with the .30-06 means that where the smaller .30-30 cartridge fails the larger cartridge will work. I was considering .30 carbine with a chamber insert using the larger rifle.

Assume that all small game shooting is 35 yards or less ala .22lr - longer distances and heavier grains will have the alternative in the .30-06. My field of view is mostly dense rainforest bush at dusk quietly sitting on small deer trails etc. I even wonder if a "standard" .30-30 @ 150-160gr bullet will be used at all - lead or not.

There are some tactical 110gr in the .300blk category that are more of a slow speed design. There is a new .30-30 RN eTip out. I have some smaller gr gmx's to play with too. That FN is supercool. One year from now there will be many more choices as the California deadline looms.

I am currently on the road with limited daily internet access so am hesitant to take images directly as I have little privacy in the city to put the rifle into an outdoors pix context. I am unsure of linking policies here at Gunnutz but leeroysramblings.com has the best "gun article" on the Stevens 325/340 history.

http://tinyurl.com/hut2v2c

Mine is identical to the one shown at the ramblings top of page with the exception that it has the "early" front sight and the later "rear" sight. Possibly an article error. There are no a,b,c markings with the 325 so my guess is 1947 maybe 1948. The pictured rifle is in identical condition, construction and character to mine.

My first concern was the magazine length as it is marked as .223/.30-30 so by definition a longer larger copper is problematic. The longer copper means less powder room means less speed means less effective range means smaller weights and around and around we do not go in copper.

I originally wanted an old 22 hornet but that around and around equation appears near impossible in modern copper unless you go frangible. My old man nose tells me that .22 rimfire also has many new issues moving forward as the California laws bite and usually set precedents that most other legal jurisdictions follow. (Witness cars)

Copper apparently penalises the smaller calibres more unless they go at higher speeds. There are few effective new entrants yet into the lead-free .22lr rimfire arena yet that I can find online. The lead rimfire ammo is currently cheap but rimfire factories are extremey expensive to build or retool. The legal dynamics of .22lr are not that dissimilar to the .30 carbine in my projections as the environmental/social/political/urban-ignorant concerns override any inherent utility of the calibre itself. Clip size, semi-auto, lead-free etc etc trump utility and price. Rimfire is effectively not a hunting calibre anymore as hunting laws are egalitarian and apply to all. Even if grandpa is now rolling in his grave.

I am told that Federal Ammunition in the USA are running their factories 365/24/7 flat out. They can produce all of Canada's ammo consumption requirements in 7 hours.... So the politics down south may have direct impact on this little Stevens' ammo in the next few years.

On Vancouver Island, with urban NIMBY now being anywhere and everywhere, a pellet rifle .22 for plinking is far more socially acceptable as it will neither be heard nor overreacted to.

Centrefires over rimfire are the future of hunting in my mind so this old Stevens bolt .30-30 is more about filling the niche once filled by the .22lr and the hornets for shooting small game with lead-free copper while still being California legal. Something where a lever .30-30 is not ideal but there a few other smaller choices while staying in .308 and keeping the velocities as low as possible.

</end steph ramblings>.
 
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