Sears Model 54 barrel is undersized?

[dysfunction8]

I picked up a Sears Model 54 about a year ago, and have barely started working up loads for it. It can shoot about an inch at 100 yards with 125gr Sierra hollow-points with IMR-3031....I haven't had the time to work up any loads for their 150 or 170gr bullets yet. As of lately, I've been getting set up to start casting boolits for my 44 Mag revolver, and was thinking about giving the 30-30 a shot with cast as well. I slugged the barrel, and started measuring the grooves.....it's measuring .3073! So, thinking that maybe I somehow messed up the slug, I went and slugged it again, and came up with the same measurement with the 2nd slug. I know it's not a huge difference from .308, but I didn't think that I would see an undersized barrel.....does anyone have any experience with this?

[J Miller]

I've never sized a 30-30 barrel in my life and I've owned a lot of them. Like anything else they are made with +/- tolerances so that one is probably still within specs.

Were it mine I just size the cast bullets accordingly at about .309" to .310" and see what the results were.

Joe

[Pete44ru]

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Welcome to the forum !

We hope you sit, and stay a spell - we like company.

FWIW, .30-30's aren't exactly precision target rifles, and lead boolits are soft - so I would instead recommend going with the flow & shooting the snot out the rifle, to find out what food it likes best.

(Rifles shot with cast boolits will usually shoot their best with a slightly over-size slug)


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[Chuck 100 yd]

.307" is a GOOD thing!!! Most are oversized requiring bullets as large as .311. I bet it will shoot cast just as good as jacketed. Lucky you!!!

[mikld]

Yer talking about seven then thousandths of an inch? (.0007"), about half the thickness of a hair from a gnat's butt. That much can be the difference in a hot day and a cold day in measuring a bullet. User error or questionable methods are easily more than the .0007". I'd not give the difference a second thought and size boolits as if the groove diameter were thr "true" .308"....

[dysfunction8]

Ok, thanks. I've tried some 165gr plain based cast supposedly sized to .311, but these were commercial cast, and were fairly hard if I remember. I'm getting set up to cast my own, so we'll see how it all works out. I won't be able to give it a go any time soon though, as I'm about to pick up and move from South Carolina to Arizona. I'll be sure to report back when I give it a shot (no pun intended)