A Question on Reloading a 30-30 with Lead Bullets

[nate_o23]

I am fairly new to reloading and have a question. I am looking at a lead 110 gr RN bullet for the 30 carbine and wondering if that would be a good plinking/groundhog round for a 30-30? Would the round nose be blunt enough to load in th Marlins tube mag safely? Thanks

[jlchucker]

Hello Nate 023. The Lyman Reloading Handbook #48 shows a load for a 110 grain jacketed RN bullet for the 30-30. They also state that 30-30's that have tubular magazines "require the use of blunt or flat nosed bullets with a cannelure, and should be crimped in place." The Lyman Cast Bullet Handbook says the same exact thing, and lists loads for round-nose bullets as well as flat-nosed bullets up to 173 grains. It should be noted that the excellent Remington Corelocts that are sold for reloading the 30-30 are round-nosed numbers as well--not flat. Countless numbers of the latter have been loaded and shot out of leverguns for the better part of a century. I use them for my own deer loads in Winchesters and Marlins.

[Lobo]

Nate,

It'll come down to what you're comfortable with......I don't shoot round nosed in my Marlins, and neither does Paco. If you read some of his articles, he says on occasion that he files the exposed rounded lead off to make a flat point.

Good shooting!!

[w30wcf]

nate,
No problem at all. 5 grs of Unique will push that bullet to close to 1,200 f.p.s. with good accuracy.

w30wcf

[Charles]

Some round nose bullets are rounder than others. The Barlow/Ideal 311291 is a very blunt round nose and his been a 30-30 standard for over 100 years. Such a blunt nose bullet will do OK on small game and will not cause a safety problem in the tubular magazine.

The 30-30, even when loaded to max loads with his bullet won't produce enough recoil to be a problem. Now the 45-70 is another matter.

Without seeing your bullet, I would not offer an opinion on it's suitability or safety.

[Whit Spurzon]

The Lee 113gr "Soup" can shoots well in all the 30 caliber rifles I've tried. My 336 CB really likes it over 2.8 grains of Bullseye (low noise and no recoil).

50 yards, front rested - Marlin 336 Cowboy. 4 under a quarter, the flier was totally me.

The Soup Can will feed through the Carbine.

[Nath]

I have loaded 116grn lead bullets in my Win 94 before now and I can say that on small critters they were not that good, they tended to just zip through them. If I was to go that route again I would be looking for a very wide flat point.

Nath.

[nate_o23]

Thanks fo he replys.

Whit- what exactly is the lee soup can? sounds interesting.

[Whit Spurzon]

Lee "Soup Can" is the C309-113F

scroll down to 30 caliber rifle for a picture
http://www.leeprecision.com/html/catalog/bullmol2.html

[Sarge]

Missouri Bullets has a 135 grain flat point which should work fine.

http://www.missouribullet.com/details.p ... &keywords=

Just got a small batch in the other day, and loaded just a few over 5.0 W231 for 1035 fps. Seems fairly accurate and doesn't lead my old 94 Winchester; turns it into a "30 Long Rifle". I have noticed that they shoot 4" low at 25 steps, but correcting that just a matter of finding the right scale mark on the Lyman 66A.

[nate_o23]

Well the 135 gr flat points looked interesting enough that I ordered some. Now I just need a good recipe for Unique, Herco, or 3031 since those are the only powders I have right now.

[Nath]

Well the 135 gr flat points looked interesting enough that I ordered some. Now I just need a good recipe for Unique, Herco, or 3031 since those are the only powders I have right now.

I did some loads with Blue dot years ago so I bet that Herco should work, just don't push it which is not what your about any way on this load idea

Nath.