Bullets for the .30 WCF

[Bill in Oregon]

Waiting for my new taller front sight, and when it arrives, I will take the old Marlin 36 out and try all four of these. I shot the 130-grain Speer and the 178-grain Lee GC a while back with reasonable results, although printing 7-ish inches high at 50.
I had forgotten I had the Hornady 160 FTXs, and just got my little box of the Barnes 190 "Originals" and will be eager to see how they shoot. I have been told the fascination with the 190-grain .303 Savage-weight bullet is all in my head, and the usual 170s will perform the same. But ya know, the mental aspects of being a gun nut and handloader have a certain gravitas!
All the jacketed will be over various loads of CFE223, and the Lee, again, will be pushed by 22 grains AA 5744.
I wish John Kort were still with us.

[GunnyMack]

That Barnes looks very nice, reasonably large SP.
Did you look at Hawk bullets?

[RIDERED350r]

I can't seem to get away from IMR3031 in 30WCF and 32 Win Spl.

[Drawdown]

Waiting for my new taller front sight, and when it arrives, I will take the old Marlin 36 out and try all four of these. I shot the 130-grain Speer and the 178-grain Lee GC a while back with reasonable results, although printing 7-ish inches high at 50.
I had forgotten I had the Hornady 160 FTXs, and just got my little box of the Barnes 190 "Originals" and will be eager to see how they shoot. I have been told the fascination with the 190-grain .303 Savage-weight bullet is all in my head, and the usual 170s will perform the same. But ya know, the mental aspects of being a gun nut and handloader have a certain gravitas!
All the jacketed will be over various loads of CFE223, and the Lee, again, will be pushed by 22 grains AA 5744.
I wish John Kort were still with us.

Bill I'm anxious to see your results with these bullets, and especially the jacketed with the cfe223 powder. It seems every time I research loads for the 30-30, I see good results with 223! I've never used it, because I fell into using LVR, had such good results with it, so determined, stick with it, but the 2 powders must be similar best I can tell!
The Speer 130's have been very accurate for me, especially with 3031 and 4064 powders and I believe by memory 748.
But I'm probably shooting today if it'll warm up, mainly interested in these Nosler 170gr Partitions I got over a year ago. Shot them just a quick test, and wow, they where accurate, and who can dispute their great reputation, so I'm thinking they will probably turn into my primary load, maybe for both my Winchester's? I had already put so much work into the 160gr ftx, great accuracy, and it did well on my first deer with this bullet few weeks ago.
But I feel over long run the 170gr Partitions will be hard to beat, regardless where a deer is hit? I believe I'll save the ftx for my Marlin, cause it loves em!
But I got the Barnes Saturday, loaded up 2 loads to try today also with LVR. I'm of mind I also doubt they'll be any more effective than a good 170gr, but opinions on these are mostly just that, opinions and a good 190gr at anything from 2100 to 2200fps is gotta be an awesome force! Nesbitt and Fadala seems to confirm that!
I also got some Hornady 170gr IL FN while back I'm gonna try.
But if the Partitions shoot as accurate as I'm expecting, I think I'm in love!

[Bill in Oregon]

Drawdown: Truth be told I doubt there is a better jacketed bullet for the .30 WCF than that Nosler Partition. It would be interesting to test it against the Barnes 190 for both penetration and expansion. I would be willing to bet that either would deliver the goods on elk, bear or moose within 100-125 yards and deer considerably farther. I wish the dang front sight would get here, but oddly, while Potterfield's outfit is all over shipping and tracking, they can't give a delivery estimate on first-class mail from Missouri to Texas.

[Griff]

While I've loaded for the .44Magnum a few days before loading some .30-30s for my mdl 64A, I no longer have a 44 Mangl'em... so I count the .30-30 as my longest running cartridge I've loaded for... Since 1973. In that time, I've loaded a few of the 170s, but found that in my particular rifle the 150 Sierra served up the best accuracy, followed by the Speer at the same weight. That initial .30-30 was stolen and I've replaced it with quite a few others. But, typically, still lean toward the 150 bullet weight. Wanting to have a "Long Range" rifle for SASS matches, and not being able to afford an original 26" octagon at the time, I settled on building one out of a mdl 94 that I'd picked up rather cheaply. I bought a Numrich full octagon bbl setup and had a local manufacturer headspace it for me and proceeded to develop a target load based on the Saeco #316 mold, a 150 gr FP with a gas check. My latest loads, with my current WW mix lubed with Lyman Alox, gas checked, & sized to .309", it weighs 153 grains. For the last 30+ years I've powered this little bullet with 27.5 grains of Reloader 7. And have won quite a few of those long range matches. I've used this load in quite a few of my regular 94s, from my custom Trapper to a couple of standard carbines. All have done as intended, put bullet thru the bullseye or rang steel at distances from 50 yards to 400. My latest jug of RE7 has produced some erratic groups and I suspect that it might be a little hotter than previous lots, although velocity has continuously hung around the 2290fps mark. My next batch of rounds will be down a full grain of powder to 26.5. Or, maybe I'll change from the Winchester WLR primers to the CCI Std LR I recently picked up. This was the primer I initially developed this load with, so maybe changing to the Winchester Std/Mag primer was the impetus for more erratic groups of late.

Making all the above meaningless, the .30-30 is just such a fun cartridge to load for and shoot, just about anything one does with it is rewarding! I firmly believe it to be the single best cartridge in the world. Maybe only at its best at slaying deer, but fully capable of just about everything.

[Drawdown]

Drawdown: Truth be told I doubt there is a better jacketed bullet for the .30 WCF than that Nosler Partition. It would be interesting to test it against the Barnes 190 for both penetration and expansion. I would be willing to bet that either would deliver the goods on elk, bear or moose within 100-125 yards and deer considerably farther. I wish the dang front sight would get here, but oddly, while Potterfield's outfit is all over shipping and tracking, they can't give a delivery estimate on first-class mail from Missouri to Texas.

Based on reputation alone, cause I've yet to hunt with either, I'd have say your Barnes 190 vs Partitions 170 comparison is gonna be probably spot on! I just got back from shooting, and I gotta say, the Barnes 190 accuracy surprised me! Hey, I'm glad I ordered 3 boxes now, cause from here on I'll gladly hunt with either. The Partitions performance is well known even in the 30-30, but I've yet to see any experience with the Barnes Originals in a 30-30, but from what I remember of them in others, especially the 348, they're highly regarded in any big game, so I'll not hesitate to use them now! Anyways, I'll post some pics of my results when I can, cause I'm really pleased with both! Thanks again Bill for pointing em out, I'd thought of trying em for several years, but backed out!

Griff, I'm with you on the 30-30 I love it too, everything about it! For hunting these mountains I honestly see it like Baby Bears Soup? "It's Just Right"! When you add up everything, packing, handling, accuracy of a rifle with iron sights, in which the cartridges range and iron sight ranges coincide just perfectly!

[COSteve]

On the subject of plinking bullets, I've had good luck with X-Treme 150 grn FN .308 they make for the 30-30 along with some W760 powder in reduced loads for about 2,000 fps. Cheap, decently accurate and with the reduced load, even the ladies like to shoot them in my walnut stocked Mossberg 464.

[Griff]

Grizz, I'm with you on the 30-30 I love it too, everything about it! For hunting these mountains I honestly see it like Baby Bears Soup? "It's Just Right"! When you add up everything, packing, handling, accuracy of a rifle with iron sights, in which the cartridges range and iron sight ranges coincide just perfectly!

While there is a Grizz on this site, he ain't spoke up on this subject... He might be so inclined... I don't really know...

[Drawdown]

I know, I always get you'll name mixed up. I edited it. I type too fast, make Lotta mustakes

[Griff]

I know, I always get you'll name mixed up. I edited it. I type too fast, make Lotta mustakes

It's all good!