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Good reading,History,True Storys And General Info

   Then in the fall of 1895 armed with a new high velocity rifle and caliber and lots of
   courage.a young 22 year old man that had grown up during this grizzly’s incredible reign
   of terror.hunted him down and killed him. John Horton out of Kalispel, hit him three
   times.twice at 75 yards to put him down, once in the head at point blank range, to make
   sure he stayed down. He used a new cartridge and rifle. A Winchester model
   94 in 30-30.with 160 grain bullets at approx 1960 fps. And this is not an unusual story.a
   number of nasty bears that seemed impervious to black powder rounds met their match
   with the new ‘white powder’ rounds of the turn of the century with theyre ninety four lever actions .
 

bears,elk,deer and light bullets
The Book FLAYDERMAN'S GUIDE TO ANTIQUE FIREARMS  AND THEIR VALUES  said it was a specimen of ultimate perfection in a lever action rifle. (page 263) It does have appeal, for since it's introduction over 103 years ago there have been millions produced.Becky Costello at U.S. Repeating Arms said their records indicate over 7 million Model 94's have rolled out of the Winchester plant. When you add that number to all the Marlin and Mossberg Plus Sears made for leverguns, plus all the single shot and bolt-action rifles in this caliber, the 30-30 resides in a rack allover the us as being one of the most if not the most popular deer rifle. if loaded correctly it can be just as deadly on bear to moose to elk.lets not forget that one hunter whose name escapes me killed over 600 elephants with a .303 enfield as well as bell did, the .30-30's power is equal to the pre-Second World War 7x57 mm cartridge with it's initial mild ballistics. And Bell, a known African professional hunter, killed many elephants with the 7x57mm which is quite similar to the 30-30 so lets not get into it dont have enuff oomph!i recently got into a debate over the fact that one doesnt need a 170 gr bullet to drop a buck either as well.the 170 will on paper hold a tighter group but only because of the extra 20 grain wieght which helps it some but will also get more drop in trajectory too.a 150 gr factory load has less,if you sight in at 150 yards at 200 youll have an average of 6-8 inches drop,less with say a 130 gr spire point boattail but you can only load one in the pipe and one in the magazine on a hunt ora shoot,a mag full of spire pointed bullets is like holding a hand grenade in your mouth,it will explode the rest of the rounds in the magazine if dropped or shot,hence the one in the pipe and one in the mag principal with those style of bullets, the pointed spire will give extreme accuracy and even less drop at that range and deliver the payload at a faster speed as well due to its lighter weight,the purists will argue till they turn blue in the face that it wont work,its too light and all but think about the fact that most folks who use a .243 use a lighter bullet and whack a buck just as dead and the razzing they take,yet in texas the 243 and the 30-30 should be made the state cartridges from the sales and many people who hunt with them! in new england where i live now the same goes true but also the 30-30 also has a lot of rivalry from the .308 and 30-06 too as well being the top 4 cartidges i see when i run into other hunters in the woods.this 105 year old round is now still under fire for many years by the 30 cal its gotta be over 3500fps ta kill shooters but with the right powders,primers and bullets and a days work at the range making up a load the ancient and much misunderstood 30-30 can be just as deadly if not more so on game just as effectivly.after all its still in production (more than i can say for other cartridges!) still in use and always is on the shelf in the ammo section of the drug store in my neck of the woods come hunting season.The normal reloading data for the 30-30 gives general velocity levels for the 100-110 grain bullets at around 2600 fps.the 125-130 grainers at 2400-2500 fps.the 150 grainers at 2300-2400 fps..and the 170 grainers at 2100-2200 fps. That’s fine for old 30-30s.keep in mind that 40,000 CUP level presure level is new leveractions only. the level is much lower in older leveractions so stick with original loadings and work up to this for new ones with strong recievers and steels.the Hodgdon reloading data on page 314 of their #26 manual for the 100 grain bullet with 33 grains of H4198 gives 2837 fps from their 24 inch barrel. But that load only generates 32,000 CUP, With 36 grains of the same powder we break 3150 fps and are running 39,500 cup pushing it to the limit for an effective load. Sierra makes has an awsome 125 grain H.P. #2020 for the 30-30. Hodgdon states that 38 grains of H335 gives 2643 fps and 35,400 CUP with 125-130 grain bullets. Why stop short? 40 grains of H335 and the Sierra bullet will give 2975 fps and at a cost of 39,600 CUP. And that load will put deer down extremely fast,give you also a low trajectory drop and will razzle the its gotta be a heavy bullet nyah nyah purists something to turn abslutely a nice shade of gun blue over when they hear word of it!.Speer makes a 110 grain spire point .308,some clip the nose on this bullet for the tube.doesn’t change it’s BC of .273 for the book purists either! it also doesn’t change the fact that this bullet was designed for the 30-06 and 308 cartridges pushing it at 3500 to 3800 fps for varmint hunting. When you push this same bullet at 2900 fps plus from a 30-30 it becomes a medium game to deer slug. set to strike only 2 inches high at 100 yards it is down only 9 inches at 300 yards *see page 569 of the Speer reloading manual #11.with a load and bullet of Speer 130 grain flat tip. 38.5 grains of H322 gives this bullet 2720 fps.with a 3 inch high point at 100 yards it is down only 11-12 inches at 300 yards,also the 150 grain Speer has the same configuration as the 130 grain pushing it close to 2450 fps with H322, H335, and Rel# 12 is  makin one good round for elk to bear! are the purists rolling over in theyre armchairs yet? You want close to 30-40 Krag ballistics from your 30-30? Another way of asking is...you want to up your 30-30 ballistics by 10 to 15%? It can be done. I think by now  I have shown that it is not high pressure alone that gives high velocity.for example 23 grains of H4227 under a 130 grain bullet in the  30-30 gives 2200 fps at 39,000 CUP 38 grains of BL-C2 under the same bullet gives over 2600 fps at 35,000 cup 400 fps more velocity, at more than 4000 lbs less pressure (CUP is higher pressure than PSI).  It is not a fast pressure curve to peak pressure that counts for velocity.it is a slow pressure curve at a sustained level that gives best velocity. That is why larger case volume and slow burning powder generally gives higher velocities, all else being equal.also check and trim your brass every 3-4 reloads as well as the long necks tend to stretch out theyre.use a case length checker for this,its your frien when accuracy counts the most,also on the primer pockets clean them well and deburr any raised lip around the flash hole for constant ignition the same for each round.and in working up a load use one make of brass.case thicknesses vary alot so say one fed load will print different than a rem case will even tho same powder charge too! so much to say and do for light bullets......
cast bullets.....
The cartridge case is ideal for cast bullet use.the 30-30 has a the thin  elastic neck wall which allows distortion-free bullet seating without the use of special neck expanding equipment.As for powder charges, with cast bullets you can basically use the same data as you would for jacketed bullets of the same weight. This is one of a select few rifles of the smokeless powder era that really likes cast bullets.also remove all copper traces  in the bore before using lead cast loads! this makes the cleaning easier and extremly acurate shots possible! some use the electric leaners but i use the old fashioned method.plug the bore at the chamber ,stand it up and fill it with hoppe's or outers and walk away for an hour,then come back and scrub like all hell and repeat if neccesary.some bad cases such as mine was when i first got her for a cz52 in a swap i had done this 4 times and still had some traces left of copper streaking! what i did was wrap some stainless steel wool for sink and dish cleaning around a bore brush and then had at it clanng the bore and loking at it every 15 passes or so.it worked.bore pastes help too. i use a mix of  water and bon ami powder cleanser on a brush to make it shine and lap the bore with for those bad cases. thats an old armorers trick that really works well and on a new barrel it will lap it it right in good to help deburr any flash on the edges of the lands,for cast bullets check the links to the bullet makers and then get some reload books! you can use 2/3rds the powder as you would with a copper jacket and still get the job done just as effectivley, remember use gas checked bullets properly lubed as well.