Favorite 30-30 powder

[Slamfire]

Slamfire - why don't you neck size?

After the first firing of new brass, which is inevitable slathered in a lubricant to prevent side wall stretching, I full length size and attempt to bump the shoulder back about 0.003”. I have taken lubricated LC brass 23 firings in a M1a, full length sized in a small base die, without any sidewall stretching.



R stands for reloaded. R 18 means reloaded 18 times. R22 means reloaded 22 times. The FAL brass came from some else’s rifle and was shot less than five times and the brass shows case head separation.

I have been shooting competitively for over three decades now and it is my opinion that I want the most reliable ammunition which I can load. Extremely important function considerations are feed and extraction. Ammunition that is too long to chamber creates function issues. One of which is that you are beating down on the bolt handle during rapid fire, or hitting the forward assist, trying to turn the bolt lugs into battery. Lever actions don’t have the massive cams that bolt rifles have, so a fat or overlong case will make bolt closure even more difficult. An overlong case will jam up a gas gun and those rifles don’t have much in terms of camming power.

Then there is the issue of extraction. You can force the bolt closed in bolt guns, lever gun, or a gas gun over a fat or a long case, but start with an interference fit in the chamber, you end with an interference fit in the chamber. I don’t want to be wresting with the bolt/lever trying to get it open to eject a fired case. With a gas gun, sometimes the case rim is ripped off and you have to find a cleaning rod to get the thing out.

I full length resize because I want to reduce any function issues associated with fat or over length cases. Inevitably, neck sized cases cause chambering issues: then the brass must be full length resized. I don’t want to wait and have a neck sized case mess up my day at the range, possibly a hunting trip, or some event of greater criticality. I want reliability and full length resizing, and may I say, small based sized, gives me the best feed and extraction reliability of all the various sizing techniques.

I believe my full length sized ammunition shoots inside of my hold, therefore there is no accuracy advantage to neck sized, or partial neck sized cases, and even if there was, I will trade function improvement over tiny accuracy improvements any day.

[sundog]

I'll go along with Slamfire on lubing a new case to fire form. Not dripping in oil, but light wipe with a clean lube. This works well for belted magnums also, to move head space to the shoulder. Thereafter, trim to length and neck size until the case grows enough for a shoulder bump, which may (or may not) happen during the life of the case. Done properly, this is not unsafe. Done properly, it can help improve accuracy. The caveat to this is that cases formed in this manner normally should remain with that rifle.

[totaldla]

I'm not sure if you understood my question given that you wrote an essay on something unrelated.

We are, after all, still talking about the 30-30 right? And it still headspaces on the rim correct? Just checking cause maybe the thread drifted and I didn't follow.....

So you have a funky chamber, which is not all that uncommon given the number of guys who over-loaded the cartridge. So you keep all your brass separate for that gun, keep an eye on trim length, and neck-size only. No grunting and groaning, no weird lubes, no machine gun theory of operation.

[snaketail]

wow, we lost the thread quickly on this one.

My favorite powder for .30-30 is 3031. I shoot Lever Action Silhouette, I try all sorts of different powder, but I keep coming back to 3031 for consistent performance.

Leverrevolution might be ok, but it will take a long time to find the sweet spot with this powder.

Unique - Tried, it, liked it, next time loading a found I had double charged one case...not gonna play that way.

Back to 3031 and 170gr cast bullets from Oregon-Trail.

m

[Rifletom]

Someone mentioned BL-C[2]. This is a very good powder for the 30-30. But, lately, have had very good results[range and field] using RL#15/170's in my Mod 94. Ca pigs just don't seem to like this load.

[ForneyRider]

R15