Anyone know of an expanding bullet, which is 200 or more grains in weight that is suitable for the 30-30? The rifle is a M94 so the bullets needs a blunt nose.

Thanks,
ASS_CLOWN

30-30's have a 1-12 twist and are only going 2200 fps with a 170 grain bullet. You might be able to use a 190 grain cast bullet. But your best bet is probably a 170 nosler partition, or the lighter barnes x.

conditions
1: blunt
2: 200+ grains
3: tiny case
4: restricted oal...

other than a hollowpoint lead.. nope

and, frankly, the 170 silvertip is the best all around bullet i've used in thutty thutty


would i use that on moose? only if was the only gun in the truck between me and the house where the moose stumbled into

45/70... yupyup
jeffe

Old Post and it got a lot of review , both good and bad.

But tested the 30/30, with handloads of 35 grains of W 748 with a large rifle primer and a 220 grain round nose with the same OAL of the 150 grain RN factory load.

Bullet was crimped. Accuracy was excellent and even tho, that you would think the load would be hot, I reloaded cases 5 times with this load and tested the resistance of the primer going back in. 5 cases were loaded 20 times with this combo and the primer pocket did not get loose.

Recoil was of course stout. I tested it in 4 rifles. A 1955 production Model 94, a 1965 production 94, a 1999 production Legacy 94 with 24 inch barrel, and finally a 2002 production Stainless Marllin 30/30. On the 1965 production rifle, this is the tightest groups this rifle ever got.

Velocity was also surprisingly the same as a 170 grain handload with 35 grains of W 748.

If you try it, just work up, for your safety and everyone in here, not bitching about giving out unsafe info. It has proven safe in the 4 rifles we have shot it in, the brass has shown good brass life with it.

Tried both Hornady and Sierra 220 grain RN bullets.

Cheers and Good shooting
seafire

My first thought was there is no such bullet, then I realized I was dead wrong, any 200 grn hardcast that shoots well would be perfect.

I agee with rogue. The .30/30 will not drive a 200+ grain jacketed bullet fast enough to expand reliably. Plenty of elk, moose grizzlies, etc., have been killed with the 170 grain .30/30 bullet factory load. It will still kill such critters.

Noslers 170 grain partition is hard to beat for any beast the 30-30 can kill.

regards,
graycg

seafire,

Thanks. Did you flatten the round nose or shoot it as is?

ASS_CLOWN

Shot as is. Actually the person that was originally interested in it, so I worked with it, did take a bear with it, and his wife took a cow elk ( Roosevelt Elk) with the combo.

So it does work. Velocity is equal with 35 grains of W 748 to the 30/40 Krag with this load. I have no pressure testing equipment, but the brass and the rifles seem to have held up fine. Just work up your loads.

As several of my other esteemed colleagues have said on here, Like Rogue 6, Eldguello, and Western Hunter, the NOS 170 grain will work well also. In a single shot also the 180 grain Partition protected point works well, as does the Speer Magtips in any weight they are available in.

IN 1895 the 30/30 was used to tackle alot of big game like Elk and Grizzly also. I would want a lot for ending a fight with a grizzly, but for other game, it will work fine. I don't think animals are any more tougher now than they were in the older days. I put a lot of faith in a round nose bullet moving in the ranges of 2000 to 2300 fps. A conventional 180 grain round nose would also be ideal in a single shot.

Good luck with the project.

Cheers and Good shooting
seafire

At one time, there was a cartridge called the .303 Savage. It was loaded with 190 and 195 gr. bullets to a velocity of 1950 FPS. I mention this because it really was a slightly different version of the 30-30 that was considered by some old timers to be a better round than the 30-30 due to it's heavier bullet. People who still shoot that round today, when asking for data are just told to use 30-30 Win. data and forget about it.
So much for the history lesson. MY point really was, if the 190 gr. Silvertop Winchester loaded in the .303 (It's a .308 diameter bullet, not .312 as some say.) why didn't they also load it in the 30-30? Also, Winchester has never sold that particualr bullet to the public. Apparently, even gun writers who have "connections" can't get them. Sam Fadala in his excellent book on the M94 Winchester 30-30 makes note of the fact that he had to buy .303 Savage ammo to pull the bullets to use in his 30-30 rifles. Today .303 Sav. ammo is not only hard to come by, it's expensive. I still have about five boxes from when i owned one of those .303s and I've been offered as much as $50 a box. I'm keeping it.
I got to thinking quite a while back about using a cast bullet in the 180-190 gr. range in the 30-30. RCBS makes a mold (#30-180-FN) that seemed to give me what I was looking for. I could easily bring the weight up to 190 gr. by adding a bit of pure lead to the mix without messing things up handness wise. My normal alloy for rifle bullets is 10 pounds of wheel weights, one pound of linotype, one-third cup of chilled bird shot (Size doesn't matter.) and a three foot piece of 95/5 percent lead free solder. Bullets are 14 BHN agfter age hardenting for a week and bt heat treating them, the are 30-31 BHN after age hardening for about a week. The really neat part is they weighed an average of 189.9 gr. plus or minus a couple of tenths. I had my bullet. I loaded them up with 28.0 gr. of W-748 and they chronographed right at 1950 FPS from a 20" M94 carbine. FWIW, they chronographed 2000 FPS from a 24" barrelled 30-30 and 2060 FPS from a 26" barreled 30-30. At 14 BHN, those bullets are pretty decent deer slayers and I'd have no problem with handling a moose or elk with them, provided I could get close enough to properly place my shot. Accuracy is reasonable for up to maybe 125 yards, maybe more should your rifle give better accuracy than mine do. Three to four inches is average for most of them and one will do 2.5".
I was just reading in the last issue of THE FOULING SHOT, the house magazine of the Cast Bullet Association where they reprinted an article by the late Frank Marshall. This old boy knew what hunting with cast bullets was all about.
He used the same bullet I mentioned with a load using IIRC, H4350 for 1950 FPS from an M94 30-30 carbine. Said some very intersting stuff on accuracy and effectiveness. I'm even thinking on trying out his loads. He also used W-760.
I have to go along with the doubts that a 220 gr. jacketed bullet would mushroom properly at 30-30 velocities especially at the longer ranges.
On my W-748 load,while it seems OK in my guns, you might want to drop about two grains and work up.
I size my bullets to .310" in diameter, FWIW.
Paul B.

seafire and Paul,

Thanks all the information. I think I will work with the 220 Remington RN and see what I can "come up with".

I will also check out the Nolser 170 grain pill. Actually I think I will use it as a baseline and see if I can a 200+gr pill to best it. Stay tuned.

Thanks again to everyone for the help.

ASS_CLOWN