Of the 16 rifle calibers I load...odd enough 30-30 isn't one of em, til now!

What are the powders of choice??? I'm hoping it's one I keep stocked.

It would be hard to go wrong with H 4895. roger

IMR 3031 is kind of a standard for it.

IMR 3031 and RL-15 will work wonders in the 30-30 with all weights of bullets.

IMR 4064 Bal C 2 I think I used IMR 4198 the last time I loaded some.

I shoot a 30-30 for center fire lever action silhouette so I load quite a lot of them. Have been using Varget with complete satisfaction.

Nothing mentioned so far is "wrong". I happen to use WC-846, which is the surplus equivalent of BL-C2 and WW-748. Works fine, but either of the 4895's, IMR 3031, any of the 4064's, H-335, Varget, N-135, or about two dozen other powders will do fine in the undiscriminating .30-30.

I use Varget or imr-3031.

I load 30-30s for a couple of friends and use H4895, but then again it's my favorite powder use it for all but my 30 Gibbs and 257.

2400 through 4064 is a goos powder for the 30-30
unique does fine for some too.

Excellent. A few of my standard powders I stock are on that list! Beautiful day!

Out of about 8 powders tried with 170 grain bullets W748 was the most accurate.

Good luck,
Paul

W748, IMR 4064, IMR 3031, and IMR 4895 have all worked well for me.

I shoot a Contender carbine in 30/30 and use 150 grain Hornady I/L bullets over IMR4064. It amazed me the first time I shot it. The accuracy is excellent and velocity is about 2350 ft/sec.

These days at least 10 powders are available for almost any cartridge one can name, and will work well in it.

In the old days that was certainly not the situation. In the '30s, '40s, '50s and even somewhat more recently, the classic powder charge for the .30-30 was 30 or 31 grains of IMR 3031 (amount depending on lot # and bullet weight). I don't believe that is how the powder got its name, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was.

Stranger things have happened. H-380 is reported to have gotten its name from Bruce Hodgdon, who found 38.0 grains of it to be the perfect powder charge for his then still a wildcat .22-250 with 50 grain bullets. So when he bought many tons of it surplus from the military and sold it to handloaders under his company's banner, he named it H-380.

Anyway, if you want classic factory equivalent loads for your 30-30, it is hard to go wrong with IMR 3031.

quote:

W748, IMR 4064, IMR 3031, and IMR 4895 have all worked well for me.

That's a good list. They are all versitle powders, so it doesn't hurt to have any of these sitting on the shelf either.

35gr. of IMR4320 with any 150gr. bullet you like. Close to 2,400fps at safe pressure. Can't be beat!

IMR 3031 or BL(C)-2.