3030s wont shoot flat!

[Lloyd Smale]

you know there no good past a hundred yards!! How many times have you heard that. Well if you want a little lesson you should have been out with us yesterday. Had the little tc contender carbine out. Little 16 inch barreled gun with a load using an lbt 120 lfngc thats for a 32 mag sized down to 309 with a case full of 748 (a load i wont publish because its in no manual) Speed is @2600 fps. You would have laughed at us absoulutly pounding an two foot diameter rock at a lazer ranged 350 yards. Bullets were cast out of #2 sized and lubed with my lube on my star and then tumble lubed afterward. That gun has got somewhere over 200 rounds down the pipe now of that load and a bunch more plinking cast loads in it without cleaning and the bore is as clean as a whistle. Absoultly no leading. So there goes the theroy that you cant push cast bullets that fast in a rifle. Id bet that if i casted them out of 5050 ww/lyno or straight lyno and could find a powder that would safely push them to 3000 fps it could easily be done. But i think im pushing the edge of what a 3030 sized case will do now. Still absolutely no pressure signs. Ive watched the primers and have measured case webs for expansion and know i could go faster but i fear the pressure in a the contender may not be that healthy for it at 3000 fps.

[Redhawk1]

You know you are going to stir a hornets nest here. 

[shotgun31]

I shoot a 175 gr lead gas check out of a 30-06;  the powder I use is 4198 and the manual lists it at 2400 fps.  I use it on prairie dogs and woodchucks and pretty much limit use to 100 yds;  much more than that the bullet just slips right through the critter and make the hole before they expire.  It's fun to shoot cast lead, isn't it!  This is pretty much a 30-30 load.
Ken

[californiahunter93]

Do you know how many foot pounds of knock down you are getting? How does it compare to the Hornady lever evolution ammo

[Reed1911]

Umm..well he stated it was a 120g bullet at 2600FPS so that is 1801Ft-Lbs of energy.

[californiahunter93]

Does the lever evolution ammo have more penetration and accuracy if you have got around to trying it.

[Catfish]

Lloyd,
   That .30-30 still ain`t shooten flat, it`s just shooting constant and you evidently know just how much to hold over. Those big gun on the Navy ships could shoot moa at 20 miles, but they don`t shoot flat eather. Good shooten.

[Davemuzz]

Hodgdon's web site list only 2 load's and that's for a 110 grain bullet, that will exceed (barely) 2600fps for the 30-30. So, I would say if your pushing a 120 grain at 2600fps or above, let me know when your going to sell either that barrel or frame.

I wouldn't want to buy either one.

Dave

[Lone Star]

you know there no good past a hundred yards!! How many times have you heard that. Well if you want a little lesson you should have been out with us yesterday....

Don't need no stinkin' "lessons" son, been shooting 30-30s and .30 Herretts out to 220 yards and beyond for over 25 years, hitting targets just 12" high.  It's called handgun silhouette shootin', and like stated above the .30-30 doesn't shoot flat.  It doesn't need to if your sights are set right.  We used to shoot 6" diameter chickens at 220 yards all the time, hit 'em most of the time too.  Shot a lot of 168-grain RCBS cast of WW+2% tin.  Nothing new here....but that does nothing to diminish the fun you have shooting a light-recoiling .30-30 at long range.


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[sweetwyominghome]

There's no need for anyone to get worked up over the safety of that load. If you will note, he's shooting a CAST bullet -- something that produces significantly less pressures than a conventional jacketed projectile. Sierra, among others, shows 125 grain jacketed bullets at 2500 fps, so a 120 grainer that is cast has a fair shot at making 2600 without compromising safety.

For this very reason, I can shoot a 320 grain Cast Performance (heat treated solid) at 1400 fps from a 9.5" .44 Magnum. I can't safely break 1300 fps with a 300 grain jacketed bullet in that same revolver -- and that bullet is 20 grains LIGHTER.

I don't redline anything in the Conteder. There's no need for it. But to cast aside someone's load because ONE manual doesn't agree (or even match up, for that matter) is purely without merit.

[Lone Star]

To add to Sweet's post cautioning the critics - my Lyman Cast Bullet Handbook lists a load with their 122-grain cast bullet and RL-7 that produces 2551 fps at just 29,700 CUP.  It is in a 26" barrel, but even loading it up to 2600 fps in the short T/C it looks like with the right powder the OP's load may be milder that what some of his critics shoot in their own .30-30s.   


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[Davemuzz]

Yes, I should read the initial post MORE CAREFULLY! He did state cast....but it registered "bullet", which in turn automatically went to "copper".

Good discussion though. I always shoot copper from my bottle nose cartridges. (Just a snob I guess). The only lead from the rifle's I shoot is from the 45-70 'cause it's exceptionally accurate, loads of fun, and doesn't take the hind quarter off a deer when you shoot one at a quartering too shot.


Oops. Sorry about the mis-cue, but I still enjoyed the reading.

Dave