Cast Bullets in .30-30 Cut rifling..

[cbagman]

Howdy fellers.. I have found a 1960 edition of the Marlin 336 marked J. C. Higgens Mdl 45.. The serial # makes it a 1960 model and it has cut rifling and walnut stocks.. It is in very good  used condition and the cost was $180.. Anybody had any experience with 170G cast bullets in one??  :grin:  I have a Lyman RN GC mold and used to shoot this bullet in a 94 Win. from cbagman
Update... I shot it today with jacketed bullets and cast bullets. This six groove barrel shot a lot better than the micro-groove one  I had before..

[oso45-70]

cbagman,
I traded for a marlin mod.336 with the micro groove barrel and tried it with hard cast bullets and couldent hit the side of a barn, So i had my G-
Smith put a ballard 30 cal. barrel on it and cut it back to trapper lenth and it shoots good now. It was so bad the bullets were key holing. I put a lyman peep on the rear and a hi-vizz front sight and it go's every where i go. Good Luck.........Joe............

[Mikey]

cbagman:  your 30-30 should shoot cast bullets with excellent accuracy.  You can have a lot of fun, as well as a lot of good game getting experiences with cast bullets from the 30-30.  My older Lyman manual shows the cast bullet loads in that caliber to be pretty healthy.  

The best way to maximize the accuracy of cast bullets is to firelap your bore.  You can get materials and information about that process from either BearTooth Bullets (with a .com) or from Veral Smith who ahs a forum further down on this site.  Firelapping is a fairly easy process and I have had fun doing it with a couple of my rifles.  One is a Winchester Big Bore in 444 with a 1:38 twist 12 groove barrel and since firelapping, she shoots heavy cast loads very, very accurately.  I seriously recommend firelapping for the cast bullet shooter.  HTH.  Mikey.

[cbagman]

Thanks for the comments.. I will get into it as time permits..from cbagman

[Chargar]

OSO45-70..You spent alot of money for no good reason. 30-30 MG barrels will shoot cast bullets as well as jacketed and at the same velocity. The secret is the right bullet.

The secret to cast bullet accuracy with any rifle is the fit of the bullet nose to the lands and the body to the grooves. Traditional 30 cal barrels run .300X.308 lands and grooves. Microgroove barrels run .302X.310 lands and grooves. Most cast bullets are undersized in the nose even when the bodies are sized to fit the grooves.

All is not lost however. SAECO makes their #325 which they market for the .303 British. It is however nothing but a fat version of their 30-30 bullet with flat maplat, crimp groove and body length etc. just right for the 30-30. This bullet will cast out .303 on the lands and .314 on the body. Run this bullet through a .311 or .312 sizer and you have the perfect  30-30 Microgroove bullet. I have pushed these 2.2K with 1.5 MOA accuracy in my Marlin 336A.

There has been alot of misinformation published about MG cast bullet accuracy. The only problem is the funky oversize barrel dimensions that require bullets different from the  tradtional 30 cal dimensions.

[oso45-70]

Chargar,
Thanks for the reply, But i have been through this before. I should have said that every thing i tried in this rifle would not work. The bore on this rifle was shot out. You could push a jaketed bullet through it with a dowel
rod. I have in the past used cast bullets from 170 to 190 shooting plates and have had good luck. The main reason i had a ballard barrel put on this is that i wanted to shoot some pretty hot 30-30 loads in it. and i feel that this barrel will do what i need it to do. It rides in the pick up every where i go and you never know what might jump up and and i want to be prepared. Thanks again for the reply and have a good day.........Joe........