.30-30 ammo

[Tnbear]

Has anyone ever done any handloads or know of any .30-30 ammo that uses a pointed bullet? I have seen the LEVERevolution 160 grain ammo but I have not tried it. One other question...what grain bullet have you found to be more accurate in the .30-30 Handi? The only thing I have tried so far is the Remington Core-Lok in the 150 and 170 grain and so far the 150 grain shoots a tighter group. Has anyone else had the same results with the lighter bullet? Thanks guys

[quickdtoo]

Welcome aboard! The 150gr Fusion ammo shoot real good in mine, I've got dies and brass but haven't loaded for it yet, got too many others to play with loads!!

Tim

[myarmor]

One of the best reasons for picking a 30-30 in a Handi, is the ability to use Spitzer type bullets. Better BC's and flatter trajectories, is always a good thing. If you Hand load, the Ol' 30-30 is a very versitile round, and great on deer. A repeater/lever action is nice, but with the added advantage of shooting Spitzers and strong loads in a Handi, it levels out rather nicely... There are several 30-30 owners here that have posted very good results from these type of bullets and loads.
-Aaron

[cwlongshot]

IMHO, The one problem with spritzer/pointed bullets in a 30-30 is their velocity.. While it certainly improved the ballistics of the ol'girl at longer ranges. the bullets are designed to expand at much higher velocities than are attainable from the 30-30.

I have had good results with the 125 Nosler BT and the 150 Nosler BT at reg 30-30 ranges, say with in 150 Yard's. I am sure with everyone coming out with s BT style bullet all of those should work similarly.

CW

[Swampman]

http://www.hornady.com/story.php?s=439

Just an FYI.

[Roudy]

Tnbear,

  The first high power rifle I bought in the early 70's was a 30-30 handi rifle, also began reloading then for the 30-30.  My objective was to use it for hunting groundhogs so I loaded 33 grains of IMR 3031 behind a 110 grain hollowpoint bullet.  Most of my shooting was done at 200 yards or less and I had pretty good success with it.  I don't know what the muzzle velocity is, just guessing about 2500 FPS.  Accuracy is still pretty good at 100 yards also. 

  Loaded with a 150 grain, or more, bullet it also makes a good deer cartridge, pointed bullets of course.  The ability to use pointed bullets was the primary reason for picking the handi rifle over a lever action.  With practice, reloading isn't much slower than with a lever action.

  I've also used 173 grain FMJ bullets in a 30-30 in my Contender just for grins and it is amazingly accurate, on a real good day, for me, it will group in about an inch at 100 yards.  Wouldn't recommend the FMJ for hunting though.

Roudy

[quickdtoo]

Here's a thread with some handloads for ya. Some NEF .30-30s had a 1:12" twist as RV's does, most from a poll done a couple years ago have 1:10".

Tim

http://www.graybeardoutdoors.com/smf/index.php/topic,83574.msg508305.html#msg508305

[Tnbear]

   Thanks for the help everyone! The reason I bought the Handi was because I owned a bunch of H&R shotguns through the years and loved them. The single shots made me a better shooter overall. The .30-30 was the best choice for the area I live in, not many shots over 75-100 yards. I would still like to hand load some with the spitzer type bullets to reach out for coyotes , groundhogs and the occasional deer that wanders out of the woods into the open. Again, thanks for the help

[Dillohide]

I've had good sucess using 150 grain Hornady and Remington Spire Points. Surprisingly a little better accuracy with the  Remingtons in the Handy. Both were very accurate with the max recomended load for 30-30 using BL-C2 and Varget powders. Also got very good accuracy out of the Hornady 170 grain flat point and the Max load of BL-C2 ... however because of the extreem heat we had this summer in North Texas the groups in that load got erractic so it's not a good 100+ degree load. Nosler 125 grain Ballistic Tips and Varget is also a very good load.

One thing that will save you some trouble loading Spire Ponts with crimp lines in the 30-30 case ... don't seat the bullet to the crimp line. The overall bullet length will be to long and it will stick in the lands. Push the Spire Point crimp line into the case neck so that overall cartridge length is somewhere around 2.70 inches ... about the same as a 308.

[kid_couteau]

Hi All

I have used these for 30-30 loads and they all worked good

.223 FMJ in sabot (shoots high tho)

110 grain FMJ round nose

buckshot sized down to .309

90 grain cast bullet (32 cal sized to .309)

150 FMJ

168 grain HPBT match grade

170 grain flat point

They all worked good some worked great

Take care
Kid

[PeterCartwright]

Tnbear:
 I used to load Nosler 150 gr. BT's for my Handi.  I'm not nearly as sophisticated in my reloading skills as many on this list, but I confess I never had a problem with a short throat.  I looked up some of those loads (34 grs. of 748 behind 150 gr. BT) and discovered that they measure 2.795 OAL.  Maybe I never had trouble because of the long ogive on the BTs.

The most spectacular "bang-flop" of my hunting years occurred about 6 years ago in the last minute or two of legal shooting hours.  It was snowing so hard that I was having a terrible time keeping my optics clean when a nice 6 point whitetail came storming into my bait site 50 yards away.  He literally put his nose into one of the 35 mm film canisters containing Tink's lure.  I took him at that angle-head down, quartering away from my brush pile.  The BT entered behind the near shoulder, traversed both lungs, penetrated the far shoulder and neatly broke the femor before leaving a dime sized exit hole.  It was just like turning out the lights.

One of the charming things about this .30-30 Handi is that it is so easy to please.  Factory loads (150 or 170grs.) shoot at or near minute of angle.  In fact, I've sometimes had fun showing up some rather pricey bolt guns at the range.  I have mine set up now with a youth stock so my 15 year old has an appropriate gun for deer season.  It's one of my most treasured rifles.