30 30 ram load

[TX Charlie]

Help.....
I need to know what the is the minimum velocity for a 150 gr bullet to reliably take down the Rams at 200 meters??   Hope to see lots of folks at Raton for the lever gun nats. in Aug.
Mucho Thanks......

[Lone Star]

I used to launch Hornady 150 FMJBTs from my 14" .30 Herrett at 1850 fps and almost never lost a ram.  But, our local ranges had good steel rails and the crews knew how to set the rams by the topple point rule  properly.  Poorly set rams, wooden rails, etc. raise the muzzle velocity threshold; 2000 fps would be better under those conditions.

[K2]

For handguns the target setting and the rails are the key to be sure!!!

In Rifle the rams are set full foot to be legal so require more omph (an official high tech term ;~) LOL.

I used to launch Hornady 150 FMJBTs from my 14" .30 Herrett at 1850 fps and almost never lost a ram.  But, our local ranges had good steel rails and the crews knew how to set the rams by the topple point rule  properly.  Poorly set rams, wooden rails, etc. raise the muzzle velocity threshold; 2000 fps would be better under those conditions.

[AMB]

I shoot 170 Sierra's in front of about 27 Grains of H-322. The recoil is there but more push, than smack. Not pretending there aren't better loads, but it works for me.

[Sixgun]

I shoot a RCBS 180-30-FN over 34 gr of IMR4831.  The Bullet drops from my mold at 190 gr, with my alloy.  With a gas check I get between 1950 and 1975 fps.  There is lost of unburned powder but it gets 3" groups at 200 yards with a receiver sight, from a rest.  This is my ram load and I got 8 rams with no ringers at the Idaho State Match last Saturday with this load.  I am the new Idaho State Cowboy Rifle Silhouette Champ.

I use 31 gr of IMR 4831 for all of the other animals.  In the previous 2 matches I used this load for rams and got one ringer in each of the matches.  It is going 1750 at the muzzle and there is lots of unburned powder with it also but the groups at 200 yards mirror the 34 gr load, about 4 inches lower on the target.  These are 5 shot groups with 4 shots going into about 1.5 inches and a flier opening it up to 3 inches.  

I tried lots of other loads and was getting 6 to 8 inch groups at 200 yards and just thought I could do better.  I tried the 4831 on a whim and my groups shrunk right down to 3".  Even with the unburned powder it is so accurate I will clean up the mess and keep winning matches.

The 34 gar load is all that can be stuffed into the case.  After I seat the bullet it slowly comes out of the case so when I crimp the load, with a lee factory crimp die, I push the bullet back into the case with my finger, while crimping the load.  This load shows no pressure signs at all but recoil can be stiff in a carbine.

Sixgun