30-30 bullet

[tipiguy]

As long as I am shooting a 30-30 bullet in a Contender (without the tube magazine like most 30-30s) can I shoot any .308 bullet in the 100-180 grain range?

I saw that Hornady had several .308 bullets specially marked for 30-30 but thought that may be only because of the magazine requirements.

Thanks for the help.

Rich

[John Traveler]

You can load and fire most ANY .308" diameter jacketed bullet in your .30-30 contender safely, but be advised that the heavier bullets (150-220 grain) jacketed jobs not designed for .30-30 velocities probably won't expand properly.

The limitation for tubular magazine rifles of course, is that the bullets be flat point, round nose, and not full-metal jacket or spitzer.  Less well advertised is that .30-30 class bullets have tinner jackets designed for the modest velocities.

[KYODE]

yep, should be able to shoot any .308 bullet in the 30-30 contender. you can use the pointed spitzer bullets to your advantage for more downrange performance over regular 30-30 flat point, hollow point bullets. some are made specifically for single shot handguns. such as the sierra 135gr single shot pistol bullet, and the hornady 130gr single shot pistol bullet. some others that should expand on deer size game would be the hornady 130gr sp,nosler 125gr balistic tip, nosler 150gr balistic tip, speer 125gr tnt, and i would think the hornady 150gr sst. there may be others, but i  recall reports on those in particular.
the 30-30 marked bullets are made for tubular magazines, and 30-30 velocities. they will work in a contender but you can use the pointed bullets with their higher balistic coefficients for flatter trajectory and increased energy.

[Snowshoe]

My wife and I have been using  bolt action, clip fed .30-30's for a lot of years now. I have found the Winchester 150g psp power point's, to be very good out of our rifles. They are accurate and expand very well. I have also loaded a lot of Remington 125g psp's ahead of H335, with very good results. I used the 125g bullets quite a bit in a  24" barreled single shot to shoot targets and coyotes out to 300 yards.
     A couple of years ago I picked up a .22-250, and last year a 8x57 so I don't use the .30-30 much now. My wife is still going strong with the .30-30, and says she needs nothing else.