Dear Sirs,
thank you all for posting, much appreciated
Yes - the .30/30 is a great all-round caliber, I also own a 1971 Winchester 94 "Antique" in .30/30 - the colourcase hardend version with a brass sadle ring - which I enjoy shooting very much. Couldn't afford a pre-64 winnie at the time, so living with the slighty agricultural action
. Decent accuracy of 4" @ 110 yds (100 meters) for 5 five shot strings with cheapo PRVI Partizan 170 grs. fodder, using peep sight from prone. People consider you a bit of an oddball here, if hunting with a .30/30, Danish hunters almost exclusively used either 6.5x55 Swedish, .308 Win. or 30-06. I never fail to mention that the .30/30 probably dropped more deer over the years than any of the others calibers
However, though I live in rural surroundings in an old farm (1892), I do have neighbours near by. So, shooting factory loads seems a bit like intruding onto their privacy (noise) and I don't want to alarm any neighbours - most Danes are slightly "gun-o-phobic", so an afternoons worth of plinking cans is frowned upon by most (sad really, but it is what it is, Danish constitution does not include a 2'nd ammendment - value yours!).
I therefor took up reloading recently, partly to be able to make some subsonic plinking loads for the .30 (with the added benefit of a reduced safety range) - but mostly to reduce my ammunition cost for my M&P 9L that I use for IPSC competitions. 50 rds. of so-so 9x19 mm ammo is 17-20$ if storebought here - and I use a lot!
Well, as luck would have it, I thought I might as well go "all in" and start casting my own boolits as well - wow, that's a lot of fun! Everybody in my gun club says "why bother", "You'll never make a none-leading 9mm load", etc... Old wives tales a plenty. Don't care, having too much fun scavanging alloy, making my own lube, etc. Just did my first batch of 150 grs. .30 boolits today (Lee mould, gascheck design), pan lubed in 1 lbs beeswax / 1 lbs vaseline with a tablespoon of "Superlube" (contains PTFE - aka Teflon) - looks promising!
Spoke to the gun shop today, my H&R has had a health check (all is well), and has had a discreet "period" scope mounted (sadly can't find a K4 weaver, would have been my first choice) - so now I just need to wait for the permit, normally takes 2-4 weeks to clear, but with holidays and all... could be more
I bought the H&R for three reasons:
1. No gun rack is complete without a light and handy Mannlicher stocked rifle
2. With a H&R it is very easy to visually inspect barrel for leading when developing a load for the .30/30
3. The accuracy of a scoped 157 I expect to exceed that of the winchester, so the H&R will serve as my test rig for the winchester (I know succes in the H&R does not neccessarily mean success in the winchester, they might slug differently and chamber / COL might vary, but should still be a good indicator for "a good load"
I really hoped that the 157 would accept a .223 barrel from a "present day" handi rifle, but seems this is not the case?
Kind regards
Mikkel
EDIT:
P.S.: Great tip regarding the O-ring - obvious way to do it, I was almost going at a wine cork with a fillet knife to make my own shim, now I'll just have to drink the wine and leave it at that :-)
