Pointed Bullets in 30-30

[entropy]

I’m bored. It’s starting to warm up, and my energy and enthusiasm are coming out of hibernation. I’m trying to resist going down the black powder cartridge rabbit hole as well.

Has anyone strayed away from the usual 130, 150, 170gr lead and jacketed bullets and experimented a bit? There’s a bunch of interesting folks out there using Winchesters of various calibers, (along with the Rolling Blocks and Sharps) that seem to enjoy dinging metal with wooden shooting sticks and iron sights out at Schmidt-Bender (maybe Vortex for us poors) distances. Yes, I know my 94 isn’t a bench rest rifle, but neither is my old Schmidt Rubin, but I’ve had a lot of fun with that out to about 600y using hand loads and a diopter sights.

I have an entire shelf of used and experimented with .308 diameter bullets to draw from. The first person who says “it’s dangerous to load them in a tubular magazine” gets monkey stomped. We all know that. 😁

I bet there are a few folks around here that have played around with this before!

[Jim Watson]

Well, yes, but MY .30-30 is a Remington 788 and once upon a time I shot a Contender at IHMSA.
A friend gave me some 173gr military match pulls - his Uncle had replaced them with SMKs as "Mexican Match." They do well loaded over magazine OAL, but have to be seated very deeply to fit the magazine. I shot mostly Speer 150 gr BTSP in the Contender, largely because there was a Speer dealer here at the time.
A friend borrowed my 788 to hunt with after her .270 was stolen and got a deer with the Hornady rubber nose sorta spitzer.

[Oldherkpilot]

I’m bored. It’s starting to warm up, and my energy and enthusiasm are coming out of hibernation. I’m trying to resist going down the black powder cartridge rabbit hole as well.

Has anyone strayed away from the usual 130, 150, 170gr lead and jacketed bullets and experimented a bit? There’s a bunch of interesting folks out there using Winchesters of various calibers, (along with the Rolling Blocks and Sharps) that seem to enjoy dinging metal with wooden shooting sticks and iron sights out at Schmidt-Bender (maybe Vortex for us poors) distances. Yes, I know my 94 isn’t a bench rest rifle, but neither is my old Schmidt Rubin, but I’ve had a lot of fun with that out to about 600y using hand loads and a diopter sights.

I have an entire shelf of used and experimented with .308 diameter bullets to draw from. The first person who says “it’s dangerous to load them in a tubular magazine” gets monkey stomped. We all know that. 😁

I bet there are a few folks around here that have played around with this before!

That's how you get kilt in the woods.😁

[entropy]

Hey...if you like you some “kilt in the woods”, who am I to judge?

I’m Czech. We have our own traditions.

[Wheeler]

Subscribing because Contender.

[Crazy Dane]

I used to have a H&R Handi rifle that I loaded 165 Partitions to a hefty +P velocity. I no longer have that data or remember the charge of R-15 that I was using. It was accurate and deadly out to 250 yards or so. I traded it off for a Handi in .308. Boy, was I dumb...

[Hambo]

The first person who says “it’s dangerous to load them in a tubular magazine” gets monkey stomped. We all know that. 😁


We all know that pointy bullets are dangerous in a tube, or we all know that you get monkey stomped for saying that? ;)

I sold my .30-30 TC barrels, but I probably loaded pointy bullets in them. Have to check the notes.

[37th Mass]

I have a Savage 24 over/under in 30-30/12ga. I use it during turkey season on family land in Georgia. The 12 gauge is for the turkey, and the 30-30 is for any feral hog that wanders by. Since the 30-30 is a single shot, I can shoot pointy bullets without issue.

I've had good range results with pointed 150 grain Hornady Interlock soft points over 36.3 grains of CFE223 propellant in Hornady cases. I got an average velocity of 2451.4 fps and an SD of just 6.2. Nice little groups.

I haven't had the opportunity to put one of those Interlocks in a hog yet, but turkey season starts April 2nd...

I've thought of getting really crazy, and having the Savage reamed out to 30-30 AI...

[entropy]

I’m going to toss together some 165gr Remington PSPCL and see how they do. I’ll report back.

[entropy]

I’m going to toss together some 165gr Remington PSPCL and see how they do. I’ll report back.


Is it proper internet protocol to quote yourself? 🤷

Anyhow, scratched the above idea for the time being. Instead, I dug out the 173gr Lyman’s with the gas check. A few years back, I tried them and wasn’t happy. I’m revisiting that with a new plan. I got the seating depth issue solved (shallow throat was jamming bullets) and loaded up a spread using Unique at 8.5-10.0gr. Last time the 9.0gr gave me one hole/5 shots at 25yds and about 1300fps. We’ll see how it goes this time.

Now off to dig up Malamute thread on stoning the loading door on my ‘94. I think it’s in the Levergun thread.

[Spartan1980]

I haven't messed with the concept in 30-30 but I have a box a Speer 235 grain spitzers to try in my .375 Winchester. Will it be worth the trouble and make it flat enough for far enough to justify? I don't know but if I can develop a zero that will let me hold center mass to 200+ yards I'll consider it a success. Hornady just won't make any of the good levergun ammo in this caliber. I understand why, but it's still frustrating!

[OlongJohnson]

I've crawled all around the ballistics and convinced myself that the Barnes TAC-TX 120gr is an optimum solution for a pointy version of the cartridge, especially in a lightweight, compact single shot like a Contender carbine. It has a decent BC. The speed that a .30-30 can drive it to, especially a .30-30 AI, is a really good match for its expansion characteristics, and its reliable expansion down to 1350 or so FPS gives an effective range to the .30-30 that gets into the ranges where the trajectory makes putting shots on game sketchy.

At the same time, I compared it to other options like 7-30 Waters and 7mm TCU, and the fact that no similar bullet exists for them makes the TAC-TX .30-30 a clear winner for hunting, at least on paper. Plenty of meat has been stacked with those others, but when you look at the numbers and are honest about expansion threshold, the Ol' Reliable comes out as more capable. The fact that you're not limited to your snowflake custom ammo in a pinch is also worth considering.

If you're just ballistics-curious, you can probably work up a surrogate reduced load in a .308 and test it on meat before committing to the Contender barrel project.

[RevolverRob]

The Tac-Tx 110-120 for .300BO should work excellent in a .30-30 over longer ranges.

I don't know about heavier .308" bullets but I mean anything pointy should start to mimic .308/.300BO.

[OlongJohnson]

The Tac-Tx 110-120 for .300BO should work excellent in a .30-30 over longer ranges.

The 120 has an advertised BC of .358 vs. .289 for the 110. In .300 BLK, the 120 eats enough of the limited case volume that the velocity falls off excessively, and by the time it appears better, they are both in rainbow land. The consensus is that the 110 is actually a better choice within the ranges where .300 BLK is a reasonable choice.

On the other hand, the .30-30 with a 20-22 inch barrel can drive the 120 to the top end of its designed expansion window, a couple hundred FPS faster than the 110 out of a .300 BLK. So it's definitely a step up in ballistics from the little AR cartridge, flatter shooting to longer ranges and staying above the 2300-ish FPS threshold discussed by Federal engineers when talking about the difference between rifle and pistol terminal ballistics for a longer short-range window.

One problem is that many/most factory Contender .30-30 barrels came with six lands and six grooves of equal width. This increases pressures because the bullet has to be swaged down into a smaller cross sectional area. So if you want to safely get the most from the cartridge, you need to wait for one of the hard-to-find factory barrels with narrower lands and wider grooves (still rolling the dice on whether the person who chambered it was having a good or bad day), or have something custom made.