30-30 loads

I'm looking for a good 30-30 load for large hogs. My last encounter yeilded a 200+- hog from my .270. The 130 grain Nosler Accubond bullet didn't fully exit. I found it sticking out 1/16" from the off side hog sheild.

My gun shoots 159 grn Rem Core Lokts well. Sub 2 MOA with the buckhorn sights. Since I will be night huntng, I will likely scope this gun and mount a good spotlight on the scope (legal on private land in AR).

I have H335 and W748 on hand. I am not opposed to getting another powder. I would like to duplicate factory velocities since the 30-30 is already a "slow" caliber. Any reccomendations for powder/bullets will be appreciated. I am leaning heavily toward jacketed bullets, but am considering cast. The bonded Speer Deep Curl line has aught my attention. Not certain if I want to deviate from the standard 150 grain bullet either.

The rifle is a mid '70s pre-saftey 336 passed down from my father. I have yet to harvest any animal with it.

So, suggestions on powders? Bullets? Any pics of recovered bullets would be much appreciated.

ETA: I wasn't clear before. I thought I had put this in here, but when I editted it or a shorter post, I guess I took it out inadvertently. I love my .270 and it performs well on hogs. But it is not a very ady gun for carrying a lot at night in thick stuff. I had been using my AR-15 but when I saw that my .270 didn't even produce a full exit wound, it made me feel very leary about going to the woods with only a .223. Thus my search for a 30-30 load. I have a 336 which I find balances very well and offers much quicker handling over my .270 bolt rifle.

170 gr bullets should penetrate deeper. Don't let the velocity difference deceive you. I've talked with a few guys in the past who have hunted elk with a 30/30, and they used 170 gr bullets. You can still get some pretty trick bullets for the 30/30 if you feel the need.

If you read a few reloading manuals you will see that either powder
can be used to equal factory velocities with 170 gr bullets.

I am a big fan of 32.0 of Varget under a 170 grain Sierra ProHunter. I have killed a lot of critters with that load and it shoots well out of every gun I ever tried it in. This hog agrees. He was walking toward me at about 85 yards. The round went in behind his ear and coursed down through his body. No exit. He fell over at the shot. No attempt to get up. A couple kicks. He looks little but was 205 lbs.

TNDave said:

I am a big fan of 32.0 of Varget under a 170 grain Sierra ProHunter. I have killed a lot of critters with that load and it shoots well out of every gun I ever tried it in. This hog agrees. He was walking toward me at about 85 yards. The round went in behind his ear and coursed down through his body. No exit. He fell over at the shot. No attempt to get up. A couple kicks. He looks little but was 205 lbs.

Click to expand...

Ever shoot one through the shield with that load?

tappedandtagged said:

I'm looking for a good 30-30 load for large hogs. My last encounter yeilded a 200+- hog from my .270. The 130 grain Nosler Accubond bullet didn't fully exit. I found it sticking out 1/16" from the off side hog sheild.

Click to expand...

This is exactly what you want to happen.
If the bullet fully exits, it means it's still carrying energy.
And if it's still carrying energy, it means it didn't transmit all it's energy into the target.
The optimum condition is for the bullet to dump all it's energy into the target.

Zappa said:

This is exactly what you want to happen.
If the bullet fully exits, it means it's still carrying energy.
And if it's still carrying energy, it means it didn't transmit all it's energy into the target.
The optimum condition is for the bullet to dump all it's energy into the target.

Click to expand...

Yes, but the fact that a .270 won't exit made me realize that my .223 was way under gunned. Thats why I'm moving up to a 30-30 as my night hunting gun.

And I would really rather have an exit wound. Hogs bleed very little as it is. An exit would would double my sucess in tracks in the event of a run off.

Because of that tough plate they walk around with I would suggest using a 170gr Premium bullet along with Leverevolution powder.

Some good bullets are the Hornady InterLock (#3060), Sierra Pro-Hunter (#2010), Nosler Partition (#16333), Speer DeepCurl (#2042), or even the Swift A-Frame (#301701) if you can afford them. (I can't) The premium bullet will resist expanding when they hit the plate and penetrate deep enough to do damage and stop the Hog.

you most likely don't need another powder. h335 is one of the best powders you can use in a 30-30 every one i have used it in shot small groups with high speed.

tappedandtagged said:

Ever shoot one through the shield with that load?

Click to expand...

No. The neck/ear shot is the shot I am always going for.

Great! If readily available locally, I want to use the Speer deep curl. If not, I know I can find the Sierra. I will experiment with the H335 and W748. If I like one of thise, I will stop. If not, LeverEvolution will be the next one I try.

The original .30-30 load used a 170 grain bullet and 30 grains (the second 30) of a propellant ballistically much like IMR 3031. That is still a good load. If you want to reload .30-30 using spitzer bullets, you can. But if so, is safest to load one round in the chamber and one in the magazine. The old story about igniting cartridges with spitzer bullets in a tubular magazine under recoil is mainly a myth. Many tests have shown it does not happen.

I shot several hogs in NC using factory 170grain core-locks. Never had one get away.

Chop

You can't beef up the old 30-30 too much from the factory velositys but the thing you can do is find a load that is.......
Accurate "Dead on" with your reloads.

Thats what is so great about reloading................even if you have to be 150fps slower than factory...........and another vote for the 170gr JFP bullet for maximum penetration.

Hornady 100gr plinker for "Wabbit".

160gr Hornady FTX over 30.2gr of IMR 4064. That load puts 3 shots under 2" at 100yds with my iron sight 1955 M94. Good luck.

tappedandtagged said:

I'm looking for a good 30-30 load for large hogs. My last encounter yeilded a 200+- hog from my .270. The 130 grain Nosler Accubond bullet didn't fully exit. I found it sticking out 1/16" from the off side hog sheild.

My gun shoots 159 grn Rem Core Lokts well. Sub 2 MOA with the buckhorn sights. Since I will be night huntng, I will likely scope this gun and mount a good spotlight on the scope (legal on private land in AR).

I have H335 and W748 on hand. I am not opposed to getting another powder. I would like to duplicate factory velocities since the 30-30 is already a "slow" caliber. Any reccomendations for powder/bullets will be appreciated. I am leaning heavily toward jacketed bullets, but am considering cast. The bonded Speer Deep Curl line has aught my attention. Not certain if I want to deviate from the standard 150 grain bullet either.

The rifle is a mid '70s pre-saftey 336 passed down from my father. I have yet to harvest any animal with it.

So, suggestions on powders? Bullets? Any pics of recovered bullets would be much appreciated.

Click to expand...

So lets see, you're standing there examining a dead hog and you decide you need a different cartridge and bullet?

If you want more penetration, slow down the bullet.

If you want more fun tracking at night use 30cal hardcast (seriously, it is a really bad choice for anything other than drilling little holes).

If you want BANG flop, then use a cheaper 130gr from your 270 and run it at 3000+fps. They don't have to penetrate very far to turn the insides of a piggy to mush.

I think the Speer 150gr FP is a good 30-30 bullet and you can run it at 2400fps from 20" tube.

My humble opinion of course

dla said:

So lets see, you're standing there examining a dead hog and you decide you need a different cartridge and bullet?

If you want more penetration, slow down the bullet.

If you want more fun tracking at night use 30cal hardcast (seriously, it is a really bad choice for anything other than drilling little holes).

If you want BANG flop, then use a cheaper 130gr from your 270 and run it at 3000+fps. They don't have to penetrate very far to turn the insides of a piggy to mush.

I think the Speer 150gr FP is a good 30-30 bullet and you can run it at 2400fps from 20" tube.

My humble opinion of course

Click to expand...

The dead hog was taken with my deer rifle while I was deer hunting. I want to use my 30-30 for hunting hogs at night instead of my AR that I usually take. I don't want to go out specifically for hogs with my bolt action .270. It is too long and heavy for a lot of still hunting. And not nearly as maneuverable as my 30-30.

My .270 did a fine job and I love the gun for what it is, a stand gun for open fields or shooting lanes. My 30-30 is better suited for the quick paced spot (or usually hear) and stalk in the brush of hog hunting. I used to use my AR, but since seeing that my .270 wouldn't do a pass through shot, I have decided to up my caliber choice. And I was considering hard cast for the "break the shoulder bones" effect, but have since decided to use a bonded jacketed.

Nevada Ed said:

You can't beef up the old 30-30 too much from the factory velositys but the thing you can do is find a load that is.......
Accurate "Dead on" with your reloads.

Thats what is so great about reloading................even if you have to be 150fps slower than factory...........and another vote for the 170gr JFP bullet for maximum penetration.

Hornady 100gr plinker for "Wabbit".

Click to expand...

Nice looking gun there! And I'm not really looking for beefed up velocities, but I do want factory velocity or close to it. I WILL NOT risk a high pressure load in this rifle. It can not be replaced. It was the first rifle my dad got after he married my mom. When he passed it down to me, it came with the original box of ammo (of course it was corroded and had green gunk around the case mouth). I have found it to have an excellent trigger pull (before they were lawyer-ized) and very accurate with factory 150 Core Lokts.

olskool said:

you most likely don't need another powder. h335 is one of the best powders you can use in a 30-30 every one i have used it in shot small groups with high speed.

Click to expand...

I actually never tried H335 in the 30-30 but I did use 4895, IMR4064 and a lot of IMR3031. While I use to load most of my 30-30 ammo with IMR3031 once I tried Leverevolution it became my only 30-30 powder.

Hornady uses different formulations of Leverevolution powder specifically mixed for each caliber. The Leverevolution powder being marketed by Hodgdon is the powder formulation used in the 30-30. I can report higher velocities with it, it's very clean burning and produces accurate ammo. I'm using it with the Hornady FTX bullets, traditional Hornady and Sierra 150gr and 170gr 30-30 bullets and with 165gr Hard Cast bullets too. It's very rare I turn away from a powder I used for a long time but this one is a keeper...

Thanks;
I also got this gun from my father and it is a "Looker" since that one bullet is around 45 years old and the gun has never been fired and the action opened maybe 20 times to get a check up and cleaning if needed.
However the other 94 has put a lot of meat in the ice box..............mostly from the bushy California where shots are from 20 feet, way out to 70 yards !!

Have yet to try the new Hodgdon powder but it has to be great stuff to get those higher velositys and be cleaner than the older powders. This company is really putting great stuff out for the shooters and reloaders the last ten years.