Handloading ammunition is a labor of love. This review is on handloading .30-30 cartridges. Many of you will know my love for the .30 WCF as more info can be found here. (2) Marlin 336C30 20 Inch Barrel | Indiana Gun Owners - Gun Classifieds and Discussions
I found out at a young age that to keep our junky cars and trucks running we had to work on them ourselves. Didn’t have a rich mommy to buy me new cars and trucks to drive to school. Today, a quick look around the high school student parking lot in Carmel will speak volumes of what I am talking about. Anyway, little did I know it would make me a gearhead. That’s right, one that just didn’t drive cars but knew how to build one. How to buy one. How to sell one. How to restore one. In other words, a gear head.
I took the same approach to many other things including family, photography, construction, farming and of course firearms. It has been my curse of character that if you are going to do something, do it all the way. Ammunition handloading was no different if I was to be a gunhead.
I am not sure what paid gun writer (Maybe R Hacker) it was to claim lever action guns were not accurate or the .30-30 was not potent or efficient enough of a cartridge but I disagree on both accounts. The ammunition I describe building in this review is very accurate like less than one MOA from ALL of my Lever guns.
I start with brass cleaning. Using once fired Winchester brass from Silver box .30-30’s X30306 | Winchester Ammunition, I wet tumble them in my RCBS drum Buy Rotary Case Cleaner and More | RCBS. I use a half of teaspoon of Dawn along with a pinch of LemiShine along with hot water. After about 1 hour, they come out very clean. I then dry them in my Lyman Case Dryer Cyclone® Case Dryer (lymanproducts.com) or place them on a cookie sheet in the warm sun weather dependent.
From there when dry they go to a soft towel on my bench, where I inspect each case and lay them on their side so that I can spray case lube over them. Dillon, Berrys, Frankford Arsenal or home made case lube works well. When lubed they each get resized and de primed with my Rebel Rebel Press Reloading Press | RCBS and RCBS dies. After that I dry tumble them in Lyman treated corncob Tumbling Media | Lyman Media & Accessories (lymanproducts.com) to remove the case lube but not change the resized brass dimensions.
Then, my shiny cases go over to the trimming station where they are cut and chamfered to correct specs. Brass Smith Case Trim Xpress™ (lymanproducts.com) The reason I full length resize and trim cases is because I will shoot these rounds in many different rifles. If I were to just want to milk even more accuracy, I could neck size and shoot in one gun, however, many times chambers vary and one does not want an action that wont close or closes hard in the field at anytime. I find that I can get 3 to 4 handloads out of a piece of brass. Some would go more but I err on the side of caution. With rifle pressures a few inches from your nose, the last thing I need is a catastrophic case failure or anything else that may happen with weak brass.
Now that they are trimmed I prime each case by hand and inspect each case closely. If the primer pockets are corroded or need cleaned out I have a reamer I use. My RCBS universal primer Universal Hand Priming Tool | RCBS does the job perfectly. Once primed they go into a loading block for powder charging. Sometimes, I throw from my digital scale Buy ChargeMaster Link Electronic Powder Dispenser and More | RCBS or my old Lyman 55 hand thrower.
Now it is on to seating the bullets being careful to line up the bullet straight and not crush the case in doing so. I want the bullet seated to the correct length and for the neck to hold the bullet securely. Once the lot is seated, I then crimp using the Lee Factory Crimp die. Factory Crimp Die 30/30 - Lee Precision.
I generally use factory Winchester Power Point 150 Grain ammunition for my factory fodder. I handload a factory duplicate load using Winchester PP bullets, 748 Winchester Powder and Winchester Primers. My secondary .30-30 loads are my lighter Varmint loads. For those, I use Alliant 2400 under a Speer 110 Grain Hollow point FP bullet with Winchester primers. This load is sweet and gives the rifle a 38 Special plus P load that is so sweet for shooting. Using the same factory box the new ammo came in, (Big Starr showed me the proper way to open a box of cartridges) I turned the undamaged container inside out and labeled for my handloads.
Many years ago I shot cast bullets but with todays offerings of components readily available I am down to just shooting jacket bullets in all my .30-30 rifles. Many components can be substituted for what I use and the same can go with loading equipment as well. I am not paid for these reviews and can only write about what I have had the best experience with in my equipment over my 55 year shooting career. I try very hard to not use anything foreign including powder and other components and ammunition. Again the price of dignity.
The .30-30 or .30WCF has served me for a lifetime and my loads and guns are very accurate and dependable and can be tailored to whatever I need. Sure, I have flatter shooting calibers but NONE are as fun and rewarding as shooting this old round. Shooting, Cleaning, Maintaining and Handloading is what this Gunhead is all about.
I found out at a young age that to keep our junky cars and trucks running we had to work on them ourselves. Didn’t have a rich mommy to buy me new cars and trucks to drive to school. Today, a quick look around the high school student parking lot in Carmel will speak volumes of what I am talking about. Anyway, little did I know it would make me a gearhead. That’s right, one that just didn’t drive cars but knew how to build one. How to buy one. How to sell one. How to restore one. In other words, a gear head.
I took the same approach to many other things including family, photography, construction, farming and of course firearms. It has been my curse of character that if you are going to do something, do it all the way. Ammunition handloading was no different if I was to be a gunhead.
I am not sure what paid gun writer (Maybe R Hacker) it was to claim lever action guns were not accurate or the .30-30 was not potent or efficient enough of a cartridge but I disagree on both accounts. The ammunition I describe building in this review is very accurate like less than one MOA from ALL of my Lever guns.
I start with brass cleaning. Using once fired Winchester brass from Silver box .30-30’s X30306 | Winchester Ammunition, I wet tumble them in my RCBS drum Buy Rotary Case Cleaner and More | RCBS. I use a half of teaspoon of Dawn along with a pinch of LemiShine along with hot water. After about 1 hour, they come out very clean. I then dry them in my Lyman Case Dryer Cyclone® Case Dryer (lymanproducts.com) or place them on a cookie sheet in the warm sun weather dependent.
From there when dry they go to a soft towel on my bench, where I inspect each case and lay them on their side so that I can spray case lube over them. Dillon, Berrys, Frankford Arsenal or home made case lube works well. When lubed they each get resized and de primed with my Rebel Rebel Press Reloading Press | RCBS and RCBS dies. After that I dry tumble them in Lyman treated corncob Tumbling Media | Lyman Media & Accessories (lymanproducts.com) to remove the case lube but not change the resized brass dimensions.
Then, my shiny cases go over to the trimming station where they are cut and chamfered to correct specs. Brass Smith Case Trim Xpress™ (lymanproducts.com) The reason I full length resize and trim cases is because I will shoot these rounds in many different rifles. If I were to just want to milk even more accuracy, I could neck size and shoot in one gun, however, many times chambers vary and one does not want an action that wont close or closes hard in the field at anytime. I find that I can get 3 to 4 handloads out of a piece of brass. Some would go more but I err on the side of caution. With rifle pressures a few inches from your nose, the last thing I need is a catastrophic case failure or anything else that may happen with weak brass.
Now that they are trimmed I prime each case by hand and inspect each case closely. If the primer pockets are corroded or need cleaned out I have a reamer I use. My RCBS universal primer Universal Hand Priming Tool | RCBS does the job perfectly. Once primed they go into a loading block for powder charging. Sometimes, I throw from my digital scale Buy ChargeMaster Link Electronic Powder Dispenser and More | RCBS or my old Lyman 55 hand thrower.
Now it is on to seating the bullets being careful to line up the bullet straight and not crush the case in doing so. I want the bullet seated to the correct length and for the neck to hold the bullet securely. Once the lot is seated, I then crimp using the Lee Factory Crimp die. Factory Crimp Die 30/30 - Lee Precision.
I generally use factory Winchester Power Point 150 Grain ammunition for my factory fodder. I handload a factory duplicate load using Winchester PP bullets, 748 Winchester Powder and Winchester Primers. My secondary .30-30 loads are my lighter Varmint loads. For those, I use Alliant 2400 under a Speer 110 Grain Hollow point FP bullet with Winchester primers. This load is sweet and gives the rifle a 38 Special plus P load that is so sweet for shooting. Using the same factory box the new ammo came in, (Big Starr showed me the proper way to open a box of cartridges) I turned the undamaged container inside out and labeled for my handloads.
Many years ago I shot cast bullets but with todays offerings of components readily available I am down to just shooting jacket bullets in all my .30-30 rifles. Many components can be substituted for what I use and the same can go with loading equipment as well. I am not paid for these reviews and can only write about what I have had the best experience with in my equipment over my 55 year shooting career. I try very hard to not use anything foreign including powder and other components and ammunition. Again the price of dignity.
The .30-30 or .30WCF has served me for a lifetime and my loads and guns are very accurate and dependable and can be tailored to whatever I need. Sure, I have flatter shooting calibers but NONE are as fun and rewarding as shooting this old round. Shooting, Cleaning, Maintaining and Handloading is what this Gunhead is all about.
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