No info but I would be most interested in your results Gar.

 

10 or so grains of Unique with a 110 gr carbine bullet makes a light plinker/small game load.

 

I have never loaded anything lighter that 125gr in 30-30. It should be an interesting experiment. let us know how it works.

 

I have in a .30-06 and they keyholed...

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I have done considerable fooling with 30-30s. With lever guns for deer I load 150gr RN bullets / 2350fps/ 33.5gr IMR-3031
My special loads for Lighter bullets:
100gr 1/2 Jackets 6.5gr Unique /at 1200 fps.....my squirrel load
110gr Speer Varmiter 37.5gr IMR-4064/ at 2750fps...varmits and HP makes mush out of Ghogs

130gr Speer HP 35.5gr Win748 / at 2625fps....this is pointed HP and OAL is a single load in Marlin. Intended gun was a 219 Savage
but I got to using it on guys that Bad Mouth the 30/30. Have sent several away talking to them selves. Super accurate bullet in all 30s I've shot it in. Found it by accident when recomended by Springfield as accuracy load in their M1a 308 when first out.

 

I forgot to add that I made a little die that I use on the 1/2 jackets that changes them from RN to a pointed tip with a sharpe shoulder.
I first did this while fooling with a Broomhandle Mauser to make a quasi wadcutter. Turned out as a flop in the Mauser but improved the groups in LV loadings of the 1/2 jackets in 30/30 and 308. They do have the WC effect in the rifles at LV but keyholed in the Mauser.

 

Have you explored this thread?
https://www.marlinowners.com/forum/reloading/31201-lighter-bullets-30-30-a.html

 

OK, first things first. Which make of rifle are you shooting? I normally shoot lightweight cast bullets for the same purpose you're looking for and I have both a Winchester M94 and Marlin 336. I cannot seat the 100 and 110 gr. bullet out far enough for them to feed in the Winchester but they usually feed Ok but a bit rough in the Marlin. The 115 gr. bullet is so so in the M94 and works OK in the Marlin. The only bullet in the light weight category that is 100 percent in feeding in both rifles is a 120 gr. SAECO bevel bases round nose bullet. The comments apply to the Winchester M64 model as well. However, the Winchester M54 feeds everything like pork fate through a goose. Can't say about a Henry or Mossberg as I do not own one.

My point being, the OAL cartridge length will determine if you can use the bullets as a single shot or repeater. If your rifle is a single shot or bolt action them there shouldn't be much of a problem. Might pay you to make up a couple of dummy rounds to see if they will feed.
Paul B.

 

The light bullets 100-115gr are mostly shot in 336. I have no feed problems with even 100gr 1/2jacket. I know what you are talking about, I had feed problems with 35Rem fooling with light 357 bullets. Not only in 336 but Rem 14 & 141. OAL was to short. The Speer 130hp is to long for 336 and Sav340, makes single load only. I haven't used 94 Wins for this kind of thing because of the side mount scope deal. When brewing loads up I like to use a scope to get true results. Then on most I go back to reciever sights once my load is developed. I run into a lot of bullets that have OAL that are to long for levers, including 99 Savage.

 

It is not 90 grs., but I have a load with a 110 gr. carbine copper plated lead bullet pushed by 7 grs. of Red Dot that folks would call BS on how it groups at 100Y.
If I had any of those 90 gr. bullets, I would probably give them a try with 5-6. (336 MG)

 

please explain the crimping for tube fed lever gun use


jd

 

j

I'm not sure what you mean but in tube magazines the bullet can be set back in the case from recoil or just spring pressure of magazine spring. The crimp just secures bullet in case. In light loadings a uniform crimp in any rifle tends to tighten groups. Normally I only crimp when necessary for tube mags, pistols, large magnum rifles with heavy loads and cartridges loaded light. Sometimes new brass will grip bullet tightly enough but when it gets work hardened it looses its ability to provide tension on the bullet.

 

On the 1/2 jackets I'm putting light crimp into the lead. On the carbine bullet and 130speers I very lightly crimp. Just a tad to much
and you wouldn't deform the bullet the crimp will hump up and ruin the cartridge. With lead bullets I don't think you will have that problem, they are soft enough to take a light crimp no problem. Shooting the light load 100gr 1/2 jackets from a scoped Savage 219 with no crimp really showed up in groups. Shooting at 60yds I got 4"+ groups. Crimping turned them down to 1". I first used the 1/2 jackets in a M70 308 and rifle is a tack driver. Never crimped and they shot lousy. I never crimp my BA cartridges except 375 H&H.
I just thought the bullet was no good in the M70. A few years later I saw a article "squirrel with you deer rifle", all about light loads for popular deer guns and it emphasized crimping on light loads. I tried it and it worked. I bought the 1/2 jackets by the brick and have shot a bunch of them. For light loads you can't beat them but I've never had any luck pushing them hot. I have been thinking of buying a cannulure tool for use on 235speers in 375Win but it would also be handy for some of these light bullet loads in other calibers.

 

Guys tend to want to load light bullets in deer rifles and drive them at Varmit gun velocities. Usually you can back them down a few clicks and they will do better. Key hole can be caused by stripping rifling or by the twist of barrel for certain bullet. I had three 300mg rifles. A win 70, Rem 700 and a H&R ultra. The Win & Rem would shoot 130gr Speers as hot as you could load the. The H&R didn't like them. The Win 70 and Rem 700 shot about anything but the H&R liked the bigger bullets. I've tried to shoot light bullets at HV in a lot of rifles that it didnt work out. I think LV calibers are more forgiving if you stay within reasonable velocities. I'm not saying you can't blow the pill down the road at warp 56, you just will be lucky if you get it to shoot.

 

yep, what Drm50 said ....

a local casting buddy (actually started reloading about the same time as me in early 2011) tried his hand at casting the Lee 150 for his (low end, single shot) 30-30, thinking he could turn it into a precision rifle. I never witnessed his experiments and just quietly listened to him telling our more experienced casting/reloaders that leading was eating him up while trying to find that accuracy node above 2K fps. They were gas checked (aluminum, because they were much cheaper: ), so he thought he should get a screaming velocity with pinpoint precision. Glad I stayed quiet. He finally admitted giving up on 30-30 after a year or so and gave me his entire leftover stash of about 180 bullets. I carefully sorted through them and tossed a dozen or so (you know ... the ones that look like compressed cottage cheese) and weighed about 25%. They averaged about 142gr +/-, but looked at least decent. Since I was so hooked on working up loads for my R92 44mag, I hung on to them for a couple of years before dedicating the time and limited brain power to try them. I only worked up 20 test loads to begin with .... 10 rounds with 9.0 gr Unique and 10 rounds with 9.3 gr of Unique. Five rounds of each went through the chrony, to a target, the five of each strictly to an unobstructed target at 50 yards. The initial chrony test started with the 9.0 gr and averaged 1460 fps, into a nice 1 inch cluster. I can't remember the numbers, but the 9.3 gr load did have a slight increase in velocity, large SD, and the group opened up to 2 inches. The target only rounds ended up showing the exact same group patterns. Thinking it was just a fluke, next go round I loaded 9.0 gr and 9.5 gr test batches. The slow 9.0 gr loads resulted in a 1 inch 10 shot group (50 yds), while the 9.5 gr loads opened up to above 2 inches. Now, after a couple of years of tinkering with these bullets there's probably 8-10 of those 1 inch group targets (of 9.0 gr Unique) in my 30-30 folder, but the supply of those bullets has gotten really small. I don't imagine that I'll get to be a kid again, but I can still dream about those lightweight, slow moving, accurate shooting bullets in the 30-30 taking out a truck load of head shot squirrels, rabbits and *****.

I have no doubt that a MG barreled 336 30-30 can shoot low velocity, lightweight cast bullets as accurate as the average .22lr rifle can at 50 yards. There's no real world practical use in it for me anymore, but proving it to work (particularly in my gun) is a quest.

That's why I'm interested in learning techniques from those with much more experience ... as well as determining suitable styles/weights of readily available projectiles.

(I think I'm rambling ... if not spewing useless drivel)


jd

 

I have no advice to offer as I never quite mastered cast in a 30-30 Microgroove barrel, and have never shot lightweight j-words or boolits in one either, but I'm interested in seeing the results.

 

Travis, I just decided to check my 30-30 notes and surprisingly (to me) I didn't start tinkering with the cast bullets until early 2018. The lightweight 142's were the second or third cast bullets I tried, but specifically stuck to just pistol powders ... Unique and A-2400. I did get pretty good accuracy out of the A-2400, and about 150 fps gain, but not enough gain for the intended purpose to blow 50% more powder. Keeping the lightweights at under 1500 fps has resulted in no leading and good, consistent accuracy. I've pushed the heavier cast bullets (gc) with rifle powders to over 2k fps with no leading, but at those velocities the groups tended to spread. I do have targets and notes of loading the 170's and 180's with a "less than max" load of AA#7 for a velocity of around 1600 fps and 1" 5 shot groups (50 yards). The lightweights were sized to .309 so my guess was that they would probably skid the rifling if I pushed them too hard. The heavies were built by a couple of "well known experts" and sized to .310-.311 so I figured I had plenty of leeway to push them within reason. Both the heavies in my rifle powder loads showed reasonable results, but danged if I'm not more impressed by that 1600 fps accuracy from pistol powders.

I too was leery about shooting cast in my (1973) micro-groove barrel but I figured the worst that could happen shooting sane loads was that I may have to spend a bit more time "getting the lead out". It's turned out to be a complete non issue given the above mentioned circumstances.

Back to the original intent of this post ..... I still have an interest in trying those "ultra-light" bullets in my 336.


jd

 

Check out the lighter bullets in 30/30 sticky.

 

Most all my light bullet shooting is done in my Maurader. Besides it being my favorite 30-30 it has more effect at the range on the guys who say they won't shoot. I admit I hustle them a little. I will slip out ahead of time and super tune it for whatever I plan to pull on them. Those 130speers can do some long range steel ringing for a 30/30. I havent shot much cast in 30/30, 336 but have shot a lot in 1895 and 94 44mg. They shot well but I run Hornady JHPs in both for deer hunting. The 330gr Gould Express and old Ideal/ Lyman bullet is accurate with mild loads and doesn't beat you to death off the bench.