General purpose 30/30 load

[jdb]

What's everyone's go to 30/30 load? Factory or home brewed? Bullet weight? Anyone shoot bullets less than 150 grain?

[kselkhunter]

The Hornady LeverRevolution ammo is hard to beat.  I use the 160grain FTX.  Deer and close-in elk. 

[Lefty315]

I've always just used the standard Remington or Federal in a 170 grain bullet.    But for my single shot I've loaded some 150 grain Hornady Spitzers.    Sort of fun loading for that rifle.

[superdown]

I don't think anyone should use anything less powerful than this loading     
https://www.buffalobore.com/index.php?l=product_detail&p=222


But seriously i agree the Hornady LeverEvolution is hard to beat

[CP]

IMHO – LeverEvolution sucks.  I’m not a fan of the FXT bullet or the loaded Hornady ammo.

But a 150gr Speer Hot-Cor FNSP loaded with 31.0g of Ramshot Xterminator is about as good as I’ve seen for the 30/30.  Great accuracy and terminal performance.

I recently picked up some 130g Speer Hot-Cor FNSP bullets but I haven’t worked up a load for them yet.

[buglebuster]

Talk to BLRMan, he is loading me up some right now.

[carpsniperg2]

I have seen that nosler is doing a ballistic tip hunting bullet for the 30/30. Anyone tried it?

[jdb]

IMHO – LeverEvolution sucks.  I’m not a fan of the FXT bullet or the loaded Hornady ammo.

But a 150gr Speer Hot-Cor FNSP loaded with 31.0g of Ramshot Xterminator is about as good as I’ve seen for the 30/30.  Great accuracy and terminal performance.

I recently picked up some 130g Speer Hot-Cor FNSP bullets but I haven’t worked up a load for them yet.

see I've wondered about that, I'm generally not a fan of hornady bullets for big game. Glad to see I'm not the only o e.

[Yondering]

But a 150gr Speer Hot-Cor FNSP loaded with 31.0g of Ramshot Xterminator is about as good as I’ve seen for the 30/30.  Great accuracy and terminal performance.

Have you fired that over a chrono? I'm real curious on the velocity of that load; I've worked up a wildcat cartridge in the AR15 platform that uses a very similar load, wondering how it compares. I already know it beats factory 30/30 by a fair amount but am not sure of a load like yours.

[CP]

But a 150gr Speer Hot-Cor FNSP loaded with 31.0g of Ramshot Xterminator is about as good as I’ve seen for the 30/30.  Great accuracy and terminal performance.

Have you fired that over a chrono? I'm real curious on the velocity of that load; I've worked up a wildcat cartridge in the AR15 platform that uses a very similar load, wondering how it compares. I already know it beats factory 30/30 by a fair amount but am not sure of a load like yours.

 I'd have to dig through my notes but it's around 2400fps out of my 20" barrel.  I've driven it faster but the accuracy starts to suffer.  Of course YMMV -

[superdown]

My only experience with the Hornady LeverEvolution is one deer which it performed just fine meaning it dropped the deer and the bullet wasn't recovered and a bit of target shooting which was about an inch @100 yards. So what has given you the opinion that it sucks?   

[jdb]

My only experience with the Hornady LeverEvolution is one deer which it performed just fine meaning it dropped the deer and the bullet wasn't recovered and a bit of target shooting which was about an inch @100 yards. So what has given you the opinion that it sucks?   

what was the range? When you say you didn't recover the bullet did it pass through? Broadside?

[superdown]

The range just under a hundred yards about 95 yards the deer took a step just before i took the shot. It hit him high in the shoulder area slightly quartering to me and yes the bullet passed through.

[Yondering]

But a 150gr Speer Hot-Cor FNSP loaded with 31.0g of Ramshot Xterminator is about as good as I’ve seen for the 30/30.  Great accuracy and terminal performance.

Have you fired that over a chrono? I'm real curious on the velocity of that load; I've worked up a wildcat cartridge in the AR15 platform that uses a very similar load, wondering how it compares. I already know it beats factory 30/30 by a fair amount but am not sure of a load like yours.

 I'd have to dig through my notes but it's around 2400fps out of my 20" barrel.  I've driven it faster but the accuracy starts to suffer.  Of course YMMV -

Good info, thanks! Mine does ~2450-2480 on the top end with a 150 CL-SP so that's pretty comparable.

[CP]

My only experience with the Hornady LeverEvolution is one deer which it performed just fine meaning it dropped the deer and the bullet wasn't recovered and a bit of target shooting which was about an inch @100 yards. So what has given you the opinion that it sucks?   

“Sucks” may be an overstatement but I tend toward hyperbole at times.

When this ammo first came out I bought 4 boxes hoping that it would live up to the marketing and extend the range of my Marlin 336.  A trip to the range put that to bed quickly.  3” @ 100y, 8” at 200y, and unmeasurable at 300y was what I came up with. 

Now 3” at 100y is certainly good enough for deer hunting and I’m sure it is plenty lethal, but then so is Federal blue box at half the price. 

I shot few rounds into wet OSB to check expansion, every one fragmented, jacket bits all over.

I also found that the gummy tips deform after they have been loaded and unloaded a couple of times into the tubular magazine that they are design for.   The most annoying part about hunting with the 336 is that I have to cycle all the rounds out when returning to the truck.  I really need a round that can stand up to that without getting damaged.  I can’t imagine that the accuracy is improved by bent tips on the bullet.

So, I'm not really a fan.