30-30 powders

waco

Springfield, Oregon
Looking to load up some moderate plinking loads for my Win 92 and Savage 340. I have the NOE SC-311-RF RD mold.
I have had some luck in the past with
H4895
IMR 3031
H335
2400 and SR4759
What are your favorite 30-30 powders and why?
 

Brad

Benevolent Overlord and site owner
Staff member
I shoot way more 2400 than anything in 30-30. Won’t give much over 1700 FPS with accuracy or reasonable pressure but it excels in the 1600 FPS range. Try starting around 15 gr and work up to 16-16.5. It can be a bit position sensitive but at 100 yards it does t seem to make a huge difference in elevation. By 150 yards the elevation issue becomes a problem.
The top powders for full loads are the same as with jacketed. 3031 and 4895 would be good there but 335 might just be better.
 

waco

Springfield, Oregon
I really like the RD bullet design. It hits things really hard. Fun shooting steel with this one.
 

Rick

Moderator
Staff member
Tried 4759 once . . . Never looked back and haven't tried anything else since. Without looking it up was in the mid 1800's fps and pretty easy shooting. The 180 gr takes down 200 meter 55 pound steel rams quite nicely and is accurate enough to do so.
 

Brad

Benevolent Overlord and site owner
Staff member
I shot leferacrion silhouette with mine for a couple years. My 2400 loads hit the targets hard and I never rang one.
I wasn’t smart enough at the time to realize my poor results at 150 and 200 were due to position sensitivity. Had I corrected that I would have scored far better. Frustration to hit 10 of 10 at 50 and 100 and struggle to break 5 of 10 on the longer ranges.
 

waco

Springfield, Oregon
Tried 4759 once . . . Never looked back and haven't tried anything since. Without looking it up was in the mid 1800's fps and pretty easy shooting. The 180 gr takes down 200 meter 55 pound steel rams quite nicely and is accurate enough to do so.
I still have a good stash of this powder. Maybe I'll revisit it. Thanks Rick
 

Rick

Moderator
Staff member
I should look up that load data but I think it was 18.0 gr and it doted on the RCBS 180 gr SP.
 

Pistolero

Well-Known Member
Have mostly loaded Jbullets in .30-30 (RD 165 will not chamber in any of my guns) some
311041s have shot very well with Big Game, which looks like about #12 shot, perfect, uniform
spheres - talk about a metering dream! With Jbullets, W748 has been great.

Bill
 

Rick

Moderator
Staff member
Yep, 18.0 gr with the RCBS 180 gr and it did quite well with the SAECO #311 160 gr TC with 18.5 gr @ 1920 fps and the RCBS 150 gr with 19.0 gr @ 2143 fps.
 

Wasalmonslayer

Well-Known Member
I have had good luck with 18gr of IMR 4198 with the new style ranch Dog 311 165
Aluminum check 2 coats of BLL sized .309 crimped in the groove in RP brass in my Winchester 94.
 
Last edited:

Rick

Moderator
Staff member
Interesting, looking at my notes on the RCBS 150 FP. I tested two different seating depths with is bullet. The 2143 FPS I mentioned was crimped in the crimp groove but when I single loaded it and tested no crimp and seated out to engrave the velocity dropped 224 fps to 1919 fps.
 

JWFilips

Well-Known Member
Waco
If you are plinking ( with accuracy) you can't go wrong with red dot. I probably have a bunch of targets posted here with the 165 RD and Red Dot ( also American Select)
 

Pistolero

Well-Known Member
I had some funky results with Rel 7 in .45-70, soured me on it. Have just a little left,
will probably not replace it when it is gone.

Bill
 

popper

Well-Known Member
335, 4895, leverE have all worked well for me. 2400 is my low recoil load but I do get vertical stringing with it and unique. Got some 170gr PB RD loaded with Rx7 today, same load for BO which looked promising. Will report if I get to the range this week. Took the dog to the end of the block today & had to turn back. Dang leg cramps - did get more than 1/2 block though. 60.5K$ for laser artery cleaning and it still don't work right.