Thread: Anyone played with .30-30 subs?

Recovery from surgery has been going well, I was hopeful of testing some of the Trailboss 151hp loads this coming Sunday but cyclone Oma may be about to stuff that plan up!

I noticed the necks on the loaded rounds were visibly larger where the projectile is seated. Some quick measurements raised some concern - loaded neck diameter was slightly larger than the neck diameter of fired cases - so this afternoon I did a bit more investigation.
Here is a photo of the rounds, numbers 1, 3 and 5 from the left are the Trailboss rounds, 4 and 6 are other reloads, and number 2 is a factory round.

Some neck diameter measurements, in mm as that is what my micrometer measures.
Trailboss rounds 8.45mm
Fired case 8.43mm
Factory round 8.33mm
Reloads (2 types) both 8.34mm

So the necks of the Trailboss rounds are quite a bit larger than normal, and slightly larger than the neck on a fired case.
My concern was that the neck would be too tight in the chamber, but I think I'm okay. The difference between loaded and fired is small, and all rounds chamber okay in the rifle with no obvious marks on the necks. The SAAMI dimensions for case necks are 8.4 to 8.45mm, which I think is a minimum size, is this correct?

Looks like you don't need to neck size your cases for those boolits.

If you find the boolits don't stick well in unsized necks, you can still crimp them but it's not necessary, unless you use a tubular magazine, also the boolit may stick in the chamber if you decide to extract an unfired case that has not either been seated in a tight enough neck or is not crimped.

As long as the rounds chamber freely you are ok, cases spring back a few thou after firing if they didn't they would stick in the chamber,
The problem with sizing dies is that they size the necks down too far and the standard expander button is for jacketed bullets
to get the best out of cast bullets a Lyman M die is required it expands the neck a little more and gives a flare to the case mouth
making seating the bullet easier, a side benefit is it doesn't stretch the neck, I use M dies for all my reloading even when using bushing dies.

I load black powder cartridges without sizing the necks at all. If you chamber a fired case, and slip fit the bullet in then you are good. If you can chamber the rounds your good.
The size of your cast bullet is the relevant thing here.

If you intend loading a tube mag get a lee crimp die, as carlsen says i dont neck size my reloads but do crimp the case with the lee works for me!

Originally Posted by Cigar

Recovery from surgery has been going well, I was hopeful of testing some of the Trailboss 151hp loads this coming Sunday but cyclone Oma may be about to stuff that plan up!

Well I made it to the range yesterday, but the 30-30 didn't...a case of too many rifles and too little time. Maybe next month.
I did try the 308 loads, velocity ranged from 1300fps with 10gr of Trailboss to 1135fps with 8gr, so need to go a bit lower to be subsonic. The magnetospeed picked up all the shots without changing any settings. All loads shot 2 inch or better groups at 50m. They were very pleasant to shoot, and the missus commented how much quieter they were (no suppressor). I enjoyed the boomthwack.... pull the trigger, boom, then hear the "thwack" of the bullet hitting the target

Originally Posted by Cigar

Loaded up a few this afternoon, it's going to take a lot of rounds to use 9oz of Trailboss!
Made up 30-30s at 7.5, 7, 6.5, 6 and 5.5 grains of Trailboss, plus some at 8.5 and 9.5 (three of each, except only two at 9.5)
For the 308 I did three each at 10, 9.5, 9, 8.5 and 8 grains.
All using shooternz's 151gr cast bullets, and all crimped.
I might not get subsonic at the lowest charge, but it's a start and if I do get subsonic I didn't want a whole lotta rounds with even lower charges.

The higher loads in the 30-30 are because I decided some reduced recoil loads would be fun for my 14 year old nephew and stepson (two different kids, I didn't marry my sister you sick bastards!). So i want to have a subsonic load, and a max load using Trailboss. The 9.5gr load still has space left in the case.

I finally got the 30-30 to the range today! I started with the 7.5gr load, intending to work downwards from there, but the 7.5gr were already subsonic (1086fps).
I tried the 8.5gr (1173fps) and 9.5gr (1243fps), and went a bit lower with 7gr (1042fps) and 6.5gr (not chronyed).