Thread: Marlin 30-30 setup

yip dont over think it...poke hole in front of legs or into shoulders and animal isnt going anywhere. the 30/30 s merits lie in the quick pointing handling qualities....its never going to compete at 400yards with a larger round...but at 50 yards on moving game it has the edge somewhat.

Originally Posted by scottrods

How much MV at 200yds? My handloads are only doing 1900 at the muzzle, so I expect they will drop of a lot by 200.

I didn't chrono it but I did shoot a few at 230 yards and with it set 3" high at 100 yards it was about 6" low at 230 yards.
The pack quotes an mv of 2390fps and to be fair I've found there quoted speeds to be fairly close but bearing in mind I've only got 16.5" of barrel I'm picking I'll be somewhere around 2300fps give or take.
I did shoot this helium canister (empty) at 230 yards aiming for the top of the label and hit an inch or so from the bottom so looks like 6" drop from POA at that distance, if anyone who is smarter than me wants to crunch the numbers.

Just punched a few numbers into strelok and looks like I need to go up another inch to be zero at 200 yards.
Guess I'll be back at the range soon to test.

Im stoked your digging it man, it will shoot the 140grain leverevolution rounds adequately (if you can find them that is). It just doesnt like the 160grain version for some reason. However it looks like you have found an excellent load, make her smoke!

Personally I'd sight it in to be zeroed at 75 yds, its a 200yd max catridge so theres not much point it being zeroed at its maximum effective range if you want to be accurate as you can inside that range. Holdover is easy... holdunder not so much

Originally Posted by Calikiwi

Im stoked your digging it man, it will shoot the 140grain leverevolution rounds adequately (if you can find them that is). It just doesnt like the 160grain version for some reason. However it looks like you have found an excellent load, make her smoke!

Certainly won't be paying $20 more per box for the 140gn leverevolution stuff whennthe whitetails shoot that well, and yup totally stoked with it, cheers man.

She sure looks good Danny, those 30 30 's with in there range capabilities are sure fire killers. One of the best bush rifles around and caliber. Will be good to see some animals taken with it.

A quick question Danny . Im keen to try a different factory bullet in my 3030 Marlin. Mine does spray the lever evolution around a bit.I thought it may have been the user but I thought Id try American whitetail. Were the ones you bought the round nose or the standard soft point interlock.? Anyone else tried the American Whitetail 3030? Cheers in advance.

Originally Posted by Chunk

A quick question Danny . Im keen to try a different factory bullet in my 3030 Marlin. Mine does spray the lever evolution around a bit.I thought it may have been the user but I thought Id try American whitetail. Were the ones you bought the round nose or the standard soft point interlock.? Anyone else tried the American Whitetail 3030? Cheers in advance.

These

Load development going on this morning gonna try replicate the results I'm getting with hornady whitetails 150gn factory ammo.
I have loaded up sierrra 150gn rn to the same ogive seating depth and loaded up charges in .5gn increments from adi specs from their minimum to max loads and .5gn over book max (may not even shoot it we'll see where the accuracy is).
The sierras are pretty much identical to the Hornandy 150gn rn pills.
I also note that adi max load data for 2206h suggests the exact velocity that Hornandy claims there whitetail factory ammo will do, so hopefully I'm on to something.

How did your loads go Danny? were they as good as the factory ammo ?

Originally Posted by Mooseman

How did your loads go Danny? were they as good as the factory ammo ?

haven't had a chance to shoot them yet, hopefully over the weekend failing that I have Monday off, rest assured I will post results

Tried some fun load with Marlin 30-30 dark

Left: Hornady 155gr ELD-Match / 7.0gr TrailBoss
Mid: Hornady 160gr FTX / 7.0gr TrailBoss
Right: Hornady 150gr RN / 7.0gr TrailBoss

The recoil is mild and the grouping is horrible.

Well seems I have a mythical sub moa levergun load development went really well, good consistent speeds which is always reassuring.
Like @eamars I got fantastic grouping with a relatively low charge 31gns of 2206h
I didn't get any speeds off the lowest 2 charge weights as my magneto chrono wouldn't read mounted off the mag tube.
Fortunately my mate showed up with his Caldwell stand alone chrono so I got speeds off all the rest.
After smashing a sub moa group with the lowest charge I was a bit concerned none of the higher charges would group better....but I was wrong.
I'll let the pics do the talking





Lowest charge speed unknown but at a guess about 2150fps it was very light recoil.



Max load .5gn above book max still pleasant to shoot avg speed over 3 rounds was 2351fps with a spread of 18fps

Here's all the load details for those interested in the finer details, please though if your gonna try work up to max load don't assume my load is a magic recipe for all Marlins