$85.00 plus shipping, I'd love the get some engraving done on the receiver at some stage. Has anyone had this done/got any recommendations ?
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Well popped in to the team at gunworks this morning to drop a rifle off for shipping and whilst there I grabbed a couple boxes of ammo to try in the 30-30, Hornandy leverrevoloution 160gn and Hornandy 150gn whitetails,
Now @Calikiwi did warn me it wouldn't shoot the leverrevoloution very well and he was right it sprayed them all over the place like a shotty.
It did however love the Hornandy whitetail 150gn and shot the under an inch at 100 yards .84" to be exact.
I'm told any lever gun that shoots under the mythical inch is a but of a unicorn so I'm well pleased with that.
Sighted in at 3" high at 100 yards should see me bully or close enough at 200yards bloody happy with that.
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the round shown is an old school silvertip....they came in 150grn for the .308.
marlins like shorter rounds than winchesters...projectiles come with crimp groove/cannalure at different places for this reason.
dont waste those silvertips,you wont and I mean WONT find a better killing round,they expand very very well....in .308 they tended to blow up if driven too hard,in the 30/30 they were perfect....the new deerseason projectiles are a flash new way of trying to achieve what the silvertips did so well....dump energy in a hurry inside a deer.
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.
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.
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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.
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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
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 :o 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.
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.
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How did your loads go Danny? were they as good as the factory ammo ?
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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 :thumbsup:
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Lowest charge speed unknown but at a guess about 2150fps it was very light recoil.
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Max load .5gn above book max still pleasant to shoot avg speed over 3 rounds was 2351fps with a spread of 18fps
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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 :P
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Also I suspect most of these loads could be improved with better muzzle control I noticed I had to really grip the fore and be conscious of it as it tended to jump a fair bit when shooting prone resting on my pack (may be a short barrel thing)
Strelok calcs
About what I thought it would be.
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That's a nice shooting rifle you have there, I would be more than happy with that. Now the real test on a few animals. Good luck
She's a keeper, after doing a lot of research I wasn't holding my breath for a MOA grouping but my expectations have ben exceeded by a long shot.
I have a couple more tweaks to make, a thicker recoil pad to increase LOP, and a cheek riser built into the leather butt stock ammo holder.
I'm gonna load up some more ammo and get some practice shooting free hand as it's definitely not my strong point and hopefully next roar I can use it to get me another stag :cool:
AND now you have proven it can be accurate...that 260 is almost redundant....you could ethically stretch this ones legs out to say 200-250 which doesnt leave a lot of room between it and magnum.....if you get the urge to try a heavier load find some 170grn speer flat nose projectiles..they have been one of the goto projectiles for dirty30 since Adam was a cowboy..
All in due course....the 260 is still gonna be a thing although gotta admit been giving strong thought to another 270 if the right one comes along :D
This rifle in reality is a 200 yard rifle at most it's only got a 1-4 scope so not really leg stretching stuff also the 150gn starts to drop quite fast and it's not a dial up scope nor does it have a bdc type reticle.
Gotta admit the lever is very addictive to shoot I'm really enjoying shooting it, not like my varmint and long range guns when they go to the range it's all about get it sighted then put it away. The lever just begs to be shot alot :pacman:
some folk shot 30/30s sucessfully out to 150 with iron sights back in days when eyes were younger....took many many animals with my brothers rifle before I swapped it for nearly new poohseventy which I still have and use.
the factory silvertips were the ducks nuts..
Yeh I had a Winchester 3030 many years back, open sights , the eyes could see better then. It was such a neat rifle to hunt with and anything within 100 yards was toast. I remember shooting goats with it at a bit of range but had to raise the sights a fair bit for shots out to about 200 odd yards. I used Remington 150 gr SP and some 150 gr Sierra Flat point soft points which both worked well on deer and pigs.
taking mine for a bush walk this weekend
Nice wee shooter Danny. 30 30 and 270, job done. Sell the 260 and rem mag...:thumbsup:
Seriously, I love hunting with my levers
Never left a mag behind and they carry
and point well. I'm running fed fusion
150s in my marlin 3030, pig plex 1-4. Good combination, only shot fallow so far out to 60m and pole axes them.
Try a 94 some time, very cool and the most balanced
off hand rigs of all imo. Enjoy.
Would love to hunt Fallow with my 336 at some stage, I don't have regular access to anywhere local with good numbers of fallow but it's definitely on the cards :thumbsup:
I love my rem mag for open tops hunting and I'm leaning heavily towards a ultralight suppressed 270 for a walk and stalk out to 400yards rifle 260 would be nice but they just seem to be too valuable even second hand, I could set up a nice sako carbon stocked rifle for similar price to a bare rifle in 260 and I just don't see the value in it, the recoil never bothered me with my previously owned 270s and I know they do the business so probably the way I'll end up going.