Developing/Choosing a Hunting Bullet for a Win 30-30

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klr
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Developing/Choosing a Hunting Bullet for a Win 30-30

Post by klr »

My wife gave me a Winchester 94AE for Christmas (apparently I'd been better than I thought), and now I'm working up a hunting load for whitetail deer. My son gave me some NOE Ranch Dog 165gr but they are too large to feed reliably. I have to seat them deeply otherwise they heavily engrave and take a hard lever squeeze to chamber. At that point they are too short to feed reliably. This isn't a knock on the RD bullet, it and my rifle's chamber just aren't a match.

I upset a slug in the chamber and took the following measurements:

(Brass trimmed to 2.020 Measured from outside of rim.)


Outside of rim to start of throat taper = 2.090
End of brass to start of throat taper = .070 (would be .050 if I trim to 2.039 max length)

Length of throat = .050
Barrel slugs at .3085x.301

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I'd like to be able to buy a cheap Lee 2 cavity, but reading Ranch Dog's posts about bullet design has me convinced that I need to look into getting a custom mold. I can get a single cavity cut to my specs from Accurate for about $80. I'll need a gas check and would like a tumble lube design. Any ideas? Obviously I'd like to get Ranch Dog's input on this. Thanks!
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Re: Developing/Choosing a Hunting Bullet for a Win 30-30

Post by Ranch Dog »

Has this case been fired in this rifle?

It looks to me like you have a very short amount of freebore followed by a short amount of step, the sum of the two being your throat.

The dimensions of "A", "B", and "C" are important. Also take a dimension about a .25" north of "A" to see if there is a leade.
30-30 impression.jpg
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Re: Developing/Choosing a Hunting Bullet for a Win 30-30

Post by klr »

Thanks for your help.

Just to be sure my measurements are good, I made another cast. I resized a piece of brass, loaded a stiff jacketed load, fired it, cleaned the bore, and used a nice clean pure lead bullet.

I then measured everything about 10 times.

Dimension A = .3085
Dimension B = .330
Dimension C = .331
1/4" north of A =.3085

The distance from Diameter B to Diameter A is .040 as near as I could eyeball it with my calipers.

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Re: Developing/Choosing a Hunting Bullet for a Win 30-30

Post by Ranch Dog »

Thanks, give me up to a couple of days and I will see what I can do.
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Re: Developing/Choosing a Hunting Bullet for a Win 30-30

Post by klr »

Ranch Dog wrote:Thanks, give me up to a couple of days and I will see what I can do.
Thanks, Ranch Dog!
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Re: Developing/Choosing a Hunting Bullet for a Win 30-30

Post by Archer »

I don't think I've ever had a similar problem with my old 94.
I've since acquired a mystery metal 94 and a 94 AE that I've not even tried lead in yet.
I look forward to following some interesting discussion.
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Re: Developing/Choosing a Hunting Bullet for a Win 30-30

Post by Ranch Dog »

It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words so let's give it a try!

SAAMI 30-30 Win Chamber
image deleted

30-30 Win M94 AE Chamber
image deleted

Your chamber with a bullet that fits!
image deleted

Here it is, the Ranch Dog TLC310-170-RF KiLR (took a bit of liberty with your initials!)
image deleted

Spent way too much time on this today, about 7 hours... got to go do some wiring on my truck now.
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Re: Developing/Choosing a Hunting Bullet for a Win 30-30

Post by klr »

Wow! That looks great. I really, really appreciate it. If I would have known it was that much time I wouldn't have imposed.

Now I need to send this to Accurate Molds and see if he can cut it. I don't think NOE does a one-off.

Thanks! +guns
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Re: Developing/Choosing a Hunting Bullet for a Win 30-30

Post by Ranch Dog »

I will get you a detail drawing, this one isn't sufficient to make the tooling.
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Re: Developing/Choosing a Hunting Bullet for a Win 30-30

Post by klr »

Thanks. Take all the time you need.

BTW, I'm not trying to look a gift horse in the mouth, but do you mind if I double check a few of the measurements? I took two sets of measurements and I feel the second impact cast was the most accurate and taken with an average case length rather than the minimum case length I originally trimmed to. Also, the body diameter is shown as .303. Should that be .310?

Thanks.
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