My First 30.30 Reloads

[MothMan]

Well, it was a long time in coming but I fired my first ever reloads. There were only 5 of them in 30.30 with 150 grain round nose over 32 grains of Accurate 4350 in a Winchester case using a Remington magnum large rifle primer. Fired through a pre 4473 Marlin 336C.

Still have my fingers and eyes so that's a good start.

Learned a lot from roll crimping and cannelures and OAL and my overall fussiness about doing things. Used a RCBS Rock Chucker Supreme with RCBS dies except for a Mighty Armory de-capping die, this let me use one die for all my cartridges 9mm, .40, .38, .357, .308 which I de-primed then wet tumbled.

Of the 5 cartridges fired the results were 3 bangs and 2 light primer strikes, no bangs. The light primer strikes were due to ME setting the primers to deep into the pocket with a hand primer tool, learning, learning, learning! The recoil from the fired cartridges was comparable to factory ammo that I also fired with one bullet on paper at 50yds using a Ghost Ring sight. Not a terrible start!

With no small pistol primers around and me having thousands of magnum large rifle primers I guess I will be reloading .308 and 30.30 in the future.

The event was a great learning experience and left me with a good sense of satisfaction.

 

[repete]

Good deal! I wondered why you used mag primers and figured it was what you had. The two light strikes are more than likely due to the primers NOT seated all the way, what happens in that case is some of the firing pins energy is used up by the primer sliding forward into place. I have a simalier problem seating primers, my old hands just aren't as strong as they used to be.

 

[Xae289]

What hand priming tool are you using?

 

[Deplorable Me]

Lee Precision, Inc.. Collet Style Crimp Die

Collet Style Crimp Die. Incorporates a collet to apply a rifle type crimp to the case. Makes these very difficult to crimp cartridges a delight to reload. Bullets do not need a crimp groove, as the collet is so powerful it will form one. NOTE: This die is not carbide.

leeprecision.com

The Lee Factory Crimp die is the exception to my RCBS gear. You skip the RCBS roll crimp and use the Lee Factory. I use them on my .30-30, .35 Rem, .308, .223. .357/.38, .44 mag, 9mm, .45acp. , .444..................................

The guy who taught me lots about reloading introduced me to them and they are really great. Inexpensive too.

 

[MothMan]

What hand priming tool are you using?

RCBS

 

[Xae289]

RCBS

Gotcha. I recently got a Lyman hand primer and it turned out that it only works well with Lyman shell holders, so just on the off-chance you had the same problem.

But yea, I second Repete. You probably didn't seat the primers too deep. Primers need to be bottomed out in the primer pocket so that the anvil is firmly set between the base of the case's primer pocket and the compound.

As an experiment for my own benefit also, I took my Lyman hand primer, 1 primer I found on the floor while cleaning a while ago and had set aside, and 1 case of .45 Colt. I seated the primer as hard as I could with both hands. The primer was seated in the case perfectly fine. It's impossible to seat it too hard with my hand primer.

I took the same case that was already primed, put the priming attachment onto my Lee hand press, and put the case in the holder. I lifted the ram and really squeezed (with the case mouth facing away from me). I squeezed hard enough that I stopped because I was worried about bending the case rim. Inspecting it, the edge was a little flat like you'd get with an overpressure round. Instead of the surface being smooth, I saw a raised dot in the middle (the anvil center pressing into the cup), and around that it was a slight bit caved in out to the outside edge. Even after intentionally shoving the primer into the case way too hard, it still ignited just fine.

Edit: But yea, my point is just seat your primers firmly until you don't feel them moving deeper into the primer pocket, inspect them to make sure they look ok, and you're good to go.

 

[MothMan]

the primers were seated in the pocket noticeably below the case head on both of the no fires. i believe their surface was just at the end of the reach of the firing pin. the primers in the fired cartridges were seated at or just slightly below the case head. primer seating depth will be on my reloading radar from now on. @Xae289

 

[218bee]

Congrats on the 1st reloads!..Speaking of 30-30 reloading, if you want to load up some plinking rounds, Standard, run of the mil 110-gr. M1 Carbine bullets work perfectly and recoil is light. Still smacks the gong hard at 100 yds, and accuracy surprised the heck out of me. 50 yards, off a sandbag, early 1950's Winchester 94 carbine w/Lyman receiver sight. 21 grs. Of 2400 powder. (Thats a dime in the pic)