Shooting with Junior

My buddy Junior emailed me last week. He had some ammunition he wanted to try in my .30-30 Handi Rifle. This was ammo loaded for his 94 Winchester, Old Bill. The rifle had become broken when Junior whacked it with a sledge hammer.

Junior and I were concerned that cast bullets wouldn't shoot properly in the Handi Rifle because it has a 1:10 twist and it's rifling is microgroove. So, this morning I threw a couple of rifles in the truck and headed to Tullos, LA, where the Doughty mansion sits.

When I got there, Junior and I sat in the kitchen, catching up with each other. Then we moved to his gun room, where I looked at the work he's done on the Mosin and his boat rifle.

Then, with ammo and targets in hand, we went out into the front yard to set up the range. Junior has a short, front yard range. It's 73 yards from target butt to firing line.



This is a view from the firing line toward the target. That little white square in the middle of the photo is our target backing. Yeah, that's Junior's house off to the left. We'll try not to shoot the house.

Junior drove his pickup truck to the firing line and put a board across the bed to use as a benchrest. So, with targets posted, a suitable rest, and rifle and ammo, we were ready to begin shooting. I let Junior shoot, because I wanted to take pictures.

How'd the rifle shoot? Quite well. Using properly prepped .30-30 brass with the Lyman 311041 bullet and 1.9 cc of IMR 4895, Junior managed to keep them all inside an inch at 73 yards (the limit of his range). I'm going to have to duplicate that load.



I had a load I wanted to try. It's the .30-30 using the Speer 130 grain bullet and 33.5 grains of Reloder 15 powder. I estimate the velocity at something over 2300 fps, which is fine for the .30-30 cartridge. The little rifle fired it into just under an inch, which is again fine for the cartridge and the rifle. As a matter of fact, I'm quite pleased. This little single shot, with well under $400.00 in the rifle and scope, is turning in near MOA accuracy with two loads. I've got nothing to complain about at all.

All in all, it was a very good morning with a very good friend. We'll have to do this more often.

**Correction** Junior emailed me and told me that the cast-bullet .30-30 ammo was loaded with Varget, not IMR 4895. I read the wrong label.