In yesterday's post, I talked about the Hornady LeverEvolution bullet, and I'm not dogging on that ammunition. It is my opinion that these new bullets did several things very well. They split the difference between the tadeonal 150 and 170 grain load with a 160-grain bullet. They upgraded a 19th century cartridge and brought it into the 21st century. The big thing these newfangled bullets did was to get grandpa's old rifle out of the safe and back into the range, where it could bark the other dogs.
I bought my first lever gun in 1973, where at the tender age of 19 I walked into Howard Brothers department store and put down $87.50 on a brand-new Marlin 336. It was on sale the week before deer season, down from $94.99 and I thought it was a pretty good deal. I still have that rifle, though it lives at my son's house.
Junior Doughty and I played with Handi-rifles for a time in 2008-10. As such, I loaded a bunch of ammo for the .30-30 with pointy bullets, specifically the Sierra Game King. These bullets would be dangerous in a tube fed levergun, because pointed tips and recoil are a thing. Junior and I put them through their paces and they performed well in the Handi-rifle, which we all know is a single shot.
The Hornady ammo is a good thing, if only for the reasons stated above. For my shooting, and I suspect for many of us, the old ammo still suits us fine. My preferred factory load in the .30-30 is the old Remington green box load with the 170 grain round nose soft point. For deer, hogs, black bear, it is entirely sufficient as long as the range is under 125 yards and you can put the bullet in the vitals.
The cartridge is a handloaders dream. It has a long sleek neck that is perfect for cast bullets and a moderate charge of the old IMR 3031. It can be loaded with a hand press on the kitchen table. Crimp the bullet so that it doesn't set back in the tube magazine under recoil and you will be fine.
4 comments:
Yes indeed. Roundnose bullets with exposed pure lead cores will not set off a primer. Loading one round less than capacity compresses the tube spring less, which lets the rounds in the tube to recoil into the spring instead of each other.
The soft plastic pointed bullets extend the range, but are just capped hollow points, like the old bronze point expanding bullet ; I would prefer a good old Silvertip.
I wonder if the tips are silicone. I wonder if you could mold your own, and make a bit to drill a little stem hole into a flat point. You would want seriously precise drill press. $$$$. Otherwise they will be imbalanced.
I like lever guns. My first one was .243 back in the 1970’s that I ordered from Montgomery Wards. I had a model 88 in 308 and now I have .357, .44mag and 444 Marlin in Marlin guns. Ive shot moose and bear with the .444 and two caribou with one shot with the .44mag!
Dad swore by Winchester Silver-Tips ... I think I still have an old yellow - white box of that, mostly used up.
I enjoy shooting lever rifles too. My favorite deer lever is an old Savage 99T carbine in .250 Savage. Finding that ammunition now is a real chore and the price of it will elevate eyebrows.
I am no levergun aficionado, but I do very much like the terminal results with Winchester Silvertip rifle ammunition. It is a shame that it seems to have disappeared from the current offering. I found a couple of boxes of the old, old stuff at the gunshop the other day and was delighted, even if it was .270Win.
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