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Post by keith on Aug 31, 2015 15:57:10 GMT -5
I started this project a couple of years ago when I had the lower tang lengthened and the end of the lever cut off and a square butt welded on so it looked like an 1895 Sporter. I roughed out a stock and sent the metal back for re-bluing as it had some light surface pitting when I inherited the gun. While that was done it got an action job, new crown, a trigger job, and re-chambered to .30-30 Improved 40°. After a little over a year of waiting I got it back. It had some rust in the receiver and on the barrel feed ramp from leeching bluing salts and the chamber looked like it had surface rust (he polished the chamber after bluing). It scratches up brass some and I'm not sure if it is from feeding or from the chamber. The trigger is still heavy and inconsistent. He shipped it to me without me paying and I need to send a check (I got the gun last week) but we are still negotiating the fee in regard to work done. All's well that ends well they say. The gun shoots fine and cycles fine although there is some rust I can't quite get out and the trigger is a creey 5# to 6# depending on how much creep it gives on any given break. I finished fitting up the new Ballard style stock (I still need to cut it to length and fit a recoil pad and apply the finish) for it and took it to the range after installing the Williams TK receiver sight:  I shot a few shots off-hand at 25m to get it on paper then went to the bench at 100yds. The front sight is too short so with the receiver sight just barely clearing the receiver I am hitting about 8" above POA. It also has a bead which I don't like; I have never been able to get a sight picture that allowed for the hold I like. I prefer a blade and that is what I will replace it with since I prefer a 6 o'clock hold. Center holds work best for me with a bead front. Using a center hold I a five shot group, made a sight adjustment and figured out I needed a taller front sight. You can see them above the paper:  I switched to a 6 o'clock hold and shot three more (same three as on the square target but I had the reduced 600yds target pasted over it):  |
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Post by rojo23 on Aug 31, 2015 19:39:57 GMT -5
that is a pretty cool looking gun, and nice shooting.
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beans
Full Member
Posts: 248
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Post by beans on Aug 31, 2015 19:58:26 GMT -5
Hey Keith,
Did you use any of those bullets we traded? 30-30 is a great round.
Nice report
"Beans"
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Post by keith on Aug 31, 2015 20:29:40 GMT -5
Not yet but I will soon as I get all the brass formed. I made dummies to test the feeding and the FTX worked fine. Just need to proof fie them now.
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beans
Full Member
Posts: 248
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Post by beans on Aug 31, 2015 20:40:28 GMT -5
Love the hotter rounds but with an accurate 30-30, I can not imagine a better deer load. Enough punch and a serious lack of blood shot meat. If I were a deer, or person, I would not want to take a nicely expanding 160-170 grain bullet to the sternum. Just sayin.
Been handloading some 150 TTSX 308's for a guy at work, Nice bullet and it is shooting well. May have to try in the 30-30 one day. One in the chamber and one in the mag. Can't imagine needing more than one when you plan the shot like a god marksman would.
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Post by keith on Aug 31, 2015 20:51:59 GMT -5
Give it a shot. We did that for a while with 120gn Nosler Ballistic Tip bullets. I'm going to shoot FTX and TSX flat points.
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Post by keith on Sept 10, 2015 15:49:28 GMT -5
After doing the math I found there was no sight of the correct height to get me where I needed to be for proper zero while keeping the receiver sight sitting low. I ordered a Skinner Partridge that was .500" tall and will file it down to correct height once I get load development done with this rifle. I had to take .013 off the dovetail with a triangular file to get it to fit:  Old sight punched out with Skinner punch (well made if you need a sight punch that is brass):  My range is shut down for maintenance today so I hope to get a chance to shoot it tomorrow or this weekend because I will be gone for another week starting Monday. |
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Post by keith on Sept 11, 2015 15:53:52 GMT -5
I went out to work down the sight and fire-form another 50 rounds for the gun. I still have another 15 to fire-form because I quit when a thunderstorm rolled in. Nothing as spectacular as last outing but I got the sight centered up. Top group is 2.2", center group is 1.8", and bottom group is 2.1":  I took it out to 300yds just for gigs. I marked off all the existing holes on the target backer with a sharpie marker. I shot two sighters and was about 2 minutes low so I dialed up and let five loose. From the round at 11 o'clock to the round at 7 o'clock is 13.5" but the three just left of center are 1.3". I would like to say it was the 6# trigger but since it is all elevation I'm guessing it was an error in my hold. I needed a little bigger target since this one just looked like a small dot on top of my post:  |
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Post by keith on Sept 12, 2015 17:43:16 GMT -5
Hey Keith, Did you use any of those bullets we traded? 30-30 is a great round. Nice report "Beans" I made up a dummy with those 308 Marlin 160gn FTX bullets and just kept shortening it until I could get it to feed. Once I got it to feed with 100% reliability I took base to ogive measurements on the two dummies. The Federal factory round (left) is .040" closer to the lands than the 160gn FTX. Do you have any of the 30-30 160gn FTX that you could measure from the base of the bullet to the ogive or if they are loaded what your base to ogive is? I'm curious how much difference there is between the two. The 30-30 version appears to have a much shorter ogive in the pictures posted by ET on Doug's. |
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beans
Full Member
Posts: 248
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Post by beans on Sept 13, 2015 6:30:21 GMT -5
Keith, I sent everything I had to you in February. I have none left. I think maybe you forgot that you have them?
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Post by keith on Sept 13, 2015 7:21:39 GMT -5
Dang, I'm dumb. I just went back to check and I have two boxes each of the FTX, for 30-30 and 308 Marlin. For some reason I was thinking I had all 308 Marlin because I had them stack up 2 x 2 because I don't have much room on my .308 caliber shelf due to match bullets and the Marlin were up front. Problem solved. Now I just need to measure throat length again make up a new dummy for the 30-30 FTX.
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Post by keith on Sept 24, 2015 16:00:10 GMT -5
After fire-forming 100 Federal factory rounds I gave the bore a good cleaning. I removed a ton of carbon fouling but there was very little copper coming out the barrel. This is a 1953 gun with 4-groove rifling and it appears to be quite good. I loaded 5 rounds each of BL-(C)2 at 37 to 39 grains in .5gn increments under a Hornady 150gn RN Interlock bullet with a Fed GM210M primer. This is the first five rounds out of the clean barel with 37gn of powder and measures 1.402" center to center:  The rest of the groups were about double that size so I loaded up another 25 rounds at 37gn for testing and probably a little hunting. I need to order a Wolf reduced power hammer spring because at 6-7# I go through at least two breathing cycles to break the trigger and it is starting to really irritate me. Half the time I end up glancing down at the hammer to see if it is actually cocked even though I know it is. |
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Post by keith on Sept 24, 2015 19:29:06 GMT -5
One thing I forgot to add in the event any of you ever try a .30-30 Improved (or any improved for that matter). Sizing sharp shouldered cases can be an issue and with a sizing die you can can give the shoulder a slight bulge that prevents chambering. I figured that out when I started with the .280 Improved when I was about 18. So, I just barely bump them and measure shoulder junction diameter as I make each die adjustment. The issue that was new for me was collapsing shoulders when seating bullets. The .30-30 brass is very thin and when I was setting up my dies and making a dummy or three I started collapsing shoulders which caused the shoulder/body junction to bulge up to .025" or so.
If you ever run into this get either a Lyman M die or Lee Expander and just bell about 1/16" of the neck. You will likely only get .001" of constriction/tension after you do this so you will need some sort of crimp die. I am using a Lee Factory Crimp to just barely touch the portion of the neck that got expanded by the M die.
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Post by keith on Sept 28, 2015 6:40:16 GMT -5
I took my trigger assembly apart. The sear retains its original angle so I'm not sure how much trigger work I actually got. I decided to bend the return spring before cutting the sear. That alone cut 25% off the weight and it feels much better. I'm going to hit the range this morning and see if it needs more work.
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