7-30 tips and tricks

Brand new to 7-30 waters always wanted a 94 in said flavor but recently found a contender super 14 barrel; new with nice scope for a price I could live with. So I have some sized and fire formed brass from a nice meneber here and I’ve sized and trimmed some this weekend; first question, or observation the rounds I sized and loaded to fire form where very accurate; as accurate as the 10 rounds of factory Federal I sighted in with. So is this an anomaly or could I actually hunt with these ? So now that these fire formed rounds have been sized and fired after I give them a final trimming will they be even more accurate?
What is case life expectancy?
Should I be annealing these cases? It seemed fairly simple size them from 30 to 284. I didn’t lose a single case to splits or crumpling.
Is this beginners luck or is it a easy as it seems.

And lastly this seems like such an easy accurate shooting cartridge and seems like such a natural for youths why isn’t it more popular?
Seems like a contender carbine would be a perfect first deer rifle for boy of girl, or maybe even a crusty old set in his ways Marine who has a strong opinion on nearly everything.

While just getting my feet wet with the “Waters” it seems to be about perfect for a deer cartridge.

Next question of course is how is it with cast? And what’s your favorite mold? So far I’ve only been JWording it.

I have a 16" stainless 7-30 waters in a G2 carbine. It has accounted for a number of "1st" deer for cousins. It is lightweight and easy to carry. I have a custom wood stock with a longer than normal length of pull. You can shoulder it one handed and it is very stable. Ive only loaded j-words in it so far, 100 grain hornady HP and 120 grain Hornady VMax. The VMax have performed extremely well and perform like a standard hunting bullet at the lower velocities of the Waters. We have had zero bullet blowups and usually get exits. Recovered bullets on the non-exits showed good retained weight.

I've been hunting with a stainless super 14 barrel in 7-30 for 25 years now. Have taken 15-20 deer and a dozen or so coyotes with this round. I used a Hornady 120 gr SSP (single shot pistol) bullet up till a couple of years ago they discontinued that one. I now use the Hornady 120 gr HP. All game I've shot have been one shot clean kills. On good days it shoots right along side my Remington 700 7mm08 with 3/4 inch groups at 100 yards. I'm up to 7 reloads on the 40 rounds that I originally formed to start shooting. This is a great all around cartridge and I hope you get years of enjoyment out of yours.

Are you using factory 7-30 brass or cases formed from .30-30? At one time, I had one of the '7R Int'l'...essentially identical to the 7-30 Waters...barrels sold by IHMSA back in the early 1980s and found the life expectancy of re-formed .30-30 cases to be somewhat limited due to cracking of the body right above the base web. After initial case-form and trim, I obtained my best case life from .30-30 brass by neck-sizing and only resorting to f/l size when cases needed trimming. Later, when it became available, I obtained some factory 7-30 brass, ran it through my 7R size die before loading and the problem pretty much disappeared.

Bill

I have a carbine...22" Bullberry barrel. It is accurate. I have only formed 30-30 brass for it and load 130gr.Speer and 120gr. Nosler spitzers. It is an excellent deer rifle with either J-word to at least 200 yards (as far as I have shot one with it).
My case life is about 5 loadings after the original fire forming. I lose the occasional one due to split necks on forming and a bunch more as I get near 5 loadings. I just started annealing cases in an attempt to correct this problem.
My loads are warm...getting 2550 and 2650 fps out of both jwords. I just touch the shoulder when resizing and have had no problems with case web thinning.

I also use starting loads and have bullets into the rifling when fire forming. (I use bulk Rem 140 spitzers for forming) They are probably ok for hunting with but I never have. They are not as accurate as the regular loads. Enjoy your Water's it is a great cartridge.

I use reformed 30-30 but I take care to set up my dies to only size enough that the case or cartridge just chambers and headspace is set by the shoulder not the rim. If the rim recess is excessively deep and you size the shoulder back too far, you can get case head separations with only 2 to 3 firings on that case.

Yes, the Waters is a perfect whitetail cartridge. Always wanted a rebarreled Marlin 336.

Another vote for headspacing on the shoulder and not the rim. Poor case life will result when fireforming with excess headspace at the shoulder. It will stretch/pull brass from the web rather than pushing it outward at the shoulder area of the 3030 parent case.

If you have already pushed the shoulders back to far, find a mold that will jam into the throat. Allow the bullet to finish seating when the action is briskly snapped shut. Yes it can and does raise pressures. Read on SSK's way for fire forming brass for wildcats.

Virgin brass gives me my best forming and case life.

The 7R is not a lot like the 7-30. I had one years ago. The 7R came about by folks trying to clean up the sloppy 7TCU chambers, thus the long neck to try and fix the throats as well.

Thanks guys!

I have a 10" 7-30 Contender Bull Barrel. It is very accurate but has a muzzle blast that literally drives others off the range when I shoot it. I have used both factory brass and reformed 30-30. As stated above setting it up to headspace on the shoulder rather than on the rim is vital to long case life. This is very easy to do with 30-30 brass by controlling how far down you resize the shoulder in the FL sizing die. It should be sized less than 1/16th turn of die depth to the point that the Contender barely snaps shut on a newly sized case with a false shoulder on the neck controlling the headspace.

It is not so easy to control the shoulder specification when firing new 7-30 Factory ammo. To achieve a proper length headspace for factory ammo I use the tiny rubber bands that dentists use for putting pressure on braces for straightening teeth. These rubber bands come in various sizes and lengths. I try to find one that rolls down over the unfired factory round and sits on the case rim. Inserting the case in the gun so that it just snaps shut will hold the case head firmly against the breach block when the firing pin strikes the primer. That, in turn, will allow the shoulder to expand forward without stretching the case side wall just ahead of the case head.

The headspace separation condition comes when the firing pin moves a case forward in the chamber until the shoulder stops the forward movement. As the ignition occurs the case expands against the chamber walls with over 40,000 CUP. The case grips the wall so hard that the case cannot move backward to the cannot move backward to contact the breech block. The case head, however, is thick enough that it does not expand outward to the chamber wall. The case head does expand backward until the case head hits the breach block. This backward expansion stretches the brass just above the case head making the case wall very thin. On subsequent firings the case wall cracks. The rubber band between the case rim and chamber holds the case firmly against the breech block and stretches the shoulder forward into the shoulder/chamber void.

If you have factory new 7-30 brass the simplest way to solve this problem is to run the new case neck over a 30 caliber sizing stem and then resize the neck a bit at a time, creating a false shoulder on the neck. This false shoulder will contact the neck and should not allow the gun to close on the case at first. Then screw the die down until the case allows the gun to barely snap shut. You could also pull the bullets on new factory rounds, dump the powder, run the cases over a 30 cal expander ball, resize to appropriate false shoulder length by pulling the decap pin out of the 7-30 die and reassembling the powder and bullet.

(As a side note: I have seen .303 British SMLEs with enough headspace to tear the case head off the case on the first firing. The rubber band method for factory loaded rounds will cure that also. As would pulling the bullets, running a .32 expander into the case necks and forming a false shoulder with the .303 dies.)

Apologies for the long winded post. I have used these techniques for several wildcat rounds. RD

I have a super 14 and its crazy accurate with 120 Sierra's. It shoots cast well also . I full length size almost always , and have my die set so with the barrel off the frame the case head is flush with the end of the barrel . This works on mine real well with reloads and sizing down 30-30's . If I neck size I use a neck die .

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Thank you gents! As we are pins and needles waiting for this baby anytime I’ve not had much time at the bench to get this sorted, but the few factory rounds I had on hand gave good accuracy though low and left but the scope was only bore sighted.

I need to get the mount rings & scope in to put on my 7-30, close to fire forming a bunch of cases for it. Looking forwards to being organized on that round! 7mm TCU is decent but the 7-30 is a bit more of a round.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Rockydog

I have a 10" 7-30 Contender Bull Barrel. It is very accurate but has a muzzle blast that literally drives others off the range when I shoot it. I have used both factory brass and reformed 30-30. As stated above setting it up to headspace on the shoulder rather than on the rim is vital to long case life. This is very easy to do with 30-30 brass by controlling how far down you resize the shoulder in the FL sizing die. It should be sized less than 1/16th turn of die depth to the point that the Contender barely snaps shut on a newly sized case with a false shoulder on the neck controlling the headspace.

It is not so easy to control the shoulder specification when firing new 7-30 Factory ammo. To achieve a proper length headspace for factory ammo I use the tiny rubber bands that dentists use for putting pressure on braces for straightening teeth. These rubber bands come in various sizes and lengths. I try to find one that rolls down over the unfired factory round and sits on the case rim. Inserting the case in the gun so that it just snaps shut will hold the case head firmly against the breach block when the firing pin strikes the primer. That, in turn, will allow the shoulder to expand forward without stretching the case side wall just ahead of the case head.

The headspace separation condition comes when the firing pin moves a case forward in the chamber until the shoulder stops the forward movement. As the ignition occurs the case expands against the chamber walls with over 40,000 CUP. The case grips the wall so hard that the case cannot move backward to the cannot move backward to contact the breech block. The case head, however, is thick enough that it does not expand outward to the chamber wall. The case head does expand backward until the case head hits the breach block. This backward expansion stretches the brass just above the case head making the case wall very thin. On subsequent firings the case wall cracks. The rubber band between the case rim and chamber holds the case firmly against the breech block and stretches the shoulder forward into the shoulder/chamber void.

If you have factory new 7-30 brass the simplest way to solve this problem is to run the new case neck over a 30 caliber sizing stem and then resize the neck a bit at a time, creating a false shoulder on the neck. This false shoulder will contact the neck and should not allow the gun to close on the case at first. Then screw the die down until the case allows the gun to barely snap shut. You could also pull the bullets on new factory rounds, dump the powder, run the cases over a 30 cal expander ball, resize to appropriate false shoulder length by pulling the decap pin out of the 7-30 die and reassembling the powder and bullet.

(As a side note: I have seen .303 British SMLEs with enough headspace to tear the case head off the case on the first firing. The rubber band method for factory loaded rounds will cure that also. As would pulling the bullets, running a .32 expander into the case necks and forming a false shoulder with the .303 dies.)

Apologies for the long winded post. I have used these techniques for several wildcat rounds. RD

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Well I'll be..
I use #6 pound fishing line.
Wrap it around the cartridge.
Till she'll snap shut.
Works great.
Gotta hit my dentist up for some of those rubber bands.
Electrical tape works also.

How about forming cases from 25-35 brass?