Having 30/30 problems

[PAT303]

I have a 1960's vintage '94 whinny thats giving me grief.I've been reloading for it but all my reloads are very tight to chamber,I've measured the inside neck dia of a dozen fired cases and they all measure .309 or thier abouts so my boolits have been sized .309 and are tight.I don't really want to go to .308 dia boolits but that maybe the only option as the cases are tight on the neck,I can see the rub marks on chambered rounds or neck turn the cases to get some clearance,I did buy some commercial .308 dia boolits and they chambered easily. Pat

[runfiverun]

that is tight.
you could have the chamber cleaned up by a smith too.
or have him hone the throat out a couple of thousandths.
if they shoot well at 308 i see no problem going with that diameter,there is no iron clad rule saying you have to have oversized boolits.
i shoot groove diameter in several of my rifles.

[geargnasher]

.30-30 brass is thin enough already, turning the necks would be a hassle. Like R5R mentioned, either discover how it likes .308" boolits or get the chamber touched up. If I remember right, both my .30-30s have chamber necks in the .337" neighborhood.

Gear

[mainiac]

I have an old marlin with a big throat,and had the same issues as your having. I shoot a .312 boolit in the marlin,loaded round wont fit in the chamber,so i made up a set of cases with the necks turned about .008. Boolit fits pretty near perfect now,and gun shoots wonderful.

[w30wcf]

PAt303,
Hmmm....I have 7 different 30-30's (Win, Marlin, Rem) and they all will chamber .311" diameter bullets with no problem. I use Winchester and Remington brass mostly.
Whose brass are you using?

If the inside of your fired brass measures .309", it would seem that a .309" diameter bullet should work since brass typically will spring back .001"-.002" after firing.

Is there any chance that the nose of the bullet is a bit oversized and is engaging the top of the lands? If in doubt, seat a bullet backwards and give that a try.

w30wcf

[JMtoolman]

Also check the over all length of your cases. You may be jamming the case mouth with the crimp into the end of the chamber. This will cause the cases to have a tighter mouth than the rest of the neck. The toolman.

[Larry Gibson]

If you are crimping are you sure you're not collapsing the case at the shoulder a bit? It doesn't take much. Also micing the inside of 30-30 cases, especially if fired with cast loads, will not give reliable expansion of the neck for measurement as the psi is very low. Suggest you make a chmaber cast to measure the diameter of the chamber neck. Parafin wax will do for this. Mic the neck thickness x 2 and subtract from the chamber neck diameter will tell you how large a bullet it will take. It's easy to do.

Larry Gibson

[PAT303]

I think I might be on a winner,after having issue's I went back to position one and started again.All my cases were full length resized so they chambered easily and checked for length,I then gave each case a slight flare and then ran them over my 303 button die which sized the inside dia to exactly .309 and sized my boolits .309,they are a nice firm push fit and then gave each loaded round a slight crimp so the boolit is held firmly and viola they chamber nice a neat.I'll give them a try on sunday and see how they go but they look the goods. Pat

[popper]

.309 neck ID and .309 CB OD won't give you ANY neck tension. Crimp doesn't give neck tension. Try a sized case, flared a tiny bit and keep increasing the flare until it won't fit. Gives you max neck size real quick. Did you slug the bore? If it really takes .309 CB then you need to go back to the 30-30 (.307) button.