35/30 America's first wildcat

[stubshaft]

A couple of days ago I was talking with a friend on the telephone. He and I were both sick and tired of being home quarantined and decided to take a walk in the mountains. I agreed to meet him in a couple of hours as it was just past noon.

I reached for my Remington model 11 as I had just put on a 24" slug barrel on it. But decided against it as I wasn't too sure where it was hitting. Moving down the rack my hand fell on my trusty old model 94, but again I had to leave it because I couldn't remember if it was sighted in for lead boolits or J words. Next in line was my old model 64 Winchester, my very first centerfire rifle that I had bought 56 years ago. Originally chambered for 30/30. I had lent it to one of my kid brothers who had shot it and not cleaned it causing the barrel to rust and pit.

About a year ago I had sent it up to Jesse at JES Rebore and had him punch the barrel out to 35/30 ot 35-30/30. He did a great job and in no time at all I was trying out different loads for it. I settled on 26.5 IMR 3031 behind a 200 gr. SAECO boolit which trips the chrono at only 1650 fps. but puts them boolits in less than 1/2" at 50 yds. I knew this rifle was good to go as I only loaded and shot this load for it. The area we hunt in is so thick that you can rarely see farther that 50 yards anyway.

Loaded up the car and went to meet my friend at the hunting area.

We geared up and made a couple of unsuccessful spot and stalk hunts along the valley we were in. We decided to sit against a riverbank and watch a small clearing on the other side



After only 20 minutes a small boar walked into the clearing and stood 50 broadside to me. I placed the bead right behind his shoulder and let the hammer drop. At the shot he lunged into the brush and ran off. I knew the shot as good and we began tracking him after waiting only 15 minutes (old bowhunter habit). The guinea grass was shoulder height and it took us a couple of minutes to find the blood trail which was surprisingly sparse. There were only small droplets of very dark blood and not the frothy pink blood I normally see with a lung shot.

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We continued on and found him about 70 yards from where I shot him

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We dragged him back to the clearing and stopped for a photo.

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I was still curious about the bloodtrail and performed a quick necropsy back at the car. The boolit had entered exactly where I was aiming, but had clipped a rib and exited near the rear rib of the off side, both holes were perfectly round and showed no sign of tumbling. The damage to the internals was tremendous. The heart was the only organ that was untouched and what was left of the lungs was only the root and was a fist sized chunk. The liver and remaining organs north of the diagphragm was a mass of red jelly. I can only surmise that the damage was so great that there was no air pressure to force the blood out allowing it to only dribble out. Of course my phone was dead by now and I had no way to record the damage.

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He did make great sausage!

[augercreek]

Good shot and better eating !

[RU shooter]

Congrats and thanks for the story . Who says you need high velocity to kill ! Don't know when the 35/30-30 was first invented but it's wonder why it never was a standard factory offering ? Guessing too similar to the 35rem

[Texas by God]

Thanks for sharing the story and pics. Well done!
We need more cowbell - rifle pics, please. The model 64 is a beautiful gun.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk

[CastingFool]

Congrats on a successful hunt!

[444ttd]

great job!!!!!!!!

JES also did mine last year, win m94(1972) in 35/30. the 30-30 was my first rifle and i can't count how many deer i killed with it. i put her back in the safe and thats where she stayeed for 25+/- years. i heard of the 35/30-30 about 5 or so years ago and i wanted to send to JES but never did, until last year.

i tried to shoot it(3 - 4" at 50 yards), but my eyes ain't as good as they used to be, so i put on a williams fp aperture sight. now 3 shots at 100 yards will cloverleaf them. i use 200gr fn gc(rcbs) and 20.0gr of 2400/tuft of dacron going 1726fps. i shot a big doe about 30+/- yards and she ran(stumbled) about 15-20 yards. she was broadside to me, so i snuck a boolit behind the front shoulder, made mush out of the lower lungs and then the boolit goes out.

i was going to use 270gr bull shop stomper or a 245gr fn gc(saeco) but why bother when i got the accuracy out of 200gr fn gc.


shooting it in

[Three44s]

Looks like pretty good medicine “from my house”!

Three44s

[Nobade]

What dies are you guys using to load it? I had one for a while and never got the right dies, just used a 357 mag to neck size and a 38-55 if I needed to do the body. 358 win to seat bullets. It would be nice to have the real set.

[dragon813gt]

CH4D makes them. You can find them in the Die section under 35/30-30 Winchester. No clue what the lead time is on them.

[444ttd]

CH4D makes them. You can find them in the Die section under 35/30-30 Winchester. No clue what the lead time is on them.

i called them up and the guy said he had 35/30 dies. 2 or 3 days later, i had them.

[Nobade]

i called them up and the guy said he had 35/30 dies. 2 or 3 days later, i had them.

Sounds like the way to go! Thanks.

[T-Bird]

JES did my '94 30/30 in "38/55" and I love it and his work quality

[stubshaft]

What dies are you guys using to load it? I had one for a while and never got the right dies, just used a 357 mag to neck size and a 38-55 if I needed to do the body. 358 win to seat bullets. It would be nice to have the real set.

I use a similar set, the only difference is that I use a 35 Rem. seater I got off of E-bay for $10.00. I get 1/2" accuracy at 50 yds and cannot justify paying $125.00 for a "real" set of dies.

[444ttd]

I use a similar set, the only difference is that I use a 35 Rem. seater I got off of E-bay for $10.00. I get 1/2" accuracy at 50 yds and cannot justify paying $125.00 for a "real" set of dies.

i bet that you wet tumble cartridge cases using a harbor freight rock tumbler and a piece of of 4" sewer pipe. oh wait, that's me. well i bet ya that use 99% isopropyl alcohol mixed with and lanolin on your fl sizing dies. oh, wait a minute, thats me.

well all kidding aside, the 35/30 is my first cartridge and my first 35 caliber boolit. so i decided, what the heck, i'll buy 35/30 dies($115 includes s&h) and 30-30 starline cases($88 includes s&h). i have loaded 100 cartridges about 9 or 10 times(never annealed them) and they are still good. i still have 150 starline 30-30 left. the old cases(rem, win, federal, pmc...) i gave to to my dad(sav m340 in 30-30). i was told by members(on this forum and others) thats its ok to use 35 rem dies, but seeing i don't have one(or any other 35 cal dies), i'll buy it. $115 is not cheap, especially if your on disablity(stroke) like i am. but i bought 20 vartarg redding dies at $150 and i bought 500 linebaugh hornady dies at $75. i bought a 9.3x57 hornady dies at $50.

oh yeah, i betcha you take a 30-30 cartridge and size it up to 35/30 or a 8x57 and size it up to 9.3x57 by using pure lanolin and a q tip. oh, wait a minute, that's me. dang it, why is always me!!!!!!!!

[RoyEllis]

Question for ya'll with 35/30's, has anyone tried using boolits for plinker loads like say .357 158gr or lighter?

[444ttd]

JES does .359" bore, i don't know about that.

[stubshaft]

I thought about shooting light boolits but I have a 1894C in 357 mag to fart around with. I loaded the 200 gr. SAECO for an all around load and it does everything I want it to. In fact I'll probably remelt the 250's that I had cast and sell that mold.

[wallacem]

I use 158 gr jhp in my Marlin 35 as my "go to" load. Shoots Great. Wallacem in Ga

[Outpost75]

CH4D makes them. You can find them in the Die section under 35/30-30 Winchester. No clue what the lead time is on them.

I got mine from Redding. Not inexpensive, but I got custom dies which fit my rifle exactly and the tapered expander converts .30-30, .32 Win. Spl. or .32-40 brass in one pass. But I found the easiest was to buy Starline 2.085" .38-55 brass and just neck it down. Trim to length using Lee Quik-Trim die for .358 Winchester. I shoot plain-based bullets from Accurate and LBT molds. 30 grains of H- or IMR4895, 4064, RL15 or Varget with 1 grain Dacron filler tucked into case neck and pea-sized dab of white lithium grease applied with cake decorator. No GC needed and 245-270 grain bullets cast 10-12 BHN perform well on deer at woods ranges to 125 yards with no leading in 16-inch twist barrel at 1600-1700 fps. You can eat right up to the bullet hole and penetration is through and through even on Texas Heart Shots.

If you are so inclined Trail Boss or 2Fg Goex also work great. I duplex the Goex with a 3 grain Bullseye booster to aid ignition and keep the fouling down for easy cleanup, 1330 fps.

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