marlin 30-30

[mainiac]

Just picked up an old 1948 model 336a rifle tonight.Love these old marlins.
Now i need to buy a mold for it.What do you fellers recommend for the most accurate boolit?

Im tempted to just buy the rcbs mold,cause i have real good luck with them,but thought i would ask what you fellers think,first. thanks,mark

Im hearing that the lyman 308041 is very accurate..........

[TXGunNut]

Congrats but no suggestions. CB's for my thutty-thutty Trapper are on my project list so looking forward to the responses.

[jlchucker]

I've got four 30-30's. Two Winnies and two Marlins. I use the Lyman 311041 that I bought when I first started casting back around 1975 for all of them. If I were starting out fresh again today though, I'd give the Ranchdog mold a hard look. Also an RCBS. I don't know anything about the Lyman 308041.

[zac0419]

Try the ranchdog (vendor link on top of page) mold for the 30-30. It has a nice wide meplat and is taylor made for Marlins. My buddy has only cast these, no loads yet, but the boolits look real pretty.

[wmitty]

Shooting five .30-30s (Win 94, Mar 336, Sav 340, Stevens 825, and Rem 788).

Moulds tried: 6 cavity 31141 group buy; Lee Soup Can, RCBS .30-180 SP, 311466.

The 31141 group buy has taken down several hogs, and seems to group best (using Re-7). I thought the RCBS boolet would work great in the 788, but was disappointed.
The 311466 is a recent acquisition so haven't formed an opinion on it. Soup Can is fun with lite loads; have not found accurate load for it yet at high speed.

I'd like to try the RCBS .30-180 FP and RD 165 before I throw in with the 31141 as far as it being THE mould for this cartridge.

[geargnasher]

I also have the 311041 copy 6-cavity group buy mould, it casts right at .311" with wheel weighs, and I size/lube .311 for my 1966 12-groove 336. It loves that boolit, and it will shoot in most any .30 caliber rifle pretty well.

The Ranch Dog boolit is made for hunting and made for Marlin throats, which generally are a bit larger and longer than some others. I have an NOE copy of the RD 311-165 RF with conventional grease grooves, and while it's the bee's knees for my Marlin with it's worn throat, they won't even come close to chambering in my Savage because the nose base is too large for the throat.

Sometimes it's necessary to trim brass a little short with the RD boolits in order to get them to chamber and still crimp in the crimp groove, but it works fine.

I'd stick with the 311041, though, as another member said here once, that boolit "is what all other .30-30 boolit designs try to be".

Oh, one more thing, a BIG +1 on using RX 7 with the 170-ish boolits in .30-30.

Gear

[W.R.Buchanan]

Lyman 311041: is the one. It was designed specifically for the .30-30. Originally it was called 31141.

I have a Lachmiller clone of this mould. works great.

Randy

[pls1911]

have a great collection of the early Marlin iron.
Ranch dog 165, cast hard and heattreated sized.312 & lubed with whatever's in the luber, then with JPW/LLA mix, pushed with 25 Graines RL-7.
huge slap factor with the meplat, and penetrates through next week.
many many pigs and deer have dropped to this one.