Reaming the throat on a 30-30

[Frank46]

Just recently was looking at my 30-30's both win and marlin throats and all of them have the rifling starting just where the chamber ends. Has anyone ever reamed the throats and what were your results. Would like to shoot some cast boolits from some of them and while my experiences have been mostly bolt actioned rifles have little to no experiences with cast in lever actions. Thanks, Frank

[Old School Big Bore]

Frank - if you make casts of your throats you may find the rifling doesn't just start full height at the end of the case but that the leade ramps up from almost nothing to full height in about the length of a typical ogive. I haven't seen lever guns with freebore like some magnum boltguns have; usually the designers want the boolit almost engaged in the leade. Unless you're talking about using CBs with long bore-riding sections outside the case...

[Nobade]

You will also notice the chamber is quite a bit longer than the case. The standard SAAMI 30-30 chamber is configured this way for some reason, instead of having a normal throat. If you throat it out longer, and load the ammo to fit, it will be too long to cycle through the magazine. Plus you still have that big gap between the case and the end of the chamber. Funny thing is, even though it is one of the poorest chamber designs out there, it still usually shoots reasonably well.

-Nobade

[btroj]

You need to look at designs that are lever action friendly. There are many. I like the NOE 165 RD mould. Fits my Marlin very well and shoots well too.

[Frank46]

many thanks for your info. Gonna pull all my 30 cal lever guns and double check. Did have and interesting thing happen with my Win Canadian Cenntenial carbine. Using win 170 grain and getting the iron sights set up, I noticed that the ends of the cases were looking like they had been contacting the end of the chamber. Slight burrs. I have the full length 26" rifle barreled one also but as yet have not shot it. But it sure does balance well with the longer barrel. Frank