I'm Working On My Henry 30-30 Education

[Foto Joe]

A month or so ago I picked up a Henry H009B 30-30 and I've been working on being able to hit a target with this thing every since. The target shown below is at 70 yards shooting from a "supported" position not a rest, the sights are stock iron buck horn and the wind was a typical Wyoming with 15-20 mph from left to right. The load is a Lyman 311041 on top of 18.0 gr of IMR 4198 which Lyman recommends not only as the starting load but the one with potentially the best accuracy. The brass is "yard sale" pick up and full length sized as it's the first time it's been fired through this gun and the boolits are water dropped clip on wheel weights with 2% tin added that test out at around 22 BHN on a Lee Hardness Tester.

Since all my brass is finally fire-formed my plan today is to neck size a dozen or so and play with OAL to get the boolit as close to the rifling as I can and to ensure that I'm not seating the gas check below the neck of the case. I want everybody to keep in mind that I'm a pistol/SAA revolver person and this is the first rifle that I've even owned. At least the first one that doesn't shoot straight wall cases. Hopefully once I've got the OAL set where I think that I want it for the gun I'll be able to start playing seriously with loads and accuracy. One of the things that I'm curious about is what increments should I start working the load up from, is a .5 grain increase (up .5 from 18.0 to 18.5, 19.0 etc.) a reasonable increase from my starting load? And also, even with my tired old bifocal eyes I would think that I should be able to do better than this at 70 yards shouldn't I?

I'm quite happy with the boolits that I've produced for this, I just finished gas checking a couple of hundred yesterday and each weighed in at between 173.4 and 174.5. Any that were beyond that spec got recycled and I did have a few that were substantially heavier which I attribute to early casts as they were pretty shiny. I had about a 5% reject for light weight due to voids. I'll re-weigh the boolits before I lube and get the +/- down to .5 grains for load workup purposes. Keep in mind in your comments that I'll be staying with the IMR 4198 powder as that's what I've got to work with and it seems to be readily available here in Cody.

The final plan for this gun is to go test and see if I'm a better deer hunter than the deer this fall. At this point in time I'm pretty sure I could hit Bambi if I stepped on him but I'd like to be able to reach out 100+ yards.

[Ben]

Your load with the IMR 4198 and the 31141 bullet is a proven accurate load in several of my rifles .

The question of sub par accuracy should not be in your selection of bullet and powder. The 31141 has shot tight groups in MANY different .30 cal. rifles for as long as I can remember. The 31141 is one of my all time favorite .30 cal. cast bullets.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/haysb/Photo0421.jpg

Did you say what the diameter of your cast bullets was in the test target in your original post above ? The answer to that question can have a great bearing on things ?

What type of bullet lube are you using with your 31141's ?

Some rifles like .309, some .310, some do even better with a .311" dia. cast bullet. A matter of trial and error.

.5 gr. increments in your powder charges will work just fine as you search for " the load " .

Ben

[stephenj]

my honest opinion
that does not look like a bad target at all , you are shooting in a wind , no load development
and you are using a new rifle with buck horn sights .
with your admision to not being a rifle shooter i think all you need to do is smile and keep shooting it looks like a darn good start to me

[Bigslug]

Considering the variables here - new gun, untested ammo on random brass, shooter without a lot of rifle time. You might want to slow down and get a little scientific.

You're in Cody Wyoming, Mecca of the Buffalo Shooters, so you've undoubtedly got friends, neighbors, and acquaintances who know how to shoot off a bench. Enlist their aid.

Hang a scope on the thing. It doesn't have to be super nice, and it doesn't have to be permanent, but for load development, it will help minimize the human variable.

Burn a few boxes of factory jacketed with one of your "local pros" on the trigger. This will give you a baseline for the rifle's potential, and also give you a pile of consistent, fire-formed brass.

Finally, in the interests of preserving sanity, don't look too far beyond the requirements of what you need to accomplish. You have what is regarded as a 100-150 yard deer cartridge coming out of a rifle with a non-floated, band-clamped barrel. A deer's kill zone is about 8 inches. If your rifle shoots 3 inches and your personal ability has 3 inches of wobble at the range in question, you still have dead deer. If you can get your rifle shooting cloverleafs with minimal tweaking, live smug in the knowledge that you've got a ringer, but there's no need to make it your life's work. . . not for deer anyway.

[725]

I have to go along with Ben. Try sizing .309, .310, maybe even .311. Use Ben's Red lube. Put the boolit out as far as to engage the rifling, if it will still function through the cycle. That's the drawback with levers. First you have to be sure the OAL will function, and then try to get the boolit close to the rifling. I bet you will find a rapid improvement in your efforts as you go along. Also, you might want to soften that boolit just a tad. Not that I know anything, but trail and error are good for getting stuff done. Keep notes and experiment. Good luck.

[runfiverun]

shooting a lever gun off a bench is a whole different matter than shooting your hunting rifle off a bench.
you need to support the rifle back near the frame, then decide where to put your left hand and leave it there.
feed the rifle from the top, and roll it to the left to eject and feed the next round then roll it back into place on the rest.
if you put your left hand on the forearm of the rifle, and use uneven pressure there, it will affect your group size and can cause you to think you have velocity variations.

1/2 gr changes in your load will be good enough to get you moving along if you find a load that's good on 2 steps split the difference and go with it.
try shooting the gun like it IS a handgun, place your hands the same [try operating the lever until its comfortable and smooth] focus on the sights the same, and get used to the rifles trigger..

[Ben]

If it was possible to put a 4 X or 6 X scope ( or an inexpensive 3 X 9 variable ) on the rifle for a few days, I believe that I would do that.

While testing your loads, it will take a lot of the " sighting error " out of the equation and you'll probably arrive at a super accurate load out of your particular rifle much quicker.

Once you've arrived at a " proven accurate load " in your rifle , the scope can be removed and you are back to your metallic sights.

Ben

[44man]

The guys are right, us old timers and open sights don't get along much, If it can be scoped it will be best but it might be hard with the Henry.
My best from the Marlin is .311".
I have not tried 4198 and am using 3031 and 4895 for less then 1" at 100.
Ben's Red is a great lube for the rifle.
I hold the forearm and put my hand on a bag, if I put wood on a bag, bets are off!

[Thumbcocker]

+1 for a firm hod on the forearm and pulling the butt into your shoulder. forearm on the bag doesn't work on levers.

[bedbugbilly]

I can be of no help but I have to go with what stephenj said . . . .

I'm an old fart with bad eyes and if that target was mine . . . especially with a new rifle, open sights and still working on loads . . . . I'd be framing it! Good luck to you with your new Henry . . . looks like you're having fun!

[RPRNY]

18 grs 4198 and the 311041 is a wining combination. 22 BHN is pretty hard but since you are GC shouldn't matter so much.

Target isn't that bad to be honest.

What size are these bullets?

Have you slugged your bore?

Are your experiencing any leading?

[paul edward]

In addition to the good advice posted above, consider trimming all of your cases to the same length. This will help eliminate another pesky variable. Also consider doing your load development with one brand of case. It is not like 30/30 brass is hard to find.

[dverna]

Shooting a lever action rifle is easier than shooting a pistol. If you can shoot good groups with a pistol (using iron sights) then you should be shooting good groups with a rifle.

First thing I would do is shoot some jacketed bullets to see if the rifle is capable. If it will shoot jacketed bullets, then you need to try different sized diameters as suggested above by others. Alloy may affect accuracy too but not as much as sizing.


On sights, I mount a scope on my Marlin to test loads. On some of my other lever actions I have tang sights and you can shoot good groups with a peep sight. Not sure if the Henry will allow easy mounting of either.

Don Verna

[MT Chambers]

If you're not sorting your brass by brand, I certainly wouldn't worry about working up loads in .5grain increments.