30-30 and H4895?

[DEDHEAD]

Hello all,
Recently came across an old model 94, bought a Lee 309-150 mold, cast a few, and now I want to shoot the thing. I have a bunch of H4895 I'd like to use, don't want to hunt with it, just make it go boom.
Having a little trouble finding the data I'm looking for, any suggestions?

[GhostHawk]

My 7.62x39 list (Virtually identical with 30-30 ballistically) shows a max load of 34 gr with 2400 fps.

If it was me I'd start about 25 and work up.

Google is your friend, trick is developing the nose to seperate the gems from the trash.

[RPRNY]

Despite ballistic similarities at lower bullet weights, the 30-30 and 7.62x39 have different case capacities, necks and potentials. Data for the one should not be extrapolated for the other. There is probably as much load data for the 30-30 available as any other cartridge. Hodgdon offers H4895 data from 110grs through 170 grs.


http://www.hodgdonreloading.com/data/rifle

[snapshot]

IF your casting hard start with about 25 grains and work your way up to about 29 grains if soft stop at maybe 27.5 or until to much leading occurs.
good luck to you.

[snapshot]

Also that's with a gas check bullet if its no check or your shooting a check bullet without the check try to keep the velocity around 1600 fps.
Good luck to ya.

[YunGun]

H4895 is the first powder I tried when I started reloading CBs. Haven't tried it with a 150gr, but ended up at ~24-25gr under the Lee 170 as the most promising load of my rather limited testing (50yds only). I think the primary limiting factor there was that I was shooting a Marlin micro-groove & the Lee 309-170 just wasn't quite wide enough; shouldn't be an issue with your '94 however....

I'm sure other, more experienced members will chime in here, but offhand I'd agree with snapshot; you'll likely find what you're looking for in the 25-29gr range with the Lee 150 (assuming you're using gas checks). I'll also bet that the judicious use of Dacron or other filler (or possibly Mag primers?) would be beneficial in this application, as I recall noting the neck/shoulders being rather grungy, coupled with some vertical stringing, suggesting lower-than-optimal pressure...

Just ran across some a month or so back & picked up a couple pounds to resume testing with now that I have a wider selection of boolit profiles to play with, so I'm interested to hear of your results!

[Larry Gibson]

As mentioned cast them hard; COWWs + 2% tin WQ'd will do nicely. Size them .311 or as close to "as cast" if they drop smaller. Use a good lube such as Lar's NRA 50/50 and a good GC. Start at 24 gr of H4895 and work up to 29 or 30 gr as that will be just about 100% load density. No wad or filler will be needed. The M94 will tell you which load is "best". I use the similar RCBS 30-150-FN with H4895 and it does very well, no reason the Lee bullet won't either.

Larry Gibson

[leadman]

Larry's info, as usual is spot on. I found that H4895 gave me the highest velocities with the best accuracy.
With H4895 you can reduce Hodgdon's listed max. load by 60%. Use only H4895 and Hodgdon's data. This is listed on their website, along with youth loads. Good ways to reduce the wear and tear on the gun and you.

[1Shirt]

In general, if I had to have only two powders for cast bullet shooting for all the rifles I load for, they would be 4895 and 2400.
1Shirt!

[Wayne Smith]

I really like this thread. It means few but me use 3031! He He He...

[doc1876]

Hodgens manual states:
H4895..34g for the 150 g siefn, and the 170 g siefp at 2400/ and 2138 fps respectively at 36700 cup in the 30-30

someone posted this manual here some time ago, and I copied it and saved it to the computer.