30-30, first cast loads is this the right seating depth

[cr445671]

Finally finished my first batch of cast rounds for my 336, this is a pic of one, if you look at the first driving band rite above the crimp you can see the rifling has engraved it a tiny bit. I feel like I've read somewhere that that's what you want, but would like to check with y'all.294380

Update: better pic
294384

[Tar Heel]

It's hard to see in the image but if the bullet has a crimp groove, I would crimp it there to prevent bullet setback under recoil in the magazine tube.

[cr445671]

It's crimped, if you zoom in that's what the black line just bellow the case rim is

[Bird]

If it cycles through the action from loading gate to ejection not firing firing the round, then it should be good to go. You should feel no undue resistance when the round chambers. If you get slight engraving of the bullet its not a problem providing you are using start loads and not maximum loads.

[popper]

Yup, jamming the lands works as long as you can extract without pulling the bullet. Or have to double pump the lever to get round chambered. You will find if not fully chambered the trigger will not work (2 piece FP). I don't try jamming the lands anymore as it requires carrying a rod to unload a stuck rnd. Is that the 041 mould? Or RD. Jamming gets a slightly better accuracy but I won't do it for hunting - I made that mistake on my first (and only deer hunt). Jamming is also hard on the lever which controls head space (lever is THE locking lug for the marlin).

[cr445671]

As far as chambering resistance it depends. I test chambered a few rounds, the first I went fast and didn't notice any, the second I went slow and it did give some resistance going in, but not until maybe the last 1/4" of lever travel (you know that tab that acts I think as the trigger disconect, rite behind the trigger guard? From the point that the trigger guard hits it till closed.), and the third I went fast again and didn't notice any. Extraction was as normal for all rounds.

Also yes it's essentially a RD clone from Arsenal molds.

[GregLaROCHE]

If you insert a plane boolit that you will be using, you can pass a dowel from the muzzle until it contacts the boolit. Mark the dowel at the muzzle. Remove the boolit and close the bolt. Push the dowel down until it contacts the bolt face. Make another mark on the dowel. Measure the distance between the two marks. That will give you the OAL length using that boolit. You may want to reduce the total length by a couple Thousands. If the cartridge at this length cycles properly, you are god to go with that length. I don’t believe a lead boolit needs a crimp groove to keep it in place. The crimp will bite into the lead sufficiently.

[Mk42gunner]

If it cycles through the action from loading gate to ejection not firing firing the round, then it should be good to go. You should feel no undue resistance when the round chambers. If you get slight engraving of the bullet its not a problem providing you are using start loads and not maximum loads.
Couldn't have said it better myself.

Personally, I like to load just off the lands, for zero chambering effort. Sometimes loading into the lands does produce better accuracy though.

Robert

[Gtek]

I have taken rimmed rounds with no primer or powder and seat and crimp. Wipe exposed Boolit with alcohol/thinner whatever and color with black Sharpie. Set in chamber and push with small flat blade screwdriver with attention for feel, when seated remove and look.

[cr445671]

Honestly I don't really feel like I have much option with these bullets, I'd have to trim the cases to keep them from engraving, and since I don't have a case trimmer and doubt I could afford one, if that's needed i may s-o-l. It's probably hard to tell from the picture but they're seated so that the edge of the case is rite in line with the top edge of the crimp groove, which is honestly the only thing i was thinking about when determining depth. Them engraving was just something I found out about afterwords, which is why i asked about it here.

I don't have most of them loaded to max listed, but some are. The powders I'll be trying are 2230, h380, and w231. The 2230 and h380 both stay well under max listed. The w231 one's i loaded following the data on gmdr.com, i started with a few at 9grs, then some at 9.5grs, then some at 10grs, which is the max listed on that site. The only slight worry I have is that my Lee perfect powder measure seems to have a variance of maybe .3ish grs with that w231 powder, which may put some of them slightly over, but I assume that I'd catch any danger signs in the earlier rounds, and either way I think there's probably 0 chance I would've missed a warning about using it with this powder (flattened ball) considering who knows how many have used it with unique, which I just assume can't meter as well since it's noticably bigger in grain diameter.

[Bakebfr480]

Not deep enough……..what does your loading manual list as the overall cartridge length?

[Cosmic_Charlie]

Seat them a touch deeper with a light crimp.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

Honestly I don't really feel like I have much option with these bullets, I'd have to trim the cases to keep them from engraving, and since I don't have a case trimmer and doubt I could afford one, if that's needed i may s-o-l.

<<<SNIP
If you plan on shooting and loading your cases multiple times, you WILL need a case trimmer.
Can't afford one?
The Lee setup will cost you less than a box of factory ammo.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

Finally finished my first batch of cast rounds for my 336, this is a pic of one, if you look at the first driving band rite above the crimp you can see the rifling has engraved it a tiny bit. I feel like I've read somewhere that that's what you want, but would like to check with y'all.

While it looks fine to me...You won't know what your gun needs until you get it out to the range.

Since you didn't trim your brass, sometimes one or a few pieces of brass that is longer than the rest of that batch, will make a bulge at the crimp, when crimped, making a cartridge that might not chamber.

[Wayne Smith]

I'll second the Lee trimmer - if you are shooting a lever action you will eventually need one. Those cases will stretch because the rifle locks at the back of the action, just like a British Enfield. The Lee trimmer system is a simple, absolute and accurate way to go.

[Bird]

The next time you reload the brass, you will need to measure the length of the case before and after you resize. This will give you an idea of how much the brass will grow in length just going through the resizing operation, and grow, it will. You don't want to engrave the bullet anymore than you currently have.
If you are going 0.3 grains over on some loads, you are doing something wrong. You must have some sort of scale there in order to know you 3 tenths over, so you should be bringing the powder charge up to weight by trickling. That may be tedious, but important when you approach maximum loads. The other method if your measure is throwing too much, is to dial it back to 9.7g for the 231 powder. If it were me, I think I would stay at a max of 9.5g of 231. I have not used 231 in the 30-30, so I don't have data for that powder. You must also consider that load was for another firearm, not yours.
Pistol powders are fast burning, and if it were me again, I would work up loads in 0.2g increments.

[cr445671]

Thanks for the tips on that lee trimmer, I didn't realise there was one available for less than ~$100.

And yah as far as measuring I need to figure out something better, I would be doing that trickling up thing, but my current scale is that lee safety balance scale, and it is soooo easy to bump it even the slightest bit and lose zero. I couldn't imagine how I could trickle with it and be able to load any kind of quantity at all, if I'm not insanely careful even hanging the weighing tray will knock it off; I need to get one of those digital scales. And +1 on the 9.5gr max, I didn't even fire any of the 10gr loads after seeing the velocity I was getting from the 9.5, in fact with them I stopped after the third shot hit 1494fps, 50fps faster than gmdr.com predicted with 10gr.

Actually if y'all take a look at that other thread I have my last post mentions it, and I'd appreciate any insight/advise you could offer.

[dla]

If these are plinkers, i.e. CAS loads, then you can full-length resize once and then neck-size only.
But if these are full-up loads, then you need full-length resize and check case length every time. 30-30 brass really stretches.

[trails4u]

A digital scale is not the answer.... Learn to use a balance beam scale correctly. I used a Lee for a couple of years before I 'upgraded' to an RCBS scale. The Lee was good, accurate and repeatable, I just prefer the adjustments on the RCBS scale. Check your process...check your scale. Make sure everything is clean and there are no burrs or other obstructions that might be preventing it from balancing correctly.

[cr445671]

A digital scale is not the answer.... Learn to use a balance beam scale correctly. I used a Lee for a couple of years before I 'upgraded' to an RCBS scale. The Lee was good, accurate and repeatable, I just prefer the adjustments on the RCBS scale. Check your process...check your scale. Make sure everything is clean and there are no burrs or other obstructions that might be preventing it from balancing correctly.

I don't have any problems zeroing it, it's just sooooo easy to bump it even the slightest bit and lose zero. That's the only appeal of a digital, being able to just plop things down, literally all about the amount of time it requires.

[badwolf]

Lee trimmer for 30-30 under $15, By hand or with a power drill

[TNsailorman]

I have been using Lee case trimmers for years now with a power drill clamped to a table. One thing though, go slow and do not put a lot of pressure on the cutter. The tip on the end of the cutter is not hardened and otherwise will wear fast and you will end up with cases cut too short. Ask me how I know? james

[popper]

I just have the FA simple electronic scale, served well for 10 yrs. I use the Lee FCD to remove the bell from the mouth of the case, no real crimp. I pulled the decap pin out of the Lee die set and expand the mouth with a separate Lyman spud (NOE also makes one). If you have good neck tension you don't really need a real crimp. I treat my 308 AR10 the same, no setback unless the nose jams and then the bullet doesn't chamber anyway. Haven't trimmed a 30/30 case ever. Use a small needle nose pliers to just bell the case mouth (barely) so seating doesn't scrape the lead/PC off. Don't even chamfer the case mouth. My 'RD' version is almost slick sided with no crimp groove. I did have the orig. RD made by Lee (3 GC and 3 PB), worked well but decided I wanted a slick side as crimp groove gets in the way. I use close to max loads for the 185gr GC version and it does well as does the FTX bullet. That little 'button' actually is a FP block, not a trigger reset. My 'tests' of jamming the lands gave minimal improvement in accuracy and nothing else but extra wear on the gun.

[cr445671]

Yah I acctually adjusted my seating depth for the next batch I loaded up, you can now barely barely see where the rifling has only just touched the bullet, not near as far out as the last batch.

[Thumbcocker]

Let us know how they shoot.

[popper]

The 336 actually will shoot good. From the original RD Lee (IIRC It's #2 alloy about 10 yrs ago when I could shoot good and before I started playing with alloys) using mazzola for lube. Sitting with elbow on cooler @ ~ 60 yds. GK's friend tried a 'real' rifle on the target too. They were barely jamming the lands. Just loaded the tube and shot, reload so not rapid fire but pretty fast. Barrel heated a tad. H4895 30 gr IIRC.
294760

[45-70 Chevroner]

I use digital caliper from Harbor Freight to check rifle case lengths. They are accurate enough for reloading purposes. Harbor Freight calipers are in the $15.00 range, and they use a button battery included. I have also been using Lee case trimmers ever sense they came out. I get the Lee trimmers from Midway USA, there phone # Is 1-800-243-3220. They are much cheaper than getting them from Lee Precision.
(Correction on phone #)

[higgins]

I just target shoot with cast. I always single load so working through the magazine is not an issue. I have pulled a couple of bullets upon extraction when I used to load them into the lands. Now I load them just short of the lands so that chambering feels normal. With easy chambering I don't wonder if the bullets are too large in diameter, seated too far out, or crimped insufficiently. I can't tell a difference in practical accuracy shooting metal targets at 200 yds with bullets seated touching the lands vs just off the lands.