Your expereince with the .35-30/30?

[PBSmith]

This old wildcat fascinates me to the point where I am considering having a .30-30 rifle bored and chambered for it. I see the cartridge as a real winner for cast bullets. That might be wishful thinking, based on good luck with cast bullets in the .35 Remington.

Not sure which rifle I'd chose for the conversion. Tentatively thinking it would be something other than a lever action. Suggestions here are welcome. If this project comes to life, it will probably see most use in target work but possibly also as a deer rifle in the north woods.

If you've had experience with the .35-30/30, please consider sharing. What's your rifle and what kind of accuracy did you find with cb's? Any particular problems?

.Look forward to your comments.

[racepres]

By any other name....a 357 Herrett
I been shooting mine for....A very long time now... Perfect Deer cartridge for my Contender... Not, better than the 35 Remington in any Rifle!!

[RJM52]

Supposed to be an announcement shortly of the Remington .360 Buckhammer... Straight walled .30-30 case with a .358 bullet....

Henry and Marlin supposed to be making rifles...

https://bushcraftusa.com/forum/threads/new-caliber-its-a-35.343415/

Bob

[Rapier]

I do not need a new straight wall 357 case to shoot anything with, I have two 357 Super Mag rifles already. If the case is restricted to Super Mag length......then. The 357 Herrett has a shoulder, on the right, sounds more like a shortened 38x55, based on maybe 225 brass.

[racepres]

I do not need a new straight wall 357 case to shoot anything with, I have two 357 Super Mag rifles already. If the case is restricted to Super Mag length......then. The 357 Herrett has a shoulder, on the right, sounds more like a shortened 38x55, based on maybe 225 brass.

The Herrett starts life as a 30-30.. ends shortened, and with a Small Sharp shoulder.. conceived specifically for 10" barrelled handgun....

[Outpost75]

.357 Herrett cases are a bit tedious to make, requiring neck reaming, tri.ming and fire forming. The .35/.30-30 is just necked up with no other change. New Remington Buckhammer would be preferable once SAAMI standardized as factory ammo, components and tested load data will be available for it.

[stubshaft]

The first hunting rifle I ever owned was a used Winchester model 64 in 30/30. I let my kid brother borrow it for a while and as kid brothers are wont to do, he never cleaned it and the barrel ended up being pitted. It looked like a sewer pipe while the external metal was still pristine. I toyed with the idea of relining the bore until I read an article about the 35-30/30 and found JES Rebore.

I sent him my rifle and he rechambered it and rebored it for an extremely fair price. In no time I had it back and was forming brass. I have a set of expanding rods that fit a Lee Universal decapper that IIRC I got off of flea-bay for under $20.00. One pass with a touch of graphite to lube the necks and I had cases formed. A NOE neck expander was used to flare the neck for the 200 gr. SAECO bullet and a used 35 Remington seater die ($12.00 from flea-bay) completed my Mcgyver loading set. I could have used my 357 Herrett dies but that would have been cheating.

It is supposed to be Americas FIRST WILDCAT, it is not a 35 Remington (although it comes within spitting distance to it) nor is it a 357 Herrett which is shorter by a fair amount and is more efficient in terms of load density and velocity. My best accuracy is with 23.5 4198 behind the SACO 200 gr. bullet lubed with LBT blue soft. Velocity is 1825 fps and it shoot into 1 1/2" at 100 yards (peep sight). I could up the load for more velocity, but 1825 is more than enough to drop hogs in their tracks! Heck, I can juice up my Herret loads to 2K fps, but none of the hogs I've shot could have told the difference in velocity. I cannot discuss the expansion of the bullet as I have not been able to recover any of the bullets from the 27 hogs, I've shot with it, including some north to south shots that penetrated over 3 1/2 feet of hog.

I have never been recoil sensitive, but do not find it to be bothersome in my rifle. In fact, I think that it is a real fun cartridge to plink with and futz around with.

If you are looking for a fun cartridge that is easy to make and load, packs a punch and hammers hogs, then the 35-30/30 is for you.

[P Flados]

For a 35 cal lever gun, go for the 360 BH (35/30-30 shortened to 1.8").

Factory ammo, reloading dies, standard chamber reamers and probably Starline brass will be available.

My take on the new pecking order for 35 cal deer guns:


For all tube magazine lever guns this new 360 BH will be hard to beat. Same for bolt guns set up for rimmed cartridges.
For current production single shots platforms, the new 360 BH will be best for most shooters. However, if ease of reloading is real important, the 357 Max is still worth considering.
For the TC Contender, I still feel the 357 max is best. The rim is nice, and it reloads the easiest. It can be handloaded hot with negligible risk of frame stretch.
For most bolt guns and all AR-15 platform guns, go with the 350L.
If anyone wants to convert a current production magazine fed lever gun (Henry, Browning) to 35 cal, 350L would look to be best.

For those that already have a 35 Rem, 357 Max, 35/30-30 or 357AR Max, the "consolation prize" is likely to be a welcome increase in 0.358" commercial bullet availability suitable for deer at the desired velocities.

[Dinny]

For those that already have a 35 Rem, 357 Max, 35/30-30 or 357AR Max, the "consolation prize" is likely to be a welcome increase in 0.358" commercial bullet availability suitable for deer at the desired velocities.

That's what I'm waiting for. It's so boring killing animals with the same old Hornady 180gr SSPB, 200gr Rem RNCL, and 180gr Speer HCFN bullets. ;)

[Nobade]

I had a Pedersoli rolling block 30-30 that I got rebored to 35 cal and built one of those. The one regret was I used a normal 35 caliber necker to chamber it, and that was too big. A 357 magnum reamer would be perfect to cut the neck and throat, that will keep it tighter than what I had. Otherwise it was brilliant. Both with smokeless and black powder, naked and paper patched bullets, it was a great shooter with very light recoil. Case capacity is almost identical to a 35 Remington so I could use load data from that easily. That rolling block action was somewhat pressure limited, when extraction got hard I knew to back off so I never ran it all that hot. If you want one I would definitely recommend it. For dies I used a 38-55 FL die to size the body and a 357 magnum sizer for the neck. I think I was seating bullets with a 358 win die, though a 35 rem would probably work as well. CH4D has the real die set but it's not cheap or fast to deliver.

[racepres]

I reload the 35 Remingtons destined for my Bolt gun, sized with a Carbide 357 die, M-die for expanding, and a Hornady sliding sleeve in 35 for seating... for the Trombones??? gots Dies!!
Same I do the Herrett!!

[gc45]

For what it's worth; the old Winchester lever in 32 Special is a great cast bullet rifle; the barrels are in a much slower twist, 16 perhaps than the faster twist 30-30 and using a well poured heavy cast bullet say 180 or or 190 grain are a real deere and BB killer. I don't think many understand the 32's and what they do best, shoot cast bullets! I think Winchester knew just what the 32 was for, but few seem to.

[MostlyLeverGuns]

Unless reboring, gc45 has it right, the 32 Special is just a great cast bullet cartridge. Sometimes when reboring a badly pitted 30-30 won't clean up. The 35/30-30 is a 'wildcat' so requires reloading. This a downside to many, the 360 Buckhammer has a rim, so loading light will not shorten the brass headspace like it can on the 35 Remington, even the .358 Win. If you want a 35 cast rifle on a bolt gun, the .358 Win works very well. Brass easy to form from .308 and the .358 is highly proven. Most .308 Winchester's can be converted with little effort, then there are the Savage 99's, Browning BLR's, Ruger 77's, even Winchester Model 70's(very pricey), Rebore/rebarrel a Henry long Ranger .308? I think Henry's making a .360 Buckhammer.

[Mk42gunner]

I think the .35-.30/30 would be a fun wildcat to play with, although you will never get your money out of a wildcat if you have to sell it. The mentioned .360 Buckhammer should do almost as well, except for needing a crimp groove in a different location.

For non lever action rifles suitable for the .30-30, there are several choices for a repeater. Some that come to mind are the Winchester Model 54--a relatively pricy donor, but the one I almost bought handled well.
The Stevens Model 325/ Savage 340 family-- Decent guns, but pretty homely.
The Remington Model 788--Pricy, but 788's tend to shoot well.

Savage also made a pump action rifle in .30-30, Model 170 IIRC. No idea how hard it would be to rebore or put on a totally new barrel.

Then there are the single shots, I think almost any of them would work. For reboring, the least expensive may be the H&R, if you can find one, and if you can live with the transfer bar (buy a few extras).

Robert

[kungfustyle]

With the price of 30-30 rifles, I'd keep it or sell it and buy a 35 Rem from Henry or the like. Long gone are the days of a $300 to $400 Marlin or Winchester.

[racepres]

Makes me Wonder aloud...Just Where are you cats getting rebored from .30 to .358 so Inexpensively???
Last I looked...I can just buy a different Gun!!!!
Re-Chamber... No Problem really...

[BK7saum]

JES rebore.

http://www.35caliber.com/2.html

$300

[nanuk]

I sure wish we had that kind of service up here in NewChina... er... I mean Canada

[lotech]

I think C.E. "Ed" Harris on the other forum has had some experience with the .35/.30-30.

[ulav8r]

TbG got a small ring mauser to feed the 30-30.

https://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?319113-Barrel-nut-on-SR-Mauser/page2