New Henry 30-30 & PPU ammo?

[Hootmix]

My daughter bought her a new Henery 30-30 and every time she shoots PPU ammo, it locks up. Anyone else have this problem w/ PPU ammo? The brass swells up and she can't get the lever to work.


coffee's ready, Hootmix.

[ATCDoktor]

I’ve heard of no issues with PPU 30-30 ammo but that’s not to say there’s not a bad batch out there somewhere.

That said, as you probably already have surmised, either the ammo (or the rifles chamber) is out of spec.

If the brass is swelling as you say I would suspect there’s an issue with the chamber and a trip back to Henry is in order.

I had to send a brand new Henry Long Ranger back because the barrel was bent so far to the left I could not get it on paper at 100 yards.

[Hootmix]

ATCDoktor, did not have any trouble w/ Hornady brass. So thought i would ask about the PPU ammo.

hav'n coffee, Hootmix.

[gumbo333]

I’ve had some 308 PPU that was pretty hot. Don’t know about 30/30.

[ATCDoktor]

ATCDoktor, did not have any trouble w/ Hornady brass.

Is the Hornady 30-30 brass shorter than standard 30-30 brass?

I know they use short brass in some of their lever ammo so their cartridge overall length won’t be too long to feed longer gummy bullets.

The chamber could be a little short and the case mouth could be extending into the leade when fired.

[Texas by God]

I had a box of .270 Monarch (PPU) that exhibited high pressure signs( hard bolt lift) in a Remington 710 that I was sighting in for a friend.
I didn’t have a different.270 to try them in so I set them aside and gave him some ammo I loaded for a 710 .270 that I had for a while.
I’ve shot a lot of PPU ammo in 9mm, .45, and .223 with no problem. And I like PPU brass.
Try the same ammo in another 30-30 if possible.


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[FergusonTO35]

How many other types of ammo has she tried? If three or four kinds of USA factory ammo function perfectly then I would say it's PPU.

[Four-Sixty]

This was about 5 or 6 years ago now. I bought new PPU brass in 30-30. The rims varied in thicknesses so much I could not fit some cases in the shell holder at all. Others would get stuck and I'd end up pulling the shell holder out of the press when trying to remove the case. It was so annoying I finally scrapped all the nuisance cases. I believe I lost about 10% of that batch of brass.

[Hootmix]

I took 3 pcs. of the PPU (30-30) that had stuck in the Henry and resized it and loaded it w/ a 160gn. pc'd cast bullet, using IMR 4198, and they fired and ejected smooth as silk. My thought is that the PPU is a harder brass but when resized they do just fine. Now that being said, i did not load the cast as hot as the jacked bullets, will try some a little hotter. I had this same problem w/ a friends 30-40 Krag, once resized, and reloaded (3-4 times) they have worked fine, i did anneal the second time before i reloaded.

coffee's ready, Hootmix.

[FergusonTO35]

Sounds like you got it figured out!