First range test of .30-30 Hi wall

[marlinman93]

Well finally made it to the range with the new Hi Wall in .30-30 Win. My gunsmith friend has a 250 yd. range right out his back door, so the plan was to shoot the Winnie, and if it shot well, leave it alone. If it didn't then we were going to rechamber it to .30-30 Ackley Imp. and finally rebarrel, if all else fails.
Started out by installing the 8x Fecker, and bore sighting it. Then fired 3 shot group at 50 yds. Three holes in a cloverleaf that was low right, so adjusted and moved to 100 yds. All went well, with similar group size of under 1", so we took it to 250. After a bit of scope adjustment we got groups under 2" at 250 yds., and began the task of trying to take out evrything we could hit offhand at 250! Lots of fun, and needless to say the 150 gr. .311" cast Lyman bullets at 1800 fps performed super!
Looks like the Winnie will remain a .30-30, and from all the loads I tried, this old silhouette load I had left over from my .30-30 Contender performed the best!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v691/marlinguy/hw3.jpg

[Frank46]

Marlinman, is that an origional barrel on your hi wall or new one made up as a thirty thirty?. Would be extremely interested in how she shoots. I like the cartridge and currently have about 5 rifles in that caliber. Easy on powder, cast bullet molds almost anywhere you look and that nice long neck makes it a natural cast bullet shooting cartridge. Please keep us informed. Thanks, Frank

[Slow Elk 45/70]

MarlinMan , Very nice H.W. & scope I might add , glad she is a shooter.

[Buckshot]

............Beautifull rifle and some fine shooting. How are you treating your cast slugs and cases before loading? I have a nice old Scheutzen offhand rifle in 32-40 but I haven't worked with it yet.

Several years back there was a gunshop not too far from where I lived called Musket's to Magnums. I would stop in as often as was healthy for me, if you know what I mean? One day he had guns all over the place, in the corners and lying on the counter. I asked him what was up. He said some old guy had just past away and his grandkids were wanting some fast money and brought them all in.

One was a Win Hi-Wall set up for benchrest. Had a Fecker scope, a B. Darr straight octagon barrel chambered in 32-40 and set up with a claw atop the action for a breech seater. He said he thought the seating tools and stuff was somewhere in one of the boxes, and he'd let it all go for $700. I was in one of my "Let's be mature" moods, so I said I'd get back with him. After 3 days of being unable to live with myself I called and said I'd take it. He said I waited 2 days too long, as it sold the next day. Bummer :-(

...............Buckshot

[marlinman93]

Frank,
No, it's not an original barrel. About the only thing original on this gun is the receiver, and it's been recased.

Buckshot,
How am I "treating" my cast slugs???
Nothing special I guess. Just cast them at 30-1, and shoot them as cast at .311, and lubed with my own concoction of 50% bees wax, 40% Crisco, and 10% peanut oil. It's an old formula Charlie Dell had in his book, "The Modern Schuetzen Rifle", and it has worked good for me over the years in loads that aren't too hot.
I don't store bullets a long time, just cast them up, lube them, and shoot them up.
Too bad on that Darr barreled HW! Barry built some fantastic barrels, and great shooting guns. Would have been a nice acquisition.
I planned to work up some various loads, but I grabbed a bit of everything I had on hand, including some bullets with that funny copper stuff wrapped around them. The HW seemed to just shoot all of it very nicely, and some of it really great! Now I remember what I love about my .30-30's, they just seem to be pretty agreeable to almost any load I shoot.

[2Tite]

Those colors are nice.....Like they're supposed to be. Do you mind saying who did them?

[marlinman93]

Wouldn't mind at all, but I don't know. A friend of mine had the gun restored, and never ever fired it. He needed to make room in the safe, so I benefited from his safe cleaning! Price was less than a repro, so couldn't say no!

[NickSS]

I love the 30-30 cartridge and as a result I have several lever actions (both Winchester and Marlin) but also I got a Pedersoli rolling block in that caliber. This rifle shoots really well and it is one of my most used rifles for cowboy long range shoots. It shoots the Lyman 311041 pushed by 19 gr of IMR 4198 extremely well at 200 yards. In fact I was shooting it today and averaged 10 shot groups of around 3.5 inches give or take a half inch at 200 yards. The best thing about this rifle is that I got more into the tang sight than I have into the rifle.

[Throwback]

Marlinman, that's a great pickup and I am glad it shoots so well! You can't go wrong with the old .30 WCF just the way it is. Very nice setup.

[marlinman93]

I've always liked the .30-30 too, but have so many in the 1893 Marlin that I didn't really warm up to this 1885 when I first got it. Of course nothing wins me over like a gun that shoots really well, so that's what really won my heart.

[wiljen]

what a gorgeous rifle. I'm envious.

[hpdrifter]

what wiljen said!!

I supposed I am condemned to shoot the repeater version for my remaining years here on Earth. I guess there could be worse fates.

Enjoy.