TC 7-30 Waters reloading question

[Blood Trail]

Not loading cast boolits, so don’t beat me up too bad. Loading some Hornady 139 gr Interlock. Hodgons load data lists OAL of 2.550”. That seems really deep with this bullet.

Seated to the cannelure, I’m measuring 2.75”. I’m not too well versed in TC firearms.

Did the plunk test and the action closed with no problem and the bullet was easy to remove. Can I roll with this OAL instead?

On the left is a factory 7-30. Or the right is my handload.





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[M-Tecs]

With a single shot no problems whatsoever until you jam into the rifling. If you do you may stick a bullet if you don't fire it. I have never had that great of results with a light jam unless I am soft seating.

The Hodgons load data lists OAL of 2.550 is most likely based on feeding in a levergun.

[725]

+1 for above. You can double check seating issues by covering a loaded round's bullet with magic marker. Any contact with rifling will show up as scratches in the marker.

[Barry54]

TC is known for a longer throat in their barrels. I usually want at least one caliber depth of the bullet in the case. I’ll bet you a cold one you might not even be able to seat long enough to touch the rifling with a lighter bullet.

[K43]

+4. The loading manuals are assuming a lever action rifle. They do it with others like with 30-30 they generally show Winchester 94/Marlin feed compatible lengths and 300 Savage COL is always for the Savage 99 Rifle magazine. Many bolt guns and single shots have longer throats and can accept much longer than that.
Also there is the spitzer vice usual flat nose bullets that tubular magazines require.

[Delkal]

You can't assume the OAL for one bullet will be correct for another style and for a single shot you can seat it as long as you want till it hits the lands. Just looking at the bullets you will see most of the soft point will be sticking down the barrel not doing any harm.

If you would have seated that SP to the same length published for a flat point you could have got in trouble with a massively compressed load. You might not have been able to crimp it either since the diameter of the bullet at point looks to be smaller than the case mouth.

[Jedman]

I have a handi rifle in 7-30 that was chambered with a factory made reamer and for my fire forming loads I was using some old 175 gr. bullets with a OAL of almost 2.90” and the bullets were not touching the rifling. I see no problems with a longer OAL in a single shot and it allows this cartridge to be all it can be. Jedman

[Barry54]

Here. Hornady themselves call for 2.830” oal with that bullet in the single shot pistol data.

[MT Gianni]

If you note the taper on the Hornaday 139 gr bullet, your load and the factory one will have the same diameter at the contact point in the throat. When you want to play with cast try the lee bullet and 9 gr Unique.