bolt action 30-30

B

bigmike22

New member
I picked up a savage 340 bolt action 30-30 today at a garage sale that was in mint conditon. My question is can i use any .30 caliber bullets for it if i handload. Since its a bolt action clip feed rifle instead of the traditional lever action what bullets can i use for it. I would like to get more than a 100 yard brush gun out of it. I have never seen a bolt 30-30 before. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

thanks guys.
 
Yes you can load any 30cal bullet in that old Savage. 165gr Siera BT gamekings will take you out aways.

AWS
 
I use to load 130 gr. Speer pointed hollow points in my T/C 30-30. I saw a custom 30-30 bolt about 4 years ago in a shop, had a Unertyl 10x scope and bases like old sniper rifles used. I regret not buying it, I think it was only $700 for the rifle, good looking gun. That should be a fine deer rifle when you get the load right, you'll have a much better selection now that you're not restricted to round noses.
 
The Savage 340 is a nice little rifle for deer and you can load any 30 cal bullet since it has the clip. I killed my first deer with one of these rifles in the mid to early sixties. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-003.gif
 
I second the 125g Nosler Balostic Tip. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-003.gif I have had a bunch of one shot kills on deer out to 200 Yds. with that bullet loaded with 47g of 4064 in the 30-06 for recoil shy people. That is about the same velocity that you can get out of the 30-30. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif
Frank
 
My uncle had one of these. I got a chance to take it out hunting back in 83'. No kick what so ever. Always wished I had one as well to load up some 125 NBTs for. Should be a shooter. I think because of being a slower velocity round the Nosler 125 would be a great combo being the bullet is extremely soft so it will expand greatly upon impact causing tremendous shock value even at slower 30-30 velocities. Cant wait to hear any reports back on bullet performance with this round. Nosler needs to get on the band wagon and create the same bullet and grain in a .358 diameter for a 35 Rem.
 
Oh yeah do that to me when I don't have any money. That's just not funny. I am just just recovering from getting a 22-250. It's gonna be a while before I can bring a new gun in the house.
 
Any of the Ballistic type bullets 150 or below should do fine. Once you get heavier than that, the bullets velocities will cause poor performance. the heavier Flat nose bullets were designed for the 30-30 and have thinner jackets than the spitzer styles. The spitzers were designed for higher velocities. I had fair results with 125 Ballistic tips and great results with the Hornady 130 SSP. The Hornady is a pistol bullet for the 30-30 TC pistols and will wreak havoc on deer.
 
Are you guys sure about that?

OK, I'm working from a 30 year memory here, but back when I reloaded decades ago I seem to remember that .30 cal bullets "mic" out at .308 and bullets made for the .30/30 "mic" out at .311

Again, that's a 30 year memory from the old Sierra bullet manual, it might be worth double checking.
 
Hornady SSP? that's gotta be like a varmint bullet explosion on deer. Do you get passthroughs? I just looked at a website with the same bullet shot out of a 35 Rem and the tests show the bullet disinegrates upon impact and had little penetration at the same velocity. I think it would be a great choice as long as you didn't hit a shoulder. But if you did I think youd be looking for animinal for a while.
 
Quote:
Are you guys sure about that?

OK, I'm working from a 30 year memory here, but back when I reloaded decades ago I seem to remember that .30 cal bullets "mic" out at .308 and bullets made for the .30/30 "mic" out at .311

Again, that's a 30 year memory from the old Sierra bullet manual, it might be worth double checking.



.30-30 bullets are .308" the same as most other American .30 cal's are. The .311" bore is usually seen in offshore calibers like the 7.62x39mm, sometimes known as the .30 Russian.
 
Quote:
Hornady SSP? that's gotta be like a varmint bullet explosion on deer. Do you get passthroughs? I just looked at a website with the same bullet shot out of a 35 Rem and the tests show the bullet disinegrates upon impact and had little penetration at the same velocity. I think it would be a great choice as long as you didn't hit a shoulder. But if you did I think youd be looking for animinal for a while.




The deer I have shot with the BT's from 30-30 all ran with little blood trail. Complete pass through from the 30-30, with little expansion from a 16 inch barreled TC. The SST got good expansion and pass through and 2 of 3 shot with it dropped. I used the SST from the TC on a coyote only one time. I was standing on a pecan limb after climbing the tree to get better vision. A coyote came in looking for the rabbit and was below me. I squeeked to get it to stop and it looked up. I hit the coyote on the upper bridge of the nose, it exited the bottom jaw at about the beginning of the throat, reentered the chest and exited center rib cage just between the front legs. In my experiences with the SST, it does well at 30-30 velocities. I don't think I would try it from a 30-06.
 
Quote:
Quote:
Hornady SSP? that's gotta be like a varmint bullet explosion on deer. Do you get passthroughs? I just looked at a website with the same bullet shot out of a 35 Rem and the tests show the bullet disinegrates upon impact and had little penetration at the same velocity. I think it would be a great choice as long as you didn't hit a shoulder. But if you did I think youd be looking for animinal for a while.




The deer I have shot with the BT's from 30-30 all ran with little blood trail. Complete pass through from the 30-30, with little expansion from a 16 inch barreled TC. The SST got good expansion and pass through and 2 of 3 shot with it dropped. I used the SST from the TC on a coyote only one time. I was standing on a pecan limb after climbing the tree to get better vision. A coyote came in looking for the rabbit and was below me. I squeeked to get it to stop and it looked up. I hit the coyote on the upper bridge of the nose, it exited the bottom jaw at about the beginning of the throat, reentered the chest and exited center rib cage just between the front legs. In my experiences with the SST, it does well at 30-30 velocities. I don't think I would try it from a 30-06.






This is the article I was referring to:

http://www.suitorsgarage.com/gunstuff/35remington/35rempart2b.html

Im sure it would drop em in thier tracks the way the bullet comes apart creating great shock transfer but Id hate to find out what would happen if you hit a shoulder with the Hornady SSP bullet.
 
What would you guys use with this gun for yotes?
I didnt even really think about using this gun for coyotes until now? I am going to load up several different bullets for this and see what happens.
 
Never had a deer take more than 10-20 steps with RN 150g and 170g powerpoints from my model '94. Very accurate out to 150 too. I wouldn't get too hung up on premium bullets for deer unless most of your shots are out well past 100 yds.
 
Quote:
I picked up a savage 340 bolt action 30-30 today at a garage sale that was in mint conditon. My question is can i use any .30 caliber bullets for it if i handload. Since its a bolt action clip feed rifle instead of the traditional lever action what bullets can i use for it. I would like to get more than a 100 yard brush gun out of it. I have never seen a bolt 30-30 before. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

thanks guys.



Great find! I have one of those too. Mine is the Savage made Stevens model 325. Exact same gun.

I loaded mine with some Speer 180 grain bullets and got super accuracy even with the rather basic open irons. It was shooting five into 1.5 at 50 yards.

Here's the problem with the pointy bullets in these guns. They have to be seated pretty deep in order to fit the magazine. Mine were pretty far in and the pressure was a bit higher than I liked. Something in a 150 grain would probably fit better and should be just fine for deer. I loaded 180's in case I decided to use it for elk.

My next reloading/shooting session will be with a 180 round nose hoping it will be a better fit in the magazine. Not looking for super long range with mine. 150 yards would be fine. I hardly ever shoot a deer or elk more than 75 yards away anyway /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

Would like to see any updates you might have on your reloads too!

There are a few of these guns around in .223 and .225 Winchester also. Got my eye open for either.
 
Back
Top