.30-30 reloads: what am I doing wrong?

[FROGO207]

I think you are on the right track with the brass having a bulge in it. I use the 170 grain Lazer Cast w/o gascheck and they are amazing in my microgroved Marlin 336. Take it easy on the crimp as that was my problem when I started out with the lead bullets.

 

[navyretired 1]

Quoheleth: one person mentioned your real problem. 30-30 Win requires trimming most every time due to case taper. If not trimmed you get crimp problems (callapse of case, expanding shoulder or base. Trim all 30-30 to same length and they will all crimp the same and fit chamber. BTW always try in chamber when loading 30-30.
The lead bullets work fine in 30-30s and are lots cheaper( more shooting). I have a Thompson Center Contender carbine in 30-30, I got tired of trimming and loosing brass to seperation due to stretch so I had the chamber changed to 30-30 ackley Improved. It gave a bit more powder space and because the case is straight walled I haven't had to trim anything but fire-formed cases since.

 

[snuffy]

I deprimed and full-length sized my brass (Lee dies) and then trimmed to length with the Lee trimmer. Case mouths were slightly belled so as to not shave the bullets and charged with 12.5gr Alliant 2400 and a Winchester large rifle primer. Bullets were seated to crimp groove and crimped with a medium-heavy crimp.

Good grief can't anybody read and comprehend?

goosegestapo--Trim the brass.

This is a must before loading cast bullets and trying to crimp them.

navyretired 1 Quoheleth: one person mentioned your real problem. 30-30 Win requires trimming most every time due to case taper. If not trimmed you get crimp problems (collapse of case, expanding shoulder or base. Trim all 30-30 to same length and they will all crimp the same and fit chamber. BTW always try in chamber when loading 30-30.

Looks like Quoheleth DID trim 'em!

Zeke/PA Do yourself a favor and shoot jacked bullets instead of farting around with the lead stuff.
No headache, not THAT expensive AND you can extend your time at the Range!

Thank you for your opinion. Happily, most cast bullet shooters don't share your opinion. Shooting cast bullets in rifles is for serious shooters, apparently you're not one of them/us.

 

[lwknight]

Those 30-30 cases are real easy to bulge the shoulder when crimping. I do not shoot a lot of 30-30 so I never spent more money on dies other than RCBS 2 die set. I found that I could use the sizer die to crimp the brass good enough to hold the bullet in a tube magazine by removing the decapper and just adjusting the sizer die high enough to just make a bit of crimp. It worked out great. The roll crimp die never worked for me. If I set it to crimp enough to prevent bullet setback in the tube , it would bulge the shoulder.

 

[qajaq59]

I deprimed and full-length sized my brass (Lee dies) and then trimmed to length with the Lee trimmer. Case mouths were slightly belled so as to not shave the bullets and charged with 12.5gr Alliant 2400 and a Winchester large rifle primer. Bullets were seated to crimp groove and crimped with a medium-heavy crimp.

You were ok on all of this so likely you just set the crimping die a little low and bulged the case a bit. And you found it so you'll do ok. And using cast in a 30-30 is the best way to go in my opinion. It's cheap and with a little effort it is also accurate. And eventually when you get the time I'm sure you'll end up casting them, same as a lot of us do.