Hornady FTX

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The Kidd

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I would like to hear how you're loading the Hornady 165 gr FTX for 30-30. I tried the search function and I tried their website. They list one powder and also mention that you may have to trim your brass specially for these bullets. I was at Cabellas' and picked up one hundred just to try. Anything you have that will help?
 
I like them. I'm on my fourth box. I load the 30-30 and 308ME with them, using 335 or XBR. They shoot the same as sierra 170 RN in 30-30. I'm not a good shot but they group an inch at 100yds. I don't use the new lever powder, so they are a tad slower than factory FTX in my 336.
 
NC, yes I meant 160gr, thanks. Popper, I bought them just to try 'cause my son likes them. I'm just going to work up a load for him. He uses a Marlin 336. I originally asked because I like to find a starting point from two sources and I was only able to find one on this. So, thanks for your replies.
 
they shoot great.

I would trim the brass as Hornady suggests. I didn't and they are harder to feed the action, but work and have excellent accuracy.
 
I have used them in my 308 Win bolt action, because I got some cheap when I was looking for some projectiles. They are really accurate, but at the higher velocities (2700+) they don't hold together all that well. Not that big of a problem on light skinned animals, but on tough pigs at close range you notice they don't penetrate that well. At longer ranges (100 metres or more) they seem to work fine.

Having said that I am using the ones designed for the 30-30 rather than the 308ME. Possible the latter would be more heavily constructed and hold together better at the higher speed.
 
I've loaded up 10 using 33.5 gr of BLC-2 (WARNING: this is .2gr over MAX) and they shot very well out of my Marlin 336. No problems loading them. I got 2055 fps with an extreme spread of 17 fps. The loads were quite accurate for me at 60 yards. I get around 2325 fps from factory FTX loads, so I thought I would wait and try some more when I got some Leverevolution powder. 300 fps difference is huge!
So, now I'm experimenting with Sierra 125gr HPFN bullets over TAC and BLC-2. They look really promising for a low recoiling round. I wonder if they will release any Leverevolution load listings for 125gr bullets like they have for 150, 160 and 170 gr bullets? Or 125 gr may be too light to make effective use of the Leverevolution powder.
 
Try the Leverevolution, I thought it couldn't live up to the hype, but I was wrong. I did 35 gr behind the FTX bullet and had the best accuracy I ever experienced with my Marlin 336. I had an average of 2196 FPS for 4 shots and a group a little over an inch at 100yds. 35.5 the max averaged 2293 FPS but the grouping was a bit suspect and I will try it again before going with the bigger load. The superformance powder so far hasn't been the newest bestest greatest for my 300wsm, but I couldn't stop smiling about the Leverevolution. Jared
 
JUST A WORD OF CAUTION!!!

I was working up some loads using .30-30 FTX leverevolution bullets along with the leverevolution powder. I ended up with a case head failure when using once fired hornady brass. I had just gotten up about 2300fps with 34.5grains. Factory leverevolution shoots at about 2375 in my henry 30-30. Max load on the powder canister is 35.5C.

After the failure I went back and using a wire felt inside each of the hornady cases (fired once as an original factory load) and lo and behold about 90% of them showed thinning of the case that would lead to incipent case head separation. None of the remington cases that I reloaded with similar powder loads showed any evident thinning of the case.

If you are going to reload hornady leverevolution cases....check them out closely before using them.
 
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