Levergun loads .30-30 Winchester: Taffin shares a host of good loads for one of our most-used, but least-praised rifle cartridges

Guns Magazine, Jan, 2003 by John Taffin

For my use, I normally equip both the Marlin and the Winchester .30-30s with receiver sights. Four of my .30-30s carry a Lyman sight, and the fifth wears a Williams receiver sight. Other than for testing loads for accuracy, it seems almost blasphemous to place a scope on any of these trim carbines.

Changing Role For The Frontier Rifle

Winchester's first centerfire levergun, the Model 1873 .44 Winchester Centerfire (.44-40) was designed basically as a fighting weapon. The West was still a very dangerous place and there's a reason why the Winchester 1873 is regarded as The Gun That Won The West. Simply stated, it did.

Lucas McCain may have used a Model 1892 as television's The Rifleman, however had the show been authentic it would have been a Model '73. Of course if they were concerned about authenticity, he would not have been twirling it (someone would have shot him with a Colt Single Action while the rifle was going in a circle), and he certainly would not have been using a trip lever trigger.

By the time the 1894 arrived, most of the West had been tamed, and deer rifles were more necessary than battle rifles. The 1894 Winchester and the 1893 Marlin both fit into the hunting category very nicely. If there is a more perfect no-nonsense deer cartridge than the .30-30 I do not know what it is.

No, it's not a shoot from 300 yards away type of cartridge, however at reasonable ranges, it's still does the job quickly and cleanly. The last deer I shot with the .30-30 was a meat doe for the cowboys on the ranch. One well placed shot and it did its job perfectly, just as it has done over and over again for the past century.

Easy-Loadin' Cartridge

Not only is the .30-30 a no nonsense type of cartridge, it is mostly found chambered in no frills leverguns. When trying to squeeze the best possible accuracy out of a bolt-action rifle chambered for a long-range cartridge, it may be necessary to weigh all the charges, trim all the cases, neck turn the brass, and whatever else those caught up in the accuracy trip do.

By contrast, when it comes to loading the .30-30, I treat it exactly as I do my sixgun cartridges. Cases are separated by head-stamp, placed in a shallow cardboard box (I use the 2-inch deep cardboard trays my preferred brand of dog food comes in), given a light coating of spray-on lube, and always full length re-sized.

I have enough .30-30 brass in rotation that trimming brass has not been necessary, but that may change as cases are used more and more. When I was a regular competitor in long-range silhouetting, my Unlimited handgun was a T/C Contender, Super 14, chambered in .30-30. It was not unusual for me to come up with tougher .30-30 brass for the Contender by running .375 Winchester brass through a .30-30 full-length sizing die. A good trick you may wish to know.

Tools And Components

Dies for the .30-30 on my loading bench include RCBS and Hornady, primers are almost exclusively CCI No. 200 Large Rifle, and powder charges are dropped from an RCBS Powder Measure. Brass assortment used is mainly Federal, Remington, and Winchester.