For all the cowboys

[Mortblanc]

Knowing that some of you fellows prefer the lever action rifles as a replacement for the not available evil black rifles in your area, I thought I would post some recent test results of my latest experiments with the cowboy rifles

Some of my friends were lamenting the cost of 30-30 ammo to feed their rifles and I made the mistake of telling them I reload 30-30 with cast bullets and shoot for pennies per round. It actually totals about $0.15 per shot US money, which is abut 1/10 of a pound last time I checked.

The cry of "load me some!" went up and I was trapped.

My only concern was that both the friends I was doing this loading for both shoot Marlin rifles that have the "micro-groove" rifling. Micro groove barrels are not known for liking cast bullets when they are pushed anywhere near factory velocities. They are great for 22 rifles and big bores with jacketed bullets, but they strip the lead bullets as they go down the bore at high speed.

So I did some calculations. I wish they had been more specific about telling me how much math I would need to know for proper reloading when I was in school. I would have paid much more attention!

While my Winchester '94 will shoot about anything I feed it when loaded right up to factory specs I decided that if I was not going to be able to push a slug past 1600fps in a Marlin I had best use the heaviest slug available. It just happened that I have a 200 grain flat nosed 30 caliber bullet mold that works through the magazine and action of a Marlin rifle like a charm. And at 1600fps it gives nearly the same energy figures as the 170 grain bullet at 2000fps. Close enough that I d not feel guilty anyway.

I convinced one friend to loan me his Marlin rifle for the tests and when he arrived with the rifle I saw that it was a pristine, like new gun that probably had fewer than a dozen shots fired through it. He had a cheap Simions scope on top but it was good enough to get a group at 50 yards.

I had a variety of loads worked up ranging from the 170 grain bullet at 1500fps right up to the 200 grain bullet at 1900fps. I will not specify the exact powder and charge since that is not listed data in most books and I had to search for 200 grain loads in some exotic places.

What I discovered was that the Marlin rifle did a fine job of dealing with the cast bullets in 200 grain form but did not like the 170 grain bullet at all. At 1700fps it started throwing the 170gn slugs through the paper sideways.

From a cold barrel it was shooting the 200 grain bullets at 1700 fps into about 3/4" groups at 50 yards. The 1900fps loads it was scattering to about one inch at 50 yards, which is still not bad for a 30-30 lever action rifle.

I think the difference is that the 200 gn bullet had almost 1/4" more bearing surface than the 170, so it hangs in there for a few additional fps push without stripping from the bullet core.

My Winchester shoots the same load with about the same results so I will be using that recipe as my standard fodder in the 30-30 from now on. The 200 grain bullet at 1900fps will drop a deer in its tracks, most other things too.

It was the first side by side test I had done with the two brands of rifles and I was impressed. Winchester no longer makes the '94 at a reasonable price. It is now farmed out to the Japanese and priced as a hand crafted custom rifle at a price the average hunter can no longer afford.

The Marlin rifles are still made here, though the parent company just filed for bankruptcy, so I do not know how much longer they will be with us. I understand that we can thank some of the Euro-zone investors for that little move.

Right now they are expensive, but not out of reach price wise at $500 US being the low end model price.