Hello from Scotland~

Yesterday i put the first factory ammo though my Marlin L.T.S 16" .30-30 .............. up to now ive only shot home loads both jacket and recently cast.

I got hold of some Factory Remington 170 gr Remington core-lokt soft point in a green and yellow box.

Results:

1993 fps
1996 fps
2019 fps
1902 fps
1997 fps

Anyone else clocked the speed of factory ammo in their 16" .30-30 be it Winchester Marlin or other ????


Englander

Not bad, considering that remington lists the 170gr at 2200FPS out of a 24" bbl. Only 25FPS loss per inch.

I would figure that the 1902 as a fluke, the others are a good representation of what it should be.

dave

It makes you really appreciate Marshall's 185 gr. 357 load at 1800 fps to 1860fps out of a 18" 1894C Rifle.

ENGLANDER

I sent this to you in a PM and then thought someone else might be interested in some data on the 16" barrel. My results are not far off from yours.

Here are the results of the Winchester 16" Trapper chron results with factory loads.

Remington 150 grain Round Nose Core Locts. Avg 2107fps E of 21 sd of 10, This is a good load but comes up short for your energy.

Winchester 150 grain Starfire Barnes-X Average 1968fps E of 51 and SD of 25fps. This bullet penetrates very deep. I did not recover any from the backstop.

The Winchester 150 grain Power Points average 2070fps with an E of 28 and SD of 14. All Winchester ammo I have chronographed has a very small extreme spread.

I have been taking a closer look at your energy problems. This morning I shot the same factory loads through a friends 20" Winchester Model 94 to compare with the 16" data.

In the 20" barrel the Winchester 150 grain Power Point loads gave us 2199 fps, for about 1595 ft lbs of energy.

The Remington 150 grain core locks gave us 2259 fps, for about 1684 ft lbs of energy.

The Winchester 170 grain Power Points gave us 2091 fps, for 1635 ft lbs of energy.

The Remington 170 grain core locks gave us 2080 fps, this is about 1618 ft lbs of energy.

The 150 grain PMC Starfire copper bullets gave us 2134 fps, this is about 1502 ft lbs of energy.

I have not had any trouble killing deer with these loads but that does not help you meet your energy requirements.

Looking for a useful comparison I loaded a 110 grain Remington JRN bullet ahead of 29.5 grains of Hodgdon 4198. The latest Hodgdon manual credits this load with 2409 fps from a 24" barrel. This load chronographed 2402 fps from the 20" barrel this morning, about 1396 ft lbs of energy.
The 16" barrel gave us 2128 fps for about 1095 ft lbs of energy.
The 20" barrel only gave up 7 fps to Hodgdons 24" barrel. The difference of -274 fps between the 16" and 20" barrels demonstrates the gasses were still expanding in a useful way.

I loaded the 130 grain Speer JFN ahead of 36.0 grains of Hodgdon Varget. Frank “Paco” Kelly has reported this load giving 2496 fps from his 24" barrel M-94, about 1781 ft lbs of energy. This load gave us 2210 fps from the 20" barrel, about 1396 ft lbs of energy. From the 16" barrel this load chronographed 2071 fps for about 1226 ft lbs of energy.
The difference of -286 fps between the 20" and 24" barrels is about what I expected from the slower powder. The difference of -170 fps between the 20" and the 16" barrels was a bit of a surprise. I expected a greater difference.

IMR or Hodgdon 4895 of H335 might put you closer to your energy goals. Anyway you look at it you have quite a reloading project head of you to meet your goals. Factory ammunition, at least the lots I purchased will not make a 20" barrel legal. Keep us posed on your trials.

I dont think that the data is bad at all for a 16 in barrel. I have no doubts that it will do the job.

I dont think that the data is bad at all for a 16 in barrel. I have no doubts that it will do the job.

It will do the job over here. Those UK stags are tougher than ours so their law makers have helped the hunters make an energy decision! Thank goodness for ensightful law makers!

Englander,

I'd say you got very good results from your rifle. I've chrono'd the same ammo from my 20" marlin SC and got an average velocity of 1937 fps for the remington 170s and 2034 fps from winchester 170 grain factory loads. The remington 150 factory ammo chronos 2228 fps from my gun.

Hello from Scotland~

Yesterday i put the first factory ammo though my Marlin L.T.S 16" .30-30 .............. up to now ive only shot home loads both jacket and recently cast.

I got hold of some Factory Remington 170 gr Remington core-lokt soft point in a green and yellow box.

Results:

1993 fps
1996 fps
2019 fps
1902 fps
1997 fps

Anyone else clocked the speed of factory ammo in their 16" .30-30 be it Winchester Marlin or other ????


Englander

Englander,
Well it all comes up a bit short of your law. I wonder if the velocity corrected to the muzzle would put the energy over your minimum limit?

Still comparing the standard .20 Winchester Model 94 Black Shadow in .30-30 to my Mid Seventies vintage 16 Trapper with thoughts of reaming a new Angle Eject Trapper to the Improved case.
Due to the recent thread on IMR 3031 powder I thought I would shoot a little of it in both rifles. Please note the listed loads are over what is now considered a maximum load in the Lyman 48th. and the Speer 13th load manuals. I used these loads as they are what I grew up with and considered maximum for many years. I wanted to give the 16 barrel all the help it could get.

Using the bulk Remington 150 grain JRN bullet 31.0 grains of IMR 3031 gave us 2169 fps in the 20 barrel and 1937 fps in the 16 barrel.
Moving up to 32,0 grains gave us 2236 fps in the 20 barrel and 2011 fps in the 16 barrel.

Loading the 170 grain Hornady JFN bullet ahead of 30.0 grains of IMR 3031 gave us 2031 fps in the 20 barrel and 1857 in the 16 barrel.
Moving up to 31.0 grains gave us 2159 fps in the 20 barrel and 1959 fps in the 16 barrel.

As you can see IMR 3031 will just make the velocity/energy cut when loaded by “yesterdays” pressure measuring standards. These results fit in with my thoughts on the thread in the Marlin 336 board about reaming the .30-30 to the Improved chamber. If you are trying to meet an arbitrary velocity/energy threshold with a short barrel you may not have a lot of choice.

I sure want to run some of this new Hornady Light Magnum .30-30 ammunition across the chronograph screens. If Hornady can meet the claims being passed around they will have pulled off quite a trick