30wcf Practice Load's

[w44wcf]

Dusty,
Thank you. I tried them at 100 on a windless day and the accuracy held up fairly well.  

Folks, if you have an interest in replicating these neat .30-30 rounds there are a number of bullets to chose from.......
Most of these can be purchased.......



w30wcf

[Sir Charles deMouton-Black]

I have used both the LEE 100 grainer and the 120 for plinking/smallgame loads.  I have also used various slugs up to the 170s from LEE and Lyman. The later mostly midrange loads with Norma 200 that I have had since I started reloading in Germany.

[Bryan Austin]

In John Kort's article (whatever you call it) here: http://www.leverguns.com/articles/3030history.htm he explains that he dissected some vintage 30-30 cartridges and found a translucent stick type powder. Does anyone have any information on this powder? What the powder name and company was?

[Professor Marvel]

My Good Monsieur Austin

Here ya go




http://bulletin.accurateshooter.com/2019/06/stick-flake-and-ball-do-you-know-your-powder-properties/


BTW, since 2013 I discovered the Hivernaughts were all familiar with what they called
The Load
Which is basically a reduced rifle load of 8-12 grains of most pistol powders with a light lead bullet.
Prof Marvel

[Professor Marvel]

For backyard practice one can always go to the extremes of the Cat Sneeze loads. One uses a very light well lubed lead bullet and tiny amounts of powder, with a bit of TP holding it against the primer.

The most extreme Cat Sneeze I tried that uses powder is about 2 grains of Unique under a lubed round ball.

The most extreme quiet experiment I have done so far is a 115 gr lead M1 carbine cast bullet
In a case drilled out to accept shotgun primers. It was nearly silent, quieter than my air rifle, I can swear I could see the flight of the bullet, and it made for a satisfying side yard paper punching round.
I did not test for penetration as I only wanted cheap quiet paper punching trigger time on the rifle.

Quiet Roundball gallery loads allow me trigger time on the actual firearms, really magnify my mistakes in technique!

I intended to try similar experiments in .45 Colt and .45-70 but have not had the time yet.

Prof Marvel



Be careful, check that the bullet left the barrel, beware of barrel rings, etc etc

[Bryan Austin]

My Good Monsieur Austin

Here ya go




http://bulletin.accurateshooter.com/2019/06/stick-flake-and-ball-do-you-know-your-powder-properties/


BTW, since 2013 I discovered the Hivernaughts were all familiar with what they called
The Load
Which is basically a reduced rifle load of 8-12 grains of most pistol powders with a light lead bullet.
Prof Marvel

Okay, I just wanted to clear that up about what a stick powder was but what did John mean by a "translucent" stick powder? Was this one of the Cordite, Balistite, Cannonite, Rifleite powders?

[Bryan Austin]

I thought I knew what I know but knew not the thought I thought I once thought I knew....I think!! Edjumikate me!

I was trying to catch up on early smokeless powder testing with the 30-40. I kind of came to the following understanding but then wanted to review the civilian market on the 30 WCF from 1894, wish John was here :-(

After reading through what seemed like a few thousand pages of reports to The Chief of Ordinance between 1894 and 1900, I have tried to condense and simplify as much as I could.

The US Military tested many smokeless powders between 1892 and 1896. Wetteren powder had been their "Standard" base of which other powders were compared. By mid 1894 200,000lbs of Peyton powder had been used or stored for use with the .30 cal. .308 cartridges. Mostly only designated by test numbers, formulas constantly changing, it really is not known what powder designated names were actually used. At one point Leonard N7/16 looks just like Sharpshooter granulars. By 1895 Peyton powders were the powders of choice 5,000lbs more ordered. Whistler & Aspinwall specifically named and a designation W.-A. was used. By 1896 the military was still testing "Samples" from quite a few companies but had contracts (1896-1897) for three; Peyton, Dupont and W.-A. (Leonard) now controlled by Laflin & Land. Ruby was mentioned a few times but seems to have been tested in larger cannon type rifles and mortars.

1897 details more testing for the .30 and both .45 & .38 Colts. Several powders for the two later but Dupont No.1 named caught my attention. This could be the new (green can) No.1 that looks like sharpshooter and not the old No.1 (red powder keg) that is rock looking granulars. However, A few notes in 1899, I see Dupont is described as a cylindrical graphite black with dark green tinge. .053 in length and .041 in diameter. Laflin & Rand W.A. is noted with the dash removed. The .38 was using a few powders, Dupont No. 1, No. 2 as well as Laflin & Rand "Sporting Powder".

I think it would be safe to conclude that of the three powder companies under contract, the following would be used for the civilian market for the .30 caliber type cartridges.

Peyton Smokeless Rifle Powder (unknown)
Dupont No. 1 Rifle Smokeless Powder (cylindrical shape)...owes more research since my Dupont No. 1 samples are disc granulars
Laflin & Rand W.A. 30 (disc shape)

Most granular samples I have for the civilian market appear to be perforated disc powders which appear to have been popular as "Sharpshooter" smokeless powder from 1897 to 1948

Of course, the 30-30 was manufactured by Winchester in 1894 using a smokeless rifle powder of which I have yet to look for....to be continued