How accurate do you think a 94AE 30-30 can be

That 1:10 marlin barrel twist is nice.

 

I also had a Thompson contender .30-30 with a10” barrel that I had to get rid of because of the muzzle blast. Killed one deer with it ,shot great but it was very loud.

 

How hard is it to miss a Moose?

 

Yeah need to load your own ammo with a 30-30 pistol. With a 30-30 carbine you want to use powders with a burn rate of about that of winchester 748 speed.
In a 30-30 pistol you want powdere that burn at least ass fast as H322 to about RE7 speed.

 

If it's running strait at you?

 

My Marlin 336 was my first Real gun I bought, the .22 rifles & single shot shotguns don't count. I bought it at a gun show for about $200 I think. I wanted a Marlin over a Winchester as I didn't care for top ejecting shells. The iron sights are tiny & working the lever threw off my pint of aim. So, I put a small rail & a cheap BSA Red Dot sight on it, got me back on target faster. Maybe if I put sum form of scope on it I could do better than 2" @100 yards, but I consider it a Hunting gun, not a tack driver. So its good enough for me.

 

Ok got the 160gr FTX bullets. I waited too long when I went to order midway only had 200 of them, wanted at least 500, oh well. That's what I get for waiting to see if something else I wanted would come back in stock. I also wanted a better lead melter, a keg of AA No.9, some 124 or 147gr .355'' bullets. Better luck next time.
I'll try to only burn up 50 or so bullets developing the load.
I won't run out of AA9 for a while, but it will probably be the first one I run out of.

 

Lol, I'd call that Minute of Moose,Old Mort was a funny moose,Guessing he's out spark'n this time of the year...

 

Problem is I will likely be taking shots at coyotes out to as far as I think I might be able to hit them.

 

Hahaha,You're like the rest of us when it comes to coyotes,Hail Mary send it !

 

The 30-30 even with east coast ammo has way more reach than a 22lr and substantially more than a 22mag. Those 40gr 22 bullets have no ballistic coefficient.

 

I just got caught up on about 14 years worth of 30-30 brass. You know since I sold all my factory ammo. Most of the brass was new, now once fired.
If you want to load 30-30 on the cheap and don't want to buy a case trimmer then avoid Remington brass. Man they were all over the place in length. Or be prepared to toss around 10% of your brass. A lot of them were in spec, around 2.032 to 2.036 or so but there were some that were 10 thousands short 2.025, or 20 thousands long 2.052, putting them well over the max shell length, I didn't even measure them all, just thr first 100 or so. I guess that's what you get when you buy a box of hunting ammo for $8.99 and $9.99.
The most consistent was hornady brass, for the price they better be, federal and winchester were also pretty good. But you have to have a dial caliper to check length.
I used the layman pencil sharpener style case trimmer and trimmed them all down to about 2.030 to 2.027, nearly all of them were at 2.030 or 2.029.
I should be able to get 1 or 2 shots on them before they need to trimmed again.

I got about 40 f ups from hydraulic dent or or dent from walnut media trapped in the die on the shoulder or body. Those will be my load development brass.

Got my keg of leverevolution powder and rock and roll. I was lucky I got my keg before they went out of stock everywhere unless you want to pay gouge prices.
Still only have 200 160gr FTX bullets.

You will need a dial caliper to reload 30-30 because 30-30 brass likes to grow and if you use a case too long the neck will rip off and try to go with the bullet. I have had this happen, with new ammo, $9.99 walmart Remington ammo of course.

 

Every little bit helps.
I was mostly approaching this mostly wrong. I should he messed with the gun first then played with the ammo. Oh well. But I have been busy and have not done load development yet.
How to Make Your Lever-Action Rifle More Accurate

I got the "better sighting system". I don't know if free floating the barrel via shortening the mag tube will work on a winchester but I can rework the fit of the forearm and loosen screws.

 

Junk man, Send me that old armadillo killer Winchester here and send the ammo too, I'll dispose of it in a boating accident.
You can Thank me later !

 

A .30-30 in either a Winnie or Marlin in good condition and sighted-in will hit out to 200 yds repeatedly in my experience. Part of the accuracy "problem" is the flaky rear sights. A suitably mounted peep arrangement or a scope will do well.. past 200 yards, maybe not so well on deer-sized critters (tho some will disagree with that assessment and shoot out to 300 yards). The new enhanced .30-30 ammunition has taken advantage of newly developed components for great improvements in ballistics.

 

Yep, mine too.. Ive always preferred the Marlins over the Winnies.

 

Ok I did the outdoor life lever gun adjustments. Loosened the barrel mag tube and forearm rings so they wiggle a bit, need to pin or locktite them. Bubba'ed the forearm with the dremal, as the forearm was kinda wedged between the barrel and reciever, tight enough to rub the blueing off over the barrel years, yeah that wasn't helping anything.
I shortened the mag tube maybe 20 tho, don't think it was putting a load on the reciever but it had rub marks where it went into the reciever, anyways now it's definitely not rubbing, still feeds rounds no problem.

I loaded up 8 rounds of 160gr FTX at 32, 33, 34, 35, 36 and 37 grains of leverevolution. Loaded them to 2.55 which is a little longer than what the hornady manual says to load. And yes I crimped them. No annealing.

 

I fired them single feed.
I shot off the 32, 33 and 34 grain loads.
Ended up wasting some of the 32gr rounds, as the scope was hitting like 2 feet low at 100 yards.
I moved to 50yd and went to open iron sights. Still moved the irons up 3 clicks.
The 32gr rounds at 50 yards grouped about 1.5 inches. So right there I'm getting smaller groups at twice the distance.
33gr was wider, but I did let the gun heat up more, more like a 2.5 inch group, tall.
The most interesting was the 34gr loads. I fired 3, 3 and 2. After each volley I had the rounds from that volley touching each other. Makes me think my point of aim changed a little each time, after getting up, walking around picking up brass for 5 to 10 minutes between volleys other wise it was under 2 inches for 8 shots.
Definitely need to get that scope on paper. That could be a roughly 1moa load if I could point the damn gun at the same spot.
With iron sites it will definitely kill the shit out of anything at 50yd.
Each grain the load increased the groups moved about 2 inches higher. Gives you an idea how much the gun bends when it fires.

I'm going to have to work out my load and go do a range Boogaloo day and light off all my sloppy old reloads just to collect the brass.
It's been a really long time since I went to the range and just went ape shit.