Need help with .30 bullet selection

[John Sabato]

The bullets yo have picked out should work fine... I will let others who reload for this caliber comment further...

Another option, perhaps on the slightly heavy side would be lighter bullets that were intended for .30 Carbine... I remember back when I loaded that caliber that there were some dandy Round-nosed half-jacket slugs which expanded nicely that I believe were made by Hornady or Nosler... I think they were 110 Grains... as I said, perhaps a little on the heavy side, but if you can load them to the proper overall length (OAL) they will probably perform very well on small game.

[sheepherder]

Originally Posted by Rick W.

In my earlier days, I have tried the 110gr type of the Speer plinker and the Sierra fmj carbine bullets...I felt the carbine type bullets were too long/heavy.

I have not had any problems with the 30 Carbine 110 gr FMJ bullets. The extra length does not seem to affect accuracy or function. As for the weight, I made up a fixture to hold bullets so that they could be drilled. I use a 1/8" drill and adjust my depth to get the weight I want. Fixture & bullets in pic below.

I also made cartridges from .223 Remington [new] brass. The pic shows a stripper clip of 30 Mauser cartridges for my M30 Broomhandle, made from .223 brass and 110 gr bullets drilled out to 93 gr.

There was some speculation when I first tried this (back in the '70's; that's why that stripper clip of cartridges looks so old) that the drilled bullets would expand before passing through the cartridge shoulder, or that the .223 brass would bulge...Neither happened. I used a light target load of 5.0 grs of AL-5 (no longer available, I believe) with the 110 gr FMJ drilled down to 95 (or 93) grs...Same drilled bullet with 5.5 grs of AL-5 was a pretty good shooter...

This was with 30 Mauser in an M30 Broomhandle...I'm still experimenting with the 30 Luger loads/drilled bullets...

[Sieger]

Originally Posted by postino

I have not had any problems with the 30 Carbine 110 gr FMJ bullets. The extra length does not seem to affect accuracy or function. As for the weight, I made up a fixture to hold bullets so that they could be drilled. I use a 1/8" drill and adjust my depth to get the weight I want. Fixture & bullets in pic below.

I also made cartridges from .223 Remington [new] brass. The pic shows a stripper clip of 30 Mauser cartridges for my M30 Broomhandle, made from .223 brass and 110 gr bullets drilled out to 93 gr.

There was some speculation when I first tried this (back in the '70's; that's why that stripper clip of cartridges looks so old) that the drilled bullets would expand before passing through the cartridge shoulder, or that the .223 brass would bulge...Neither happened. I used a light target load of 5.0 grs of AL-5 (no longer available, I believe) with the 110 gr FMJ drilled down to 95 (or 93) grs...Same drilled bullet with 5.5 grs of AL-5 was a pretty good shooter...

This was with 30 Mauser in an M30 Broomhandle...I'm still experimenting with the 30 Luger loads/drilled bullets...

Hi:

Brilliant!!

This just proves again that necessity is the mother of invention!

Sieger