Reality Sets In. . . AGAIN

Last year on September 18th, I posted a piece about trying out my new 30-30 rounds. Sometimes writing a weblog can be eerie. You go back and read stuff and you realize you’ve pretty much repeated yourself.

Here’s the post: Reality Sets In

On Sunday, I was back at the shooting bench. Surprisingly, the target frame had folded up in the storm Friday night. I had to go out and pound some nails in it to get it back standing. I had not had the 30-30 out since that trip in 2011. This time, the only things that were different:

1) I waited until Noon to start shooting. The chronograph needs the sun directly overhead– figure that out last year

2) I was using the new Hornady FTX 160 grainers instead of 150 grain Winchester Powerpoints.

3) I also had my Savage 340 in 223 REM out, determined to resurrect an old project of making a deer rifle out of a .223. More on that later.

For more on the loads, see last week’s post: Labor Day Reloading Projects

Bottom line on the 30-30: It’s still a thirty-thirty. Will it take a deer at 200 yards? Yes, sort of. Last year, I was working on the 150 grain Winchester PowerPoint. This year, I tried the Hornady FTX. Both showed decent velocity gains using Hodgdon LVR powder. However, by my way of looking at it, you still have a rifle with a point blank range of under 170 yards. Assuming you set your scope 2 inches high at 100 yards, you’ll still be below 2 inches low at 200 yards. There is enough energy left in the bullet to kill a deer, but you now have a killzone of greater than 4 inches– more like 6-8 inches. That means you better be sure of your yardage before you take a shot.

I verified all my numbers on a copy of PointBlank 2.0. I liked the old PointBlank( version 1.8). This new version is going to take some getting used to. For instance, the PBR calculation on the old version reset the sighted in distance to whatever the PBR calculation calculated. However, it has a lot of good stuff in the new release.

The new 30-30 round I cooked up with LVR and the FTX came out with similar results to the 150 grain PP/LVR combination I tested last year. The load with the top velocity did not have a good group, and I had to back off a bit to 95% of the MAX load to get down to the 1-2 MOA I try my best to keep on hunting rifles . That left me with an average velocity of 2270 fps.

Cranking the numbers for a 160 grain bullet at 2270. . . well, it ain’t your Dad’s thutty-thutty anymore, but it does not make my Marlin 336 a 30-06. In fact, I am inclined to say that the 150 grain Winchester PowerPoints might be a better bet in the first 100 yards. It retains a lot more energy in the first 100 yards. The 160 Hornady FTX retains more energy out past 100 yards and that is when the 150 grain Winchester is really pooping out.

Of the two, I am more enamored with the LVR powder than the FTX bullet. LeverEvolution is probably worth the effort to make the switch, at least that was what I can see. The bullet? Okay, if you want a pointy bullet and want more than 2 rounds loaded, the Hornady FTX is the way to go. However, I had an old buddy, Hugh, that used to hunt with one in the chamber and one in the mag and used to drive tacks with his Marlin using 150 grain pointed Speers. Are pointy bullets important? We’re talking a difference between .218 BC for the Winchester PowerPoints and a .33 BC for the new FTX. Yes, the difference is there. However, it is not a deal-breaker, and the deer would not know the difference at 100 or even 150 yards.

One other observation: the recoil from using the LVR powder is significantly more than using a powder like H4895 and living with lower velocities. I am not saying that the LVR was staggering, but the difference was noticeable.

Savage 340/223 REM

Now for the news on the .223 REM load for deer. I used WIN PP 64 grain. Judging from what I’ve read everywhere, there is nothing to indicate this will not kill a deer. My best grouping came from a 98% MAX load of H4895 giving me 3030 fps. My only concern was this: I used plain brown corrugated behind my targets. On the top row of targets, I just happened to have some of the cardboard folded over the top of the target frame, and it caught the some of the bullets after coming through the target.

Yikes! Each hole was a massive one, a good 3/4″ crater in the cardboard, and there were little pepper holes spraying out for a few inches around in random directions. That means the bullets were probably over-expanding and spraying lead every which-way as they hit the backing cardboard.

Fortune Cookie Logic

I ate Chinese today, and I opened up my fortune cookie while I was writing this. The fortune read “When it is not necssary to make a decision, it is necessary not to make a decision.” I like that. There are a couple of things that are for sure now. First is that the .223 REM 64 grain load will make a perfect coyote round. Unless it becomes necessary to use it on deer, I should probably hold off. The 30-30? There is not much more to say at this point. the 160 grain Hornady FTX bullets were not game changers. Neither was the new Hodgdon LVR powder. I do get a better long-distance 30-30 round using both, but the 30-30 is not a long-distance round. By the time I get to 150 yards, I should be using my 308 WIN or 30-06.

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