Talk me into a 30BR
- Thread starter Sniper338
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rickiesrevenge
Silver $$ Contributor
125gr ballistic tip would be a great choice. I'd get a 14t or faster though
By "old school" standards, 1,000 foot pounds of energy was a benchmark for deer cartridges. I must confess, to having never aimed a 30BR at anything larger than a coyote, but did kill several of them right at 400 Yd., DRT.
I have shot several mule deer and pronghorn, using one of my 30x47 Hunter Class barreled actions in a [suitable] suitable stock, and killed them DRT out to a little over 400Yd. - but, for that, I used some odd-ball 144 Gr. bullets.
For hunting mule deer & pronghorn, though, with just about anything, range finders have made 1/4 mile shots easy, I have come to prefer a LOT more velocity and 25 Cal. cartridges.
That said, here are some calculations: my 118 Gr., 10 ogive, at 3050 FPS (typical 30BR MV) would deliver 1083 FPE at 400 Yd.; a 125 Gr. bullet, would deliver about 1,200 FPE @ 400, and 1,000+ out to 475. That would cover most deer hunting.
One could dredge way back, in the past (as I recall, mid 1960s gun rag articles), and see how effective the original .308 Barnes performed on game - albeit in that era, they were using heavier, more traditional weight bullets with the reduced velocity, and also heavy (180-200 Gr. or so) cast bullets.
I see no compelling reason to use a 30 BR - unless one wants to build/own and hunt with one!! RG
P.S./ OOOPs - I forgot, the H-4198, being on the slightly "slow" side for the 30Cal. expansion ratio and light bullets, I have found that when I have used 125 Gr. bullets, I get about the same MV as the 118 Gr., using the same powder charge weight. Use good judgement and approach from a reduced charge - never, "jump in blind"!
I have shot several mule deer and pronghorn, using one of my 30x47 Hunter Class barreled actions in a [suitable] suitable stock, and killed them DRT out to a little over 400Yd. - but, for that, I used some odd-ball 144 Gr. bullets.For hunting mule deer & pronghorn, though, with just about anything, range finders have made 1/4 mile shots easy, I have come to prefer a LOT more velocity and 25 Cal. cartridges.
That said, here are some calculations: my 118 Gr., 10 ogive, at 3050 FPS (typical 30BR MV) would deliver 1083 FPE at 400 Yd.; a 125 Gr. bullet, would deliver about 1,200 FPE @ 400, and 1,000+ out to 475. That would cover most deer hunting.One could dredge way back, in the past (as I recall, mid 1960s gun rag articles), and see how effective the original .308 Barnes performed on game - albeit in that era, they were using heavier, more traditional weight bullets with the reduced velocity, and also heavy (180-200 Gr. or so) cast bullets.
I see no compelling reason to use a 30 BR - unless one wants to build/own and hunt with one!
! RGP.S./ OOOPs - I forgot, the H-4198, being on the slightly "slow" side for the 30Cal. expansion ratio and light bullets, I have found that when I have used 125 Gr. bullets, I get about the same MV as the 118 Gr., using the same powder charge weight. Use good judgement and approach from a reduced charge - never, "jump in blind"!
Great info, I am new to shooting a 30 BR, picked up a used rifle back in the early summer. So far I have only shot some club matches and one UBR match. It has been easy to tune and the accuracy keeps me smiling. Any tips are greatly appreciated from AS members that are 30 BR shooters.
Thanks,
Tim
Thanks,
Tim
should be better than a 30-30 and how many deer has it killed?
For hunting mule deer & pronghorn, though, with just about anything, range finders have made 1/4 mile shots easy, I have come to prefer a LOT more velocity and 25 Cal. cartridges.
One could dredge way back, in the past (as I recall, mid 1960s gun rag articles), and see how effective the original .308 Barnes performed on game - albeit in that era, they were using heavier, more traditional weight bullets with the reduced velocity, and also heavy (180-200 Gr. or so) cast bullets.
Norman Clark, the British gunsmith and very successful rifle builder built a lightweight 308X1.5" rifle in a traditional skinny stocked European style for himself on a small ring Mauser action many, many years ago at the beginning of his career as a combined gunsmithing project and experiment for his own interest. The latter question was would the cartridge suffice as both an accurate 'fox rifle' and for English Roe deer. Despite the small size of the latter, the English and Welsh Deer Acts insist on 240" or larger calibre and 1,700 ft/lb ME, the latter requirement a struggle for many short-barrel 243 Win rifles incidentally. (In Scotland, .22 centrefires, 1,100 ft/lb and 2,500 fps MV is the minimum legal roedeer requirement, perfectly adequate for these 30-50lb animals showing what happens when the law gets involved even in one small country.) Norman told me that with the then new 125gn Ballistic Tips both objectives were achieved and the rifle did all that was asked of it, and very well. A slightly built lady friend was much taken with the combination and persuaded Norman to sell it to her, which he did on the basis of first offer if she ever disposed of it and it did in fact return to him after some years of regular use. He showed it to me maybe 20 years ago, and it really is a beautiful little rifle and I was very taken with the cartridge.
I see no compelling reason to use a 30 BR - unless one wants to build/own and hunt with one!
A BR shooting friend bought one of your design reamers for a short-range BR rifle build and generously loaned it to me for a budget rebarrel of an old 7.62 Paramount 'TR' rifle that I had knocking around. The Paramount is the intermediate model in the SWING to RPA series of single-shot 4-lug actions designed specifically for sling target shooters. It wears a near new recycled 23-inch 1:10 twist Krieger, a cheap but good Chinese 8-32 target scope and is designated as my old fart's range plinking gun that will (eventually) use up the large quantities of faster burning powders I have without any use for starting out with the 125gn Sierra HPM and 15 year old Viht N120. This is a great little rifle to shoot for fun at up to 300 yards either off the bench or prone a la F-Class off a wide FTR bipod. It is not so far BR type accurate and I don't expect ever to get that, but shows promise in terms of grouping ability. The biggest downside is that the Paramount etc series sees a rather sharp lip between the chamber and action floor. With the 308 this is no problem, but the short nose-heavy BR cartridge is a beggar to chamber as the bullet tip has to be kept high and the cartridge pushed into the port very deeply to reach the chamber. So fast BR type shooting is not on, not that the 4-lug SWING type actions are suited to that role anyway, and it retains the TR/Fullbore trigger with its 1.5Kg pull too.
This is a great fun little project and rifle with endless opportunities for load experimentation with little risk of wearing the barrel out. My thanks to you and Al for the generous advice in the AS Bulletin and many posts on this forum on expanding and preparing brass and suchlike to get started with the 30BR.
MGYSGT
Silver $$ Contributor
When I asked about the 30 BR for long range (600). At least to me that's long range. The idea got lots of negative remarks. Then someone posted a 1,000 yard 30 BR group. Got quite after that. I built a 30 BR repeater on a Rem 700. Feeding was flawless, but ejection was not. Sometimes it would drop the cartridge off the bolt head before it cleared the receiver. I would use a smaller action for a hunter to help with ejection.
One thing every one agrees on you will never wear out a 30BR barrel. Go to accurate shooter on this website for 30BR load data. A 112 gr bullet at 2900 fps will kill any deer if well placed. The ballistics beyond 300 yrds. are like a brick.
The light bullets are for competition. Need to verify if they will expand on deer size animals. Check reloading manuals or websites to see if any 112-118 gr bullets are made for hunting.
They don't have to be made for hunting. The original Berger target bullets are now referred to as hunting bullets.
bobinpa
Gold $$ Contributor
The short answer, use Nosler 125 gr ballistic tips and don't look back.
My 30BR is a 17 twist set up for short range br. It is a Rem 700 with a Krieger HV at 26" (I think) and it shoots 116 gr Euber's into tiny little holes. Now to your question.... I had a wild hair a few years ago and wanted to shoot it more so I thought I would set it up with a hunting bullet for ground hogs. Long story short, I am using 125 grain Nosler ballistic tips at just over 2900 fps. Now I have never shot a deer with it but I have loaded 125 Nosler BT's for my nephews 308 and it is devastating on deer. If memory serves me, his 308 is within 100 fps of my 30BR, so I would expect the same results. I would absolutely try the ballistic tips for deer in a 30BR.
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