[font='CG Times']Since a 30/30 is design to be stacked up with the bullet tip touching the primer of the round in front of it the actual bullet shape is limited to that of flat nose, round nose or something of the like.  Here's what I'm wondering.  If a round were loaded one at a time would it be possible to put a handloaded ballistic tip round in the chamber and essentially turn the rifle into a single shot, but a more accurate single shot?  The round in the chamber could have the pointed bullet looking similar to a 30-06 and a person could put regular rounds in the tube.  I'm just curious if this theory could actually be a reality.  I know it would require the highest level of safety and may not even be possible.  I'm sure people have tried this before but is it safe?  Is the theory sound?[/font]
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[font='CG Times']I'd appreciate any information I could get on the subject.[/size][/font]

Yes, you can do that and be perfectly safe...
 
However, I'm not sure that the gain in accuracy would be worth all the trouble.  The little bit of accuracy that you MIGHT gain would likely be thrown off by the affects of shooting different bullets, since different bullets oft-times hit different places.
 
In other words, the first round would be one bullet, followed by the ones in the tube.  The ones in the tube would mostly likely shoot different, so you'd likely have to just consider the rifle a two shot firearm (you could put one in the chamber, and one in the magazine and as long as the one in the magazine didn't have another ahead of it there would be no problem).
 
Daryl

Well, you're right.  Loading 'spitzer' style bullets for the .30-30 is very common...with the bolt action crowd.  Whether it would make a tube magazine fed rifle 'more accurate' is debateable.  For myself, I've never thought of the .30-30 cartridge as a long range number.  For a lever action carbine (ala Winchester/Marlin) in dense territory or as a firearm of opportunity, the flatnose 170 grain bullet works very well.  Of course you could always get your hands on an old Savage 99 in .30-30 and the problem would be solved.

Nosler lists loading data fot the 130 and 150gr BTs for the 30-30 in their pistol loading section. Lots of people like it for Contenders. I used to have a bolt action Savage 30-30 but I never got around to playing with it much before I sold it to buy fly fishing stuff. But my brother-in-law still has it. I think htat it sits in his closet mostly.

You know 'bug...it seems to me that BritHunter has a .30-30 bolt action of some sort.

Yes, and it works great!
 
Many years ago my best friend and I walked out of a Sears store with brand new Winchester 94s that we bought for $79.95 each.  We were very excited because these were our first "real" guns.  We spent many, many days shooting and experimenting with them.  After a couple of months we both bought Lee hand loaders for them.  Again, more experimentation.  We did a lot of reloading with spitzer and hollow point bullets but we only loaded two at a time.  We'd load one round, cycle it into the chamber, release the hammer, and then load a second round into the magazine.  That way we never had one round behind the other.  We found that overall length was a problem if we used 165gr and heavier bullets, and with some 150gr bullets we tried we had to be careful to load deep enough.  The best accuracy we got was with 125gr Sierras.  They were awsome out of those 30-30s.  
 
Here's a little anecdote.  We were at my house and tried some 110 grain hollow points.  We didn't want to bother going off to the range so we decided to just try one out in the backyard.  I lived in a Los Angeles suburb at the time bit we figured we could get away with it if we only fired one round.  We wanted to check penetration but we needed a safe backstop.  So we fired one round of the 110gr ammo into a huge palm tree.  It was about 30" in diameter where we shot it.  After the loud shot we scurried inside and remained there for about half an hour, just in case somebody hearing the shot was currious.  Then we went outside to examine the enry hole.  It was tiny.  The tree had sort of closed up behind it and you could barely make it out.  We got a thin stick about 12" long and poked it into the hole to evaluate penetration.  The stick kept going and going until it was all the way in.  No problem, penetration was deeper than that.  So we got a really long branch and removed all the little branches and poked that into the hole.  We had to keep wiggling it and it kept going and going till that stick was all the way in.  But our stick was more than 30" long!  We stared into each others eyes in horror and then ran to the back of the tree where we found the stick protruding.  A couple of feet away from the tree we found the bullet embeded sideways into a 1" cedar fence.  It hadn't opened up one bit and it had almost passed into the neighbor's yard.  We decided to end the experiment.  It was our biggest shooting surprise since the day we decided to test a .22 rifle by shooting a watermelon in the fireplace, but that's another story.

Nice story 45/70.  It's amazing some of the things we do when we were younger.  I've got a few stories like that myself.  Do you happen to remember the recipe for your favorite 30/30 round?

No, sorry, I don't remember. It's been a while since I shot a 30-30 and decades since I reloaded for one. But I remember that accuracy was really good with the right bullets. As I mentioned, the Sierra 125 grain spitzer made up the best loading. I got ~1.5" groups at 100 yards using 125 grainers out of a model 94 carbine equipped with receiver sights. We used to use the little charts and scoops that came with the Lee Loaders to figure out our loads. They worked out so that one level scoop of powder xyz would be good for loads from xx grains to yy grains. You changed the range of bullets weights you shot based on the powder used so switching from xyz powder to abc powder might mean that you use one level scoop with a heavier or lighter range of bullets. It was very simple and rudimentary but it worked.

I've loaded many different bullets for the 30-30 in bolt action and lever rifles. The sierra 125 grain spitzer was the best pointed bullet thuogh it didn't kill deer very well (only use these single shot ). The best bullet I've ever loaded was the 170 grain speer flat point  made for the 30-30. It was quite accurate out to 150 tards or so and killed very well. I used IMR 4895 powder and standard rifle primers for both loads. The heavier bullet had more killing power at 150 to 200 yards and with a 3 inch high zero was about 6 inches low at 200 yards. I've shot a boatload of deer and have a real good feel for this.sort of thing. Bullet weigh plays a more important role when killing larger animals. Good luck and God bless.

Hi All,
 
Well the "Old Fellers" (Jay's ) memory is quite good you know, yes I do have a 30-30 bolt action rifle and I also load 125-130 Grain bullets for it. However the loads are "High Pressure" loads working at about the same pressure levels as the .308 so not suitable for a lever action. Petersens Rifle Shooter back in 1999 did an article on souping up te 30-30 and I worked with their data with this rifle, H335 is the powder and Although I am getting no pressure signs and have some more capacity left in the case I stopped with the load I am using which gives 2700 fps as it's just so darned accurate . Now as for killing deer well those 130 grain bullets do very well thank you :-
 

As this picture shows, rifle is my Medwell & Perritt 30-30 and that's a nice full grown Roe Doe taken just before Christmas Scope is a Schmidt & Bender 6x42.
 
In fact I have been tinking about dropping the velocity slightly as this Doe shot at about 65 yards was an absolute mess inside I poured one lung out as a liquid mush. The bullet entered as you can see just behind the shoulder, but as she was not standing fully broadside it exited about the last rib leaving about a 3" wound. The thinking is that one these close shots, and one this property 120 yards is about the longest, reducing the velocity to about 2550 fps may be benificial providing the accuray remains about the same
 

3 shot group at 100 yards using the 130 Grn Hornady spire point bullet.

Brithunter,
 
What action is your Medwell & Perritt built around?  I never heard of them.  From the photo it almost looks like the 1903-Springfield/mauser-98 hybrid action my Parker Hale Midland 2100 is built on.

Hi 45/70 Rifleman,
 
This is a true one off, they made the action just to suit the 30-30 Winchester cartridge and it's specificaaly built around the Winchester 170 gran factory load. It uses a Mauser type full length extractor and a Sako type bolt release.
 

The Mounts are Apel EAWswing ones
 

150 grain Factory Silver Tips, the cartridge on the right in a home load using the 130 grain Hornady. As you can see I cannot seat the bullets out longer so I cannot use the long 165 grn or the 150 grn spitzer bullets as they require seating far to deep into the case.
 

The bolt
 
Medwel & Perritt are quite new having been going for a few years now, this rifle was built in 1999 according to the Proof mark. They are now married but were not when they started out together. It's Julia Perritt who has the Engineering degree and who does the stock work and the engraving which is how the companies name is put on the side. They come from Suffolk and I intend to go up and visit them one day and take the rifle back for a once over;) My rifle has the Keplinger Set trigger fitted, you push it forward to set it.

Well you could rechamber it in some sort of 300 short magnum wildcat.  If you want something smaller you could rebarrel it in 7x30 Waters.  If you want something bigger you could rebore it to .375 Winchester.  But if it were me, I'd just leave it like it is.  It's a nice looking piece in a highly overlooked chambering.  I wonder if Medwel & Perritt are exporting.

Barnes Bullets just came out with a 130 grain Tripple-Shock X-Bullet in .30 caliber that you might want to try out.

Hi 45-70 Rifleman,
 
       Thank you for the kind comments,  will not be altering the rifle as I honestly see no need to:cool:  As to whether the makers export............... I do not know but I will ask when I contact them in a few weeks. However be advised that thier prices are not cheap:eek: I think their prices might just prohibt sales to the US some what.
 
    Now as for the Barnes Bullet, well I cannot see the need for it here when the 130 Grn Hornady can do all I ask of it;)  but thank you for the heads up.:D