Making a 30-30

[vern748]

OK....Before you flame me, I must say I love the 30-30 round for its flexibility and my ability to shoot it all day long. I currently own 3 weapons in 30-30;
Savage 340 E Deluxe
Remington 788
Marlin 336

All three are great weapons, but I am looking for something a bit more modern. It gets expensive replacing an irreplaceable bolt for the Savage or Remington. If you find one, then your at the mercy of the market price..$$$$$. I would love to shoot my aging 30-30s all day long but just cant justify the wear and tear on them. These once $100 budget guns are not $700 budget guns, if you can find them.

So, the crux of my question. Would it be possible to build a Savage 110 in 30-30 ?
Would the factory / vendor turn me a barrel ?
Would the Savage 225 magazine fit the 30-30 round like in the old days ?
and finally,
Has someone been stupid enough to have attempted this before ?

Bring it on !!

[Balljoint]

My self have hunted with a 336 30/30 have played around with some loads with 180 gr. round nose and single load with 180 SMK with good results out to 150 yards now with a longer barrel who knows.

[Eric in NC]

Only way to do it on a 110 would be to do a 30 Remington (rimless 30-30) and get a 223 bolt head opened up to fit it (same case head size a 6.8 SPC). PacNor or others would be glad to make you a barrel.

[Blue Avenger]

While it was never intended and very not recommended! you can make the 110 function with 30-30 rounds with some work. BUT the 30-30 and other rimmed cases were meant to have the whole case surrounded by the barrel and are not as strong as a rimless case in the web area. Rimless cases were made to protrude from the barrel.



case life would be very short and odds of separation very high. Like drunk driving- not recomended!

[vern748]

I have access to a machine shop and doing mill work would not be an issue. So...dont try this at home kids.

Would cutting a recess in the barrel similar to the Savage 340 E, and also adjusting the shoulder of the chamber to compensate for the recess, work ?
or
would it be better to re-purpose an existing 340 30-30 barrel to mate with the 110 action. Also getting a donor 30-30 (as if there is such a thing) bolt head and mate that the the 110 action.

Both methods would provide the additional support that Blue is looking for. Also looking at the attached gif, would this same rear case expansion still exist and does currently exist with all 30-30s currently ?

Yea, this may turn into a $5000 lump of junk. But its an interesting project.

[Cycler]

What abour a .30AR Remington? It's basically the .223 case opened up to .308 and can easily be loaded to 30-30 performance or better.

[375Win]

I would just upgrade your 788, they were built to shoot 22-250, 243, and 308s and were a very modern design. They were an inexpensivegun but not weak by any means, had a very fast lock time and the action would outlast many barrels. One thing to remember with custom gunsmithing anything can be done for a price and the impossible just costs more. If you realy want a Sav 110 3030 you could open a 473 bolt head and easily build a Single shot, making it a repeaterwould be the tuff part because they've never made a 110 for a rimmed cartridge that I know of.

375Win

[Blue Avenger]

If you can also overcome the extraction issue.

[375Win]

Just went out and set a 30-30 case on a 473 bolt head looks like it would just need a little work, it backs up enough. Wouldn't to be too hard to make a custom extractor.

375 Win

[Smokey262]

I know its not as much of a challenge to you, but wouldn't it be easier and cheaper to load the 308 down to 30-30 velocities?

[Eric in NC]

The 30 Remington would be the easiest solution unless you really want to shoot factory ammo. It would feed too (which the 30-30 would NEVER do out of a 110 mag).

Why not look at that option (or are you not a handloader?).

[Balljoint]

Very nice color illustration that Blue Avenger has come up with was it a program or your own program that did it

[helotaxi]

What abour a .30AR Remington? It's basically the .223 case opened up to .308

Not hardly. It's based on the .450 Bushmaster case which has a .473 rim diameter and is a rebated rim design.

and can easily be loaded to 30-30 performance or better.

The .30AR greatly outclasses the 30-30. Not even in the same league.

[Blue Avenger]

Very nice color illustration that Blue Avenger has come up with was it a program or your own program that did it

it has been floating around the net for a while. had a few more on the old computer that tanked. just recently recopied this one when Big Ed put it up.

[Blue Avenger]

LOL all your ideas for other cases, next you will try converting us .220 Swift guys! Only thing that outclasses the .30-30 is the.30-40krag LOL

[Cycler]

What abour a .30AR Remington? It's basically the .223 case opened up to .308

Not hardly. It's based on the .450 Bushmaster case which has a .473 rim diameter and is a rebated rim design.

Better yet, he wouldn't need a new or modified bolt head.

The .30AR greatly outclasses the 30-30. Not even in the same league.

Yes, I know it does. My point was it could be loaded down to match 30-30 performance without leaving a huge amount of extra case capacity and in a bolt action the lower power would not cause cycling problems the way it would in a semi-auto.

[Eric in NC]

LOL all your ideas for other cases, next you will try converting us .220 Swift guys! Only thing that outclasses the .30-30 is the.30-40krag LOL

Not trying to "better" the 30-30 - the 30 Remington (NOT the 30 Rem AR or whatever) is just a rimless 30-30 (there is a rimless 30-40 Krag too, but brass for that is tough to make).

I know the 30 Rem was developed on the wrong side of 1900 (I think 1906?) but you can use 30-30 data and brass is still available.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.30_Remington

Of course I love my bolt action 30-30's - Have a 788 and a Remington Lee 1899 Sporter. Once had a Remington model 30 in 30 Remington but let that get away from me.

[vern748]

Hi,

I know there are other weapons out there that can be cased down or lightly loaded, but that's not the point. It is more of an academic exercise to see if I can get a 30-30 Winchester round to shoot accurately and safely out of a modern weapons.

I will be the first to say there are better, all around shooting rounds, 308, 243. Or lighter loads that can be shot all day, 223, Swift. Its not about making a better like 30-30 weapon, its making a modern weapon that shoots a 30-30.

[teddog]

Have not seen this mentioned yet so thought I'd toss it into the suggestion box for consideration. 7.62X39?? Brass is plentiful and many say it is about equal to the 30-30.

[Terry Balding]

Pac-Nor will make a barrel for you.

http://www.pac-nor.com/standard/

Terry

[Blue Avenger]

If you get this idea working, I need a 218 bee.

[Eric in NC]

And a 219 Zipper, and a 38-55, and...

[k80skeet]

Rather than try to make a 30-30 out a model 110. Why don't you go shop around and you will probably be able to find one of the older Savage model 340 bolt action that was make in 30-30 along with other calibers it even has the barrel nut too. They make quite a lot of these and you should be able to fine fairly easy and they shoot real well too. I will bet it would be cheaper and a whole lot easier than trying to make one out a model 110.

[vern748]

Thanks for reading the first post.

I currently do own several 30-30s, and 1 being a Savage 340 E.

Sometimes it is not about easy, its because I can. Since when has easy become the acceptable way out ?

[k80skeet]

Vern 748, Some of us aren't a talented as you and have to re-lie on someone else doing the work for us. At this point it become a mater of money and how much we have pay to get what we want done and at some point it becomes not worth the cost. Someone like yourself that has the tools, equipment and knowhow to do work yourself can do many things even if it takes a lot of time. Because your time is free if you are working for yourself. The rest of us have to pay for every hour a gunsmith does work for us. Most of the time when I build a new rifle (before I started buying Savages and be able to change a barrel without a gunsmith) 45% of the cost was labor with a top notch gunsmith.