I normally write my daily postings the night before. The article about pulling bullets was written Friday night for Saturday morning. After I wrote the article, around 2322, I decided it was time for bed. And got distracted on the way there.
The reloading press was right there. I had warmed up the scale before starting the article. So I sat down and reloaded the bullets I had just pulled.
Per the Hornady manual, 14.5gr of Alliant 2400 under a 156gr HDY GTX. Success!
Today I did a test firing. The .357 Mag was an afterthought.
I couldn’t find any 30-30, I knew I needed to load some. That required I find the 30-30 brass and prep it, locating the powder, then setting up the reloading bench for 30-30. The first crate I checked was labeled “brass”. Yes, it was full of brass, none of the brass was 30-30. The next two crates were labeled bullets, not worth checking.
This required more digging. I cannot find the crate or ammo can that should be full of powder, nor can I find the can or crate full of 30-30 brass.
I do find the 30cal can labeled “30-30”, I open it, hoping to find cases. Nope! Instead, I found the mother load. Two boxes of bullets. Old bullets. A couple of plastic ziplock bags labeled for 30-30. A bag with a single case ready to reload.
The bottom half of the can was full of loaded, ready to use 30-30.
Using the instructions I got from the owner of boxes for ammo, I started backing them in nice white boxes. 6 boxes, 20 rounds each of 30-30. I don’t need to reload any 30-30 today!
I took the Marlin 30-30 with scope out to try to zero it. Not a lot of joy there. I need to do it again. Since I was taking the 30-30 out, I took the Ruger GP100 with .357 Mag loaded up. Fired off the cylinder. Perfection. All the cases ejected as they should. No sighs of over pressure on the primers, and I’m below max load.
The 30–30 Marlin punched my shoulder harder than I expected. It didn’t zero. I’m not sure what is going on there. My Winchesters, firing the same loads, do an outstanding job of ringing steel and punching holes in paper, exactly where I want. Iron sights and all.
Sunday I need to finish digging through the reloading room. I know there is a couple of cans of powder in there. I just need to find them.
What year is that Marlin?
Always nice to find ammo, kind of like finding a spare 20 in a jacket pocket.
The Marlin was manufactured in 1982.
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Nice to find ammo. More like finding 2 $100 bills in your jacket pocket. 30-30 is only a $1.65 per round. (yes, I know there is cheaper, that’s a close match to what I shoot)