.30-30 lever

[Poppop]

Hi guys
I need some advise. I took my Marlin 30-30 out of mothballs and I may want to continue using it and reload.
I know that rifle is much different than handgun reloading.
I would like to know what die set I should use i.e. Ultimate or 3 die Pacesetter. I think Lee's Ultimate Dies catalog page is confusing because they mention "no lube needed" and then "requires resizing lube".
Also looks like I can't use my Pro Auto-Disk powder measure. Since I'm not going to reload too many at one time, I'll use the manual style case prep tools. Advise will be greatly appreciated
Thanks in advance

[Ranch Dog]

First, to help clear up the lube confusion, the Ultimate die set includes a full length sizing die and a collet (neck) sizing die. The FULL length sizing die needs for the cases to be lubed, the COLLET die does not. You will use the full length die the first time you size the brass for the Marlin and then you will use the collet die each time you size the brass as long as they are going to be used in the Marlin. If you use the brass in any other rifle, the must be full length sized again.

Some say that you need to be full length sizing for anything other than a bolt action but I'm using the collect die successfully with a number of lever guns. What the collet die does for you is supposedly make the cartridge more accurate but that might not be realized in the levergun. The collet die does work the brass less and that promotes long case life.

Honestly, what I would recommend is just the Pacesetter die set and then add a Rifle Charging die in that you want to charge the cases with the Auto-Disk (this die would be needed with the Ultimate set as well). More than likely, you will also need the Double Disk kit as the single disk does not have the necessary capacity to fill the case.

[Poppop]

Thanks for the advise. Looks like might be a go. Will cost about $.304/rd vs. $.90 retail after purchase of hardware.
Thanks again

[mr surveyor]

Poppop ...

Be sure and add a case trimmer and proper trim stud for the .30-30 brass, and chamfer/debur tool (if you don't already have one). Also, if (like I was) this is your first experience with bottle neck loading, pay particular attention to the proper procedures for lubing the brass. I was very fortunate to have had a great mentor that spent at least 10 years trying to get me to start reloading, then after I finally jumped into the fray I got only a couple of years of his excellent coaching when he "crossed the river" way to soon (RIP Brother Mack). The only time Mack was actually in my "reloading space" was when he loaned me his RCBS dies and demonstrated the proper and "improper" application of case lube .... although he didn't want to demonstrate running unlubed brass into his full length sizing die . He did impress on me how important proper lube application was on the bottle necked brass.

You probably already know all that, but occasionally I try to at least sound useful


jd

oh, to add ... I ended up with a 2 die RCBS set (Christmas present from another buddy) and later found a Lee Collet FCD that is hard to beat for the purpose.

[Poppop]

The .30-30 brass I have accumulated over the years is only from my gun. Do I still need to do a full length sizing or can I go right to the Collet Die? I would like to avoid the icky lubing if I can.

[Ranch Dog]

The .30-30 brass I have accumulated over the years is only from my gun. Do I still need to do a full length sizing or can I go right to the Collet Die? I would like to avoid the icky lubing if I can.

You could go straight to the Collet die.

I don't use "sticky" case lube. Have you heard about mixing one tube of the Lee Case Sizing lube with a bottle of rubbing alcohol and spraying it on the cases?

[Poppop]

That sounds better to me because I can also spray the inside if the neck
What is the ratio of Lube to Alcohol?

[mr surveyor]

That sounds better to me because I can also spray the inside if the neck
What is the ratio of Lube to Alcohol?

I use 6 alcohol to 1 Lee Case Lube (but still wipe the lube off the case shoulder and neck) ... but I full length resize. My mentor convinced me that for full on .30-30 loads the best I could expect was 4-5 reloads per case. Considering how thin .30-30 win brass is, he had me convinced that it probably wouldn't matter (with .30-30 brass) whether it was full length sized or neck sized only ... the neck would most likely fail after 5 or more "full bore" loads. Old Mack may have been wrong, but I have yet to prove him wrong on anything firearm related.

jd

[Ranch Dog]

I squeeze one tube of lube into a pint bottle of alcohol. The higher the percent of alcohol the better.

[Poppop]

Hi guys
Finally received all necessary stuff for reloading .30-30. Got IMR 3031 powder-pretty messy, it bounces out of the scale tray. What I did was load it directly into the shell from the Lee (almost) Perfect Powder thing, then into the tray. No mess. I so far hand loaded, for practice of each step, 6 @ 27.5 gr for 170 gr Hornaday FP. I'll let you know how it did.
One question I still have is when should I clean the shells with my ultrasonic? Seem logical to do it after de-cap/sizing, and before trimming,that should also take the slippery stuff of the shell.
Thanks