30Major Load Development

A

andre3k

New member
After going through many options in converting my 6ppc to a 30cal VFS rifle, I decided to rechamber to 30major as opposed to 30BR. For those unfamiliar with this caliber its simply a 6.5 grendel necked up for a 30 caliber bullet. Mike Ezell (mwezell on here) will be building the new rifle for me, whom I communicated with via e-mail and on the phone about this caliber. With his assistance we decided on a Krieger 1-18 twist HV barrel with a shadetree engineering tuner. That way I can preload for matches and make any final adjustment with the tuner. We're gonna use the stiller viper dp and edge stock from the ppc to finish things up.

I've searched this topic many times on here but most of the posts are pretty old. What powder / bullet combinations seems to work good with this cartridge? Mike recommended VVn120 but 8lb jugs are impossible to find. It seems like H4198 is the standard for 30BR has anyone tried this powder for 30 major yet with success?

Just looking for some additional input before I buy components. FYI, I'm looking to run either 112 or 118gr BIBs.
 
I wonder how Reloader 7 would work in the 30 Major? In a 30BR It seems to take less RL7 than H4198 to reach a given speed.
 
I have 8 lbs of the R7, but the 120 is so good that I haven't opened the R7. The rumors that I hear are that the R7 will vary more lot to lot than the VV.

The 120 shoots great, fills the case, but not too much and meters super well through my ChargeMaster.

I've shot the 118 HillBilly, 115 Berger and 115 10X. I've been happy with all of them.

In general, my impression of the 30 Major is that it is like free beer. When it's good, it's GREAT. When it's out of tune, it's still good.

FWIW,

Greg J.
 
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Here's a list of powders I've shot in it. They've all shot well, but some better than others, and some I've not shot enough of some of them to conclude very much. The H322 and Benchmark fall into that category. They should both be too slow but both seem to shoot well in it. Regardless of price,N120 has PROVEN to be the cats meow and 4227 shoots great but you can get carried away with it pretty easily. All of these powders will perform in it and I've listed them in order of my progression from my first choice and down through the top 5. Beyond that I'm going to do more load development with the other powders listed as time permits, but have seen good results from all of the powders here. ---Mike Ezell

N120
Norma 200
IMR4227(Australian.. and Canadian as well but don't go there)
RL7
H4198

AA1680
H322
Benchmark
n130
n530
 
andre3k said:
How is case life compared to the BR? Any contact info for hillbilly bullets?
Click to expand...

Larry Moore (Hillbilly Bullets)
1-931-684-5205
1-931-205-3326 cell
I used his bullets last year and was very happy with them, good guy to deal with.

Dan Honert
 
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