3031 in which factory factory .30-30 loads?

[junkwrencher]

I was wondering if anyone knew if any current manufacturers are using 3031 in factory loadings.Winchester, Remington, Federal etc....?In .30-30 Winchester of course......

[Hobie]

I bet they use a ball powder with the burn rate of WW748. Meters better. I load 3031.

[yooper2]

I've torn down a few factory 30-30 loads and all have had a ball powder but none have offered anything over what can be done with 3031 so I'm inclined to agree with Hobie.

Eric


P.S.
Haven't taken apart any Leverevolution. Don't know what that powder is like and haven't tried what is offered to the public yet though I've been meaning to.

[J Miller]

I have pulled down factory 30-30 ammo and every one in the last 20 years has had ball powder in it. I think the last one that had extruded powder was loaded iin the 60s or 70s.

3031 may be a good old line powder but it doesn't hold a candle to 748 and it meters horribly.

Joe

[jlchucker]

I bet they use a ball powder with the burn rate of WW748. Meters better. I load 3031.

I think you may be right about that. I load 3031 myself, but have used a lot of 748. In a production environment, where metered loads are dropping into cases in an automated fashion, I would think that ball powder would prove to be a whole lot easier to set up for consistency. But hey--my only exposure to commercial reloading was at a Winchester ammo plant that mainly produced 7.62 NATO ammo on US military contracts, back in the very late '60's. They were using ball powder, naturally. Their own primers, too. And cases were extruded from brass acquired from the Olin brass mill. I never really paid attention to know if it was 748 powder but it probably was. But our home handloading processes are a lot simpler than those types of factories. We handloaders load a whole lot less, take more time, and can screw around with powder tricklers, extruded powders, etc. A far less noisy environment, too.

[Hobie]

I bet they use a ball powder with the burn rate of WW748. Meters better. I load 3031.

I think you may be right about that. I load 3031 myself, but have used a lot of 748. In a production environment, where metered loads are dropping into cases in an automated fashion, I would think that ball powder would prove to be a whole lot easier to set up for consistency. But hey--my only exposure to commercial reloading was at a Winchester ammo plant that mainly produced 7.62 NATO ammo on US military contracts, back in the very late '60's. They were using ball powder, naturally. Their own primers, too. And cases were extruded from brass acquired from the Olin brass mill. I never really paid attention to know if it was 748 powder but it probably was. But our home handloading processes are a lot simpler than those types of factories. We handloaders load a whole lot less, take more time, and can screw around with powder tricklers, extruded powders, etc. A far less noisy environment, too.

Note that I didn't say it WAS WW748 but that it had that burn rate. I should have said a similar burn rate. Of course it would come the plant by the box car loads. These are not canister grade powders.

[jlchucker]

I bet they use a ball powder with the burn rate of WW748. Meters better. I load 3031.

I think you may be right about that. I load 3031 myself, but have used a lot of 748. In a production environment, where metered loads are dropping into cases in an automated fashion, I would think that ball powder would prove to be a whole lot easier to set up for consistency. But hey--my only exposure to commercial reloading was at a Winchester ammo plant that mainly produced 7.62 NATO ammo on US military contracts, back in the very late '60's. They were using ball powder, naturally. Their own primers, too. And cases were extruded from brass acquired from the Olin brass mill. I never really paid attention to know if it was 748 powder but it probably was. But our home handloading processes are a lot simpler than those types of factories. We handloaders load a whole lot less, take more time, and can screw around with powder tricklers, extruded powders, etc. A far less noisy environment, too.

Note that I didn't say it WAS WW748 but that it had that burn rate. I should have said a similar burn rate. Of course it would come the plant by the box car loads. These are not canister grade powders.

I took your meaning, Hobie, when you said the burn rate of 748 initially. Winchester developed 748 when they came out with the 308 Winchester family of their ammo. The ball powder being used probably did come by the box-car loads or truckload, and for sure it came from Olin-Winchester's powdermaking facilities in another state, cannister grade or not. Primers, though, were made right there in New Haven. Back then, they had an employee store where you could order a Winchester firearm, buy Winchester reloading components, and once they even had a sale, by the 50 pound bagful, of some sort of garden fertilizer made by some division of Olin. I bought a few guns, and this was before I started handloading. Never did start gardening.