1936 marlin 30-30 load

I am just getting into reloading 30-30. I have experience with .270 and 12ga but have not done anything else.

Mine is a 1936 marlin safety special smokeless steel. This gun was only made in its original format for 2 years. It has been passed down from my grandfather. This being such an old and meaningful gun I am very nervous when it comes to developing hand loads for it and there doesn’t seem to be a lot of information online about safe loads for classic firearms.

Does anyone have a recipe for a load that I can use for hunting without worrying about excessively wearing or damaging my gun?

I'm not aware of any issues of too soft or too brittle steel in either Marlin or Winchester with the older 30-30's. If someone is they can chime in. The 30-30 is rated at 38,000 cup pressure, using a powder like leverevolution you can't stuff enough in the case to get over pressure according to Hodgdon's online data. A compressed load with either 150's or 170's is still under max average service pressure.


Just make sure you aren't going outside the norms like a bullet seated either into the lands or significantly deeper into the case than book load. Use a chrono if you got one to monitor speeds with the book and pay attention to what barrel length they used to get the speeds posted. Know ahead of time what speeds you should be seeing on the chrono based on your barrel length vs the book. Don't push max pressures on an old gun and you should be fine.

Use 30gr or IMR3031 and the Speer 170HC. It will kill anything from deer to moose! Good luck to you pard!

preacher":1hqaniaw said:

Use 30gr or IMR3031 and the Speer 170HC. It will kill anything from deer to moose! Good luck to you pard!

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My first 30-30 that I used was my Great granddaddy's 1894 Winchester 30-30. I used it until I was old enough to buy my own. I used the above load for years, not only in that1911 M94, but is several later 94s, a couple of Winchester M64s, one from 1938, the other 1957. I also have used that load in a Winchester M54 and a Marlin 336 Texan.

Seriously though I consider that load maximum but safe. You probably would be more comfortable using about two grains less, as least till you learn the rifle.

I haven't shot my 30-30 rifles in quite a few years but most of the time when I did I shot cast bullets. Tell you what, they kill deer just as nicely as the ones wearing those copper overcoats. :mrgreen: These days I consider them fun guns to shoot at the range more than anything else Most of the areas where I hunt now require shots that are just too far out for the 30-30.
Paul B.

By 1936 the 30-30 was perhaps the best understood smokeless cartridge in existence with well designed ammunition, load data, and millions of rifles in common use.

I'd stick to a book load, but I'd have no qualms about shooting any of them through such a rifle in good condition. I have a similar vintage Marlin and it runs everything through it without an issue- mostly factory spec 150gr ammo. A book max .30WCF is still a relatively mild cartridge as centerfire rifles go.

Enjoy that old gun- I know I really enjoy mine!

Hey so I ended up talking to the guy at the counter at my local sportsman’s warehouse

I ended up getting Sierra 170gn FN bullets, and lever revolution powder

I loaded them with federal brass, CCI primers, and 30gns of powder. Went to the desert to test them out, and click.. click... click.... three light strikes in a row. Switched to factory federal loads and they shot with no issues at all. I’ve never had an issue with this before. The gun has never had a single light strike on factory ammo. And I’ve put maybe a few hundred rounds through it since I inherited it last year.

I use the same primers in my 270 and they are great. I read somewhere that CCI primers require a harder hit than for example a Remington primer. Is this the “culprit”

What do you think could be the issue?

Could be the primers are "set too deep" in that particular Lot of brass; could be the headspace is off just enough on the rifle that the new brass rim isn't in spec/jiving with the rifles headspace; could be the CCI is too hard "in conjunction" with an "age weakened" hammer spring/springs. Have a good gunsmith check your headspace and go ahead and change out all the springs. They are old dude! ha.

I’m using once fired brass from the same gun

Sounds like a very cool old rifle.

Perhaps the easiest thing would be to switch to a different primer. Federal perhaps?

Federal primers are softer than CCI. That said CCI's don't take a heavy hit in my experience. So if you switch to Federal primers with nothing else different and she goes bang, that will narrow down what's faulty with the gun real quick.

But with what you're currently using.....you're positive the primers are seated all the way in? You stated you were just getting into reloading. Primers seated too shallow will certainly cause issues. Same with being crushed and seated too deep, I've never experienced the latter. Only twice I had dead clicks with reloads. Once early on when using a press to seat primers and lack of feel and experience, I didn't have them seated in totally. (I now use a hand primer that I can positively feel when they're seated against.) And once with an older gun that ended up having some rust on the firing pin slowing down it's forward speed. Bottom line is that misfires due to an actual problem with the primer of any brand, is pretty rare.

Leverguns (springy actions) can develop 'set back" through the years, so have that headspace checked out anyhow.