Q: I wish to reload my .30-30 and .30-06 cartridges with the same type of bullet. To keep things simple, I have settled on the Hornady 180gn round-nose bullet as being one of the most suitable for this purpose. Your comments would be appreciated.
Brian Reardon
A: It would be generally impractical to use the same bullet for reloading the .30-30 and .30-06 cartridges. For one thing, a bullet jacket thin enough to expand on game at .30-30 velocities would fragment on impact when driven at .30-06 velocities. Conversely, a bullet designed to give controlled expansion in the .30-06 may not expand properly, if at all, when driven at the low velocity level normal to .30-30 loadings. Also, bullets intended for use in tubular magazines should have a flat or nearly flat point so that recoil won’t jam a sharp bullet point into the primer of the next cartridge and thus set it off. Another negative, bullets for use in the .30-30 have the cannelure located to ensure proper overall length of the loaded cartridge. This is critical to ensure proper functioning of the cartridge through the magazine and feed mechanism of the action. The location of the cannelure on .30-06 bullets may not provide the correct overall cartridge length in a .30-30. My advice is: load the Hornady 160gn FTX in your .30-30 and any other .30 calibre bullet you might fancy in your .30-06.
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