I'd love to find out... from a safe distance. As long as someone else provides the gun! ;)

Mike

Agreed. 30-30 over pressure is a problem for a lot of us. Including myself. For one, the brass is the weakest link. It is for any cartridge but 30-30 is espeically weak. And I even have tried to get more performance than I should from 30-30.

Thank God I have not blew out a rim or anything, but I could have. The action of marlin 336 can handle way more pressure than 30-30 can. And in the end, I figured if I want 308 performance from a 30-30, just use my 308.

I'm with him :D I don't even shoot max book-loads in my rifles very often, cause I don't need to. I also load for several friends, and never had anyone ask for a hot load.

I sometimes do a couple of loads that are over the recommended max: One in .30-06 and one in .308. They show no signs of excess pressure. Those loads are gun specific and are so marked in red. The cases used in those loads are reloaded twice and then they go in the scrap barrel.

removed by RD

When someone KNOWS what they are doing, the book becomes only a guideline. I have guns that show pressure signs significantly below book max, and others significantly above. My 300WM Sendero that I use for elk hunting uses a grain over the book max, I took it even higher than that and saw no pressure signs. However the velocity is in line with what the book says I should be getting so I believe it's just the geometry of the chamber (I seat longer than SAAMI). With my 30-06 I got ejector marks before I even got to book max so it's good I didn't just go for the max from the get-go, I'd have been hot.

The key is I worked it up from low, used a chrono, and a healthy dose of common sense. If I wanted to run a 300WM hot I'd just buy a 300 RUM instead. Intentionally loading hot loads is just stupid. What happens when you work up that "hotrod" load in a cold barrel on a cold day then shoot it on a hot day when the barrel is warm??

Probably something like this.

Did the trigger man live to tell his story?

no id dont load like this often but ive dont it lots in load development.

i can also understand why people would think this post is stupid but i stand by it. i never condoned the further use of hotrod loads, i only asked what are some of the things that have already happened to other people.

and just for the record my i define hotrod within max pressure. i have never loaded any bullet past what my manual says

This is why I never shoot other people's rifles with handloads. It also makes me nervous to shoot at the range near folks with handloads. You never know when it will be the day when things don't go as planned.

Tom