"30 Nosler is a very impressive round" says Josh at Copper Creek Cartridge Company

[Len Backus]

The new 30 Nosler cartridge is the latest in Nosler's line, coming right after the hugely successful 28 Nosler. The 30 Nosler fits just above the 300 Win Mag and just below the 300 Remington Ultra Mag (RUM) in terms of case capacity and therefor also in terms of velocity.

The Win Mag and RUM have been very successful, popular cartridges. The 30 Nosler seems to be starting off very strong in public interest as well. Some shooters like that it does not have a belt near the base of its brass case as does the Win Mag. This belt has troubled some who reload. Some like that it improves significantly on Win Mag velocities without resorting to nearly as much powder (and recoil) increase to do so as does the RUM. Another advantage is that it fits into rifle magazines better since its case is shorter than that of the Win Mag and RUM.

This week Josh Lapin of Copper Creek Cartridge worked up a load and did some barrel break in and long distance drop chart validation shooting for my new 30 Nosler rifle customer. A couple of his sub half inch, 3 shot groups at 100 yards are shown below.

Berger 210 VLD
RETUMBO powder
Velocity = 3,030 to 3,040

Copper Creek Cartridge Company is 7 years old and has been growing steadily with both the tactical crowd as well as the hunting segment. He has worked with quite a few of my rifle customers who either don't reload or who don't have the time to do sight in and data collection for themselves.

Josh's take on the new 30 Nosler Cartridge:

"All in all, the 30 Nosler is a very impressive round and should be an excellent contender for any game in North America and many plains game animals as well!"

-Josh Lapin-​

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Len Backus

Long Range Rifles, LLC
30 Nosler - Ready To Ship

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[bigngreen]

Len, what kind of velocities are you guys starting to see out of the 30 Nosler?

 

[Len Backus]

Rhian

This was our first shooting session.

We loaded a 210 Berger VLD to Nosler's stated max with RETUMBO (84.0) and chrono'd 3030 or 3040 (MagnetoSpeed) on about our 45th round out of the barrel. So -- close but not quite fully broken in. Nosler showed 3008 fps.

This is where the accuracy node was on our rifle. More velocity is available. Especially considering our chamber and bullet location. Our AOL was about 0.080 greater than Nosler's, resulting in a little more case capacity.

Interesting to note Nosler's max velocity with the 300 Win Mag on their website LOAD DATA section is about 120 fps less than what they achieved with the 30 Nosler.

For the 300 RUM, with Nosler shows a max of 3051 using 90.5 grains of RL 25. About 6.5 grains more than we used with our rifle -- to gain only 40 FPS by Nosler's reading or 20 FPS by our reading.

So I would conclude that the 30 Nosler cartridge has achieved slightly more velocity than I expected - relative to the 300 Win Mag and 300 RUM.

Now we both know that in the real world some of us run much more velocity than "max" loads on a bullet company's website. But apples for apples, this looks pretty good.

Rhian, do you know of any other good velocity data on the 30 Nosler yet?

 

[bigngreen]

I'm in the early info gathering stages on the 30 Nosler Len, kind of trying to get a feel for if it's running in the 300 Win range which I'd set up for the 215 Berger but if it's running close to the 300 RUM I'd set up for the 230 Berger.

 

[HARPERC]

I'm in the early info gathering stages on the 30 Nosler Len, kind of trying to get a feel for if it's running in the 300 Win range which I'd set up for the 215 Berger but if it's running close to the 300 RUM I'd set up for the 230 Berger.

Something I look forward to seeing.

 

[Len Backus]

I just added some info to my first post.

 

[Jumpalot]

Do you have any 215 gr. Bergers to try? I'm getting 2950 fps out of my 300 WM and would like a comparison.

 

[375fan]

Len,
What is length of barrel your using for the velocity you got?

 

[TackDriv3r]

I had a talk with my gunsmith last month about converting my 7 STW to a 300 Win Mag. He has the 26 inch barrel on order, hopefully longer, just using this gun as a hunting rifle. And after reading this post, I am itching to call him again and request a 30 Nosler instead of a .300 Rem Mag. What do you think?

Are the brass hard to find? What types of brass are available besides Nosler brass? Normally when new calibers emerge on the market, dies and brass are hard to find.

 

[Len Backus]

Sorry, no.
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[barefooter56]

Sorry, no.
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Guys,
We have the .30 caliber 215 Hybrid target in stock and are shipping to our dealers. Check and see if they have them in stock. If they haven't received their order yet and will take a back order or hold some back for you with money down or however they work. Get on their list. We have effectively doubled our production capacity and are in the process of implementing a new scheduling model to help eliminate or at the very least reduce greatly the time one of our bullets is out of stock at your dealer. Hope this helps guys!

 

[Litehiker]

300 NORMA MAGNUM -

If'n I wuz buyin' a new .30 cal magnum rifle it would be chambered in 300 Norma magnum. That cartridge has all the right stuff for long range accuracy without ruining my shoulder. A .300 Norma mag with Berger 230 gr. hybrid bullets has even better ballistics than a .330 Lapua magnum, excepting energy on target. But nobody in their right mind hunts with a .338 LM unless it's polar bear or water buffalo or maybe Kodiak Island brown bear.

As it stands I'll stay with my .300 Win. magnum hunting and target rifles.

Eric B.

 

[bigbulls]

Tag on

 

[Montanasloth]

I'm intrigued now