All 30-30 in fact have trash throats, no throat or a forcing cone! Some are good, but very few. TC as a whole is not making quality barrels at all. But theres hope. Again custom has gotten much cheaper. If it was anything but a 30-30, you could rechamber and cut the trash out to make a great, fantastic barrel that becomes very likely a one holer. The 30-30 has no friends longer with a rim that it can be the parent chamber for. Mike Bellm has a fix but IMHO it's dangerous as you push the barrel to bursting point and need to use jackets. If you can't get it to shoot with any length of bullet, and diam. and load, then it should go to gunbroker and let someone who will use it for other than cast bullets take on TC if they are not happy with 1MOA on it's best day. it's unfortunate but TC will send it back to you again and say it's within spec. Thats hogwash, their spc is not a good spec, thats for sure. CAll Bullberry in Utah, see what September has to say about a super 14 from them in blue. Tell her its for CB's and you wnat accuracy. Thats all they build, accuracy. You probably can get $200 out of the barrel, no matter how much wear you apply over the next 3 months. Then order a Bullberry and wait for a $265 work of art to manifest itself in the mail.
Aside from dangerous rounds, the only other option for a 30-30 in a contender frame is rebore the barrel to 35, 37, 40, 45 cal. Thats not going to be cheap, you could buy two new custom barrrels for the price of fixing the old one.
If economics matter to you, sell it and get a custom or a used barrel worth rechamebring. You could get any other 30 cal used barrel id good shape but throats gone and have it rechamebred to 30-30. Thats wisdom but it will likely never shoot as well as a custom and you'll burn way more powder thru your life (TC chambers are the BIGGEST int he industry!!!). Bullberry chambers are sub SAAMI, that means that the .002/,003 less diam. translates into early pressure signs. You'll develop max vel, at lower charges and that means less $$ per shot for equal performance. My hornet does one gr. less that anyone elses due to tight chamber. I blow primers at a grain less than averybody, due to chamber dimensions. Thats a good thing at least in my opinion. I have less case stretch and growth. Case in point, using Freds 6mm bullberry wildcat as example. Him Ackley improved version shoots 150 fps slower than the std. version due to the 44kpsi pressure limit on the TC. You burn more powder with smae bullet weight to get the charge density to the level for best operation due to the larger case volume. The STD. version is more efficient and transfers pressure to the bullet rather than filling the “larger chamber", making more fps per load with less powder. The only help the ackley change made was with case lifespan due to 30-30 shoulderless design.
I digress. Bullberry customs are the only true fiscally responsible answer if you want anything beyond “click, bang, hey it went off, yeah!” performance with the 30-30! I know much of what I have typed is regrading jacketed bullets but the same math applies to CB's. Support the bullet properly, have a good crown and it should fly straight, yes?? You DONT have adequate bullet support in yor barrel, the throat is big enough to drive a car thru, thats a fact! Deep too. You should not have to seat a bullet out with 1 tenth inch in the case to get a 150 gr bullet to touch the lands. Your TC, I bet you are hard pressed to get a 150 to ever touch the lands. I'll even bet you cant. The 30-30 doesn't shoot past 170gr “usually” per design, so a longer 220gr bullet to fix the engagement problem is not an option. That should tell a huge story.
Bullberry may be able to fill the order fast as they are barrel stubs (remnants of 30 inch barrel blanks left over from longer barrels), if you could do with 13 inch, it's cheaper than 14, shoots basically the same and will cost you a few bucks less, less wait for the production as well.
Be advised, I don't have an interest in Bullberry. It's just everyone else is more expensive and performance doesn't necessarily follow the $$.
TC makes fine receivers, but the barrels except rimfire stink badly, thats encores and contenders. I have 3 cont. and 1 encore. I have 1 (of 7 total) factory barrel and it's going to become a 445 supermag with threaded brake super 14, it's currently a 44 mag, shoots poorly and has only 25 rounds thru it. The 445 will cut out the non-concentric, lopsided throat/forcing cone and give a real rifle throat with taper and a clean set of rifling to engage with the new chamber. I took a 357 mag and made it a max, went from 2 inch groups at 100 to 1/2 inch groups. Thats a pistol mind you. It does it all day long, no matter what load gets stuffed into it. I have a custom k-hornet pistol that with moderate vel. loads, it's does 1 inch with 34 gr jackets at 100. Its ten inches long! It's a bullberry. It will shrink the groups further when there's no wind. Most hornet bolt actions cant do 1 moa with 24 inches of barrel on a rest.
Just some food for thought. I love my TC's, thats virtually all I shoot. But the barrels are rotten, unless you get lucky with the factory. Their custom shop stinks just as bead, but they charge you 200 bucks more for the extra care they use to make a bad barrel. Extra money, extra bad and even more buyers remorse.
Best of luck to you. it's not the bore, it's the chamber and throat.
Last comment. Full lenght size everything. Its headspace relies on the rim, the TC cant do a crush fit. Theres a barrel to fram gap to consider and the growth of the cartidge must be factored in during setback of case at ignition. You must NOT close that gap to less than .002 inch. If you neck size, the gap is closed. No growth means case distortion to the Nth degree and it's gonna shoot real BAD. FL size EVERYTHING you shoot with TC products, bump the shoulder back a thou or two. YOU CANT NECK SIZE EVER. It wont shoot worth spit and you'll eventually lock the action with a round after firing and stick a case. Thats a trip to the smith and 50 bucks!
Good Luck. Thats my free 50 cent sermon. I am pretty passionate about accuracy and my TC's. Like some of you are with 03A3's I am sure.
