Maybe lighter bullets first and see what you get? Then go AI if that looks promising? Good luck and let us know what you come up with.
From Paco at Leverguns.com,
Using the Hornady half jacket soft nose 100 grain plinking bullet over 39 grains of A2015 gives close to the magic 3000 fps...still in 20 inch rifles. This load scares coyotes into deep respect for the far reach of leveraction rifles.....Hornady's number for this bullet is 3005. With a 3 inch high at 100 yards it is on at 300 yards and down 20 inches at 400 yards...ouch that's good....and we are still talking a 30-30! With a 1 ½ inch high at 100 yards it is down a measured 11 inches at 300 yards. Brush gun, isn't that the phrase some use? I think I have mentioned before the adjective I use to describe how I feel about that phrase, and those that refuse to believe the 30-30's real ballistic potentials.
When you start getting close to 38 grains of powder, any powder, and over...the 30-30 case starts getting crowded...I very partially size my brass. As long as it's fired in the same chamber it usually works well. Full length resizing is really hard on brass...especially 30-30 brass. I only have to do it after a long number of firings. Plus I use nickel brass from MidwayUSA, I buy it in bulk and it is strong.....
Another favorite bullet for me is a spire point...I clip the nose off so it can be fed into the tube. It is Hornady again #3010...a 110 grain jacketed spire point. 35.5 grains of H4198 pushes it to near 2900 fps at around 38,000 psi. Hornady makes a twin to this bullet at 130 grains #3020...and 39.5 H335 and close to 2800 fps....this a top bullet for long range and killing power for deer sized animals....I've taken Virginia Black Bear with this load. It's a varmint bullet for 30-06 class velocities, so from the heavy loaded 30-30 it will act like a game bullet. Again with a 1½ inch 100 yrd high it's nearly on at 200 and down around 10 inches at 300.
