Rossi Rifleman

Being a new owner of Rio in 30/30...I have a few questions..what is best ammo commercially purchased for reliability..also is total disassembly basically the marlin 336 's??..thanks

Ammo... I don't think there truly is a best, it is all good. The manufacturers have had a lot of years of getting it right! You will probably get as many answers on this as there are forum members shooting the cartridge. In these days and times, it might be any ammo that is on the shelf! Hasn't been much of it available the last six years!

I've been shooting cast bullets for over a decade but when I did buy ammo or bullets as a component, I simply wanted the 170-grain flat points. They drop a Texas whitetail or hog in their tracks. I actually loaded my last 308 with Hornady 170-grain FP at 30-30 Win velocities and finally just went back to shooting the 30-30 Win.

disassembly/reassembly... same as a Marlin 336 with one exception. Mind the "pins" in the bolt used to remove the firing pin. One is actually a screw and you do not want to try to knock it out or back in.

Both Remington and Federal have shot well for me. Not sure I can pick a best

Federal PowerShock 170gr shoots the absolute best out of my RG3030.

I seem to prefer Federal or Winchester 170 grain loads.
I haven't bought any in about 5 years though and I've heard more complaints about Winchester in the past few years from others than Federal. Have SEEN more problems with Remington but I think Remington also pays more attention when there is a problem in my experience IF you can SHOW them the problem.

For 30-30 I have shot all the American made 150gr jacketed rounds available. My 30-30's have all been Marlins but there is little difference. Federal, Remington, Winchester, and Hornady (160LE) all shot accurately for me. I've shot whitetails with the Federal and Hornady. All were DRT or within 25-30 yards. I aim for the boiler room so no meat was lost and systems failures were guaranteed.

I used the 150/160 range to insure a slightly flatter trajectory but the 170's will do well to 200 yards if you practice out to that distance. Just know your sights/scope and your capabilities. None of my hunting shots exceeded 80 yards so trajectory was pretty moot.

Because I reload the factory offerings no longer interest me. My current handload is with the Speer 150HCFN and performed well on two whitetails this past season, just like the previous factory fodder. Now the progression is evolving to RD's 165RNFP in my handloads. It's more fun to get the job done with homemade ammunition.