Home Forums Lever Action Central Marlin 336 Lever Actions Anyone shooting Hornady's LEVERevolution bullets

Fellas,
I have a 336 30-30 and cannot get the new Hornady LEVERevolutions to group consistently. Is anyone having success shooting Hornady's new bullets?

Tried them in my 45.70 and love them. Grouped better than my pet loads. Have killed one deer to date and performance was as expected.

Can't wait until they release the components for reloaders. My only complaint is the price.

I have shot the 45-70 and the 35 rem. Excellent accuracy in the 45-70 and not as good as the remington 200's in the .35 (not a scientific test, also with peep sights).

I'll keep trying those bullets because I do understand the potential.
Thanks for the responses...Jay

Anybody else tried the 30-30 variety?

I put one box through my 336SS with poor results but haven't been able to find more to buy locally.

They shoot 1.5 MOA from my 35 Rem. but I've also had them jam in the magazine. Looks like the polymer tips get wedged under the rim of the case ahead of them.

I have killed 4 deer and 3 hogs with LeverEvs this season in my 336T 30-30 with excellent results. I will admit that they don't perform as well on paper as the 150 gr Federals and Winchesters that I have shot in the past, but the terminal performance is SO MUCH better.

I've been shooting the .30-30 LeverEv's at the range.
They group much better than the Federal softpoints I had been using.
Haven't used it for deer yet.

I have used them in my .45-70 guide gun, and accuracy was great. Shot a bear in Idaho, last fall, and the terminal performance was awesome. I may use them on my RSA plains game hunt in July of 08.

Mad Dog

I tried them in my 336c 35 caliber. Shot about an inch at 50 yards. Next year with a better scope and a bench rest I'll venture farther down the range.

First of two bucks taken with LE 160's last year.
Both pass thrus with nothing to worry about. Great performance.
Nothing else in my cabinet sees daylight now, by me anyway.

I have had excellent results with the 30-30 loads. My 336 loves them. I get right at 1-1.25" at 100 and I have a 1.4" at 200 with them. I have not used them on game yet but will this year.
Lee

That is good shooting, and you will be more impressed with the terminal performance on game. I have killed 4 deer and 3 hogs with LeverEvs and won't shoot anything else in my 30-30's.

I have now added another hog to my LeverEv body count. I spotted this boar last while headlighting a pasture and shot him at 150 yards running, and he dropped. He was quartering away, and I aimed at the tip of his nose at ear level. I hit him about an inch behind and under his left ear. It was a complete pass through and took off the whole back of his skull.

Leverevolution is the only ammo I can get to group out of my 336.

-------------------------------------

You might have to put a 100 rounds + down your stainless barrel before it polishes out...

Both my 336SS guns have shot the LeverEvs perfect out of the box, but I have an older 336T that will only shoot 1.5"MOA which was good enough to kill 4 deer and 2 hogs last season.

Shoot them both in my 45/70 and 35 Rem. Both rifles stay at an inch pretty easily. Wont use anything else....

They have some zip on them..

Tried them last fall when I first got my hands on some. Put them through my Marlin Model 30AS, ( the economy version 336 made for places like Wal-mart,etc.) in 30-30. Got a 1-4x Leupold on it. At 100 yards off the bench they grouped LOUSY. These were with the 160 gr. Evolution bullet. Maybe my barrel just doesn't like that bullet. Cause I know for a fact that it sure likes handloads with Speer 170 gr. flat S.P.'s and some IMR-3031, so I know that the gun's capable of good accuracy. I was kinda disappointed cause I've heard good things about that ammo from other guys. Still got about 10 rounds of it left. Gonna put a few over the chronograph someday just out of curiosity.

Some older gun seem to like the LeverEvs and some just don't, but they were specially created for the Marlin XLR series of rifles with 24" barrels and 1:12 twist. The "standard" Marlin 336 only has a 20" barrel and 1:10 twist, but some "standard" 336's do shoot them very well. Like I said, both my 336SS rifles shoot them great.

Retrieverman; Thanks for passing on that information; I'm no authority on 30-30's. I inherited this one from an 83 yr. old uncle in 2001. Checked the serial number and found it was made in 1991. And he bought it new which means he was about 73 when he bought it. No wonder it appeared unfired. It has a 20 inch barrel and is actually the "economy" version of the 336, (model 30-A.S.). Cheaper looking sights, cheaper looking wood,(birch?), no sling studs, etc. I always thought all 30-30's had a 12 inch twist so I never actually checked it. Now I will. It's probably a 1:10 twist. Maybe that's why it dislikes the LEVERevolution stuff. Like I said, I've heard a lot of good stuff about it and was kind of surprised that my 30-30 didn't like it. It's accurate as long as I don't feed it any LEVEREVOLUTION stuff. So maybe it's just a twist rate thing.

2250
It could also need a barrel band adjustment. There is a "how to" on Marlinowners.com forum that alot of guys claim has been very helpful in improving their accuracy. I personally have never had to do this, but it appears to be a common problem.

As I said in a previous post, my 1983 model 336T shoots 150 gr Federal and Winchesters under an inch at 100 yards but will only do 1.5" at 100 with LeverEvs. I wasn't happy with this loss in accuracy, but for the way most of us hunt, 1.5-2" at 100 yards is definitely "good enough". With 4 deer and 2 hogs with it last year, I am confident that I can kill at least out to 150 yards with no problem which IS good enough for me.

You might want to visit Marlinowners.com and look into some of the discussions and reference materials available there.

Retrieverman, Thanks again for the tip about marlinowners.com. Finally got around to checking it out last night. Lots of interesting stuff for anyone owning or just interested in marlins. Also had mine at the range yesterday; still doing great at 100 yds. with the aforementioned handload combo of a 170 gr. Speer FP and IMR-3031. If the 30-30 hits the deer woods this fall I've decided to go with that load. At woods ranges I don't think I'll have to worry about the extra range that the lever-ev rounds would give me. If those bullets ever get available to handloaders it would be fun to experiment with them, though.

I had an odd experiance with this ammo out of a Remington 141, 1947 pump gun, in .35 Rem. Now this gun will shoot just under an inch at 50 meters and about 2 1/2 inches at 100 meters with round nose Remington and Winchester's in 200 gr.

The Hornady ammo shoots like crap at 50 meters, 2 inches or so but shoots about 1 1/2 at 100 meters..........

So why would they shoot BETTER at 100 than 50? This is not a 1 time thing either, I ran a whole box, half at 50, half at 100 because I could not figure it out. I really want to shoot them because they shoot much flatter out of my gun. On at 50 and 100 meters, where when normal round nose is on at 50 Im about 2 inches low at 100 meters.

So why dont these group as well as the others at 50 meters but way out perform them at 100 meters?

I can't answer why, but 1.5-2" groups are plenty good for nearly all hunting situations. I am personally not happy with that kind of grouping (and it appears you aren't either), but from my range experiences, the average hunter, which are usually once a year shooters, can't do any better than that on their best day.

Im with you Retrieverman, Im looking for that gun to shoot 1 inch at 50 meters, it will do that with Rem and Win 200's, and 2 inches at 100 meters, it will do better than that with Hornady, but I cant get the close range performance with the Hornadys.

I think Im going to go with the old fashin round nose stuff, given the age of the gun its almost a sin to hunt with the modern ammo. I need to get one of the fancy satinless/laminate Marlins for that in .30 TC!

how bout the new Winchester Ballistc SP's with the Black coating?
I admit opening day i'll be using a diffrent rifle,but the 336 will get it's chances.

The Leverevolutions grouped Ok sith my son's 336, however, I was disapointed in the fact that no blood trail at all was left with the doe he shot yesterday morning. Has anyone else experienced the lack of evidence of a hit with these. They shot OK (good enough for deer hunting at 75yrds or less), but a good blood trail sure makes for easier dead deer locating.

They aren't fully stabilized at 50yds. This is a "common" problem with a couple of 308 long distance bullets, better groups at 200yds than 100yds.

I don't mean to offend, but I question the shot placement due to the lack of blood trail. I have killed over 130 deer and never had a single animal hit in the heart/lung area where the bullet completely passed thru not bleed. I have killed 4 deer and 5 hogs with LeverEvs, and in every case, the bullet did pass thru and deer did bleed.

retrieverman, no offense taken. The deer was about 35yrds away and quartering way. The entry was a little back, but the exit was perfect. about 2 1/2 inches behind the shoulder and about 2 inches up. The shot did completely pass thru. I will check my other pics and see if the entry or exit holes are visable.

The LeveRevolutions shoot very well in my 308MX which is a good thing as that is the only option. I suppose it's pretty common knowledge to everyone but me but is the LR bullet (except for the tip) an InterBond, InterLock, A-Max, or something else entirely?

Here is a group I shot on Thursday. ~10mph wind from 9:00 o'clock. This was not the tightest group but I liked it for the symetry. My son had the rifle out yesterday for a spike only elk hunt but no luck. Had six cows come by him, one at around twenty feet, but no horns.

DJR

Shot groups with two .30-30's yesterday: The 336CS put two within 3/4" @ 100 yards and then (perhaps by operator error) opened up to nearly 2.5" with the third shot. The 30 AS, on the other hand, printed three into a hair over 7/8". I was impressed. (But my family will be carrying Core-lokts and Power-points on opening day).

Someone can correct me if I'm wrong but I believe that they are SST bullets. Been drooling over the 308MX myself. Seems like I may have to get one eventually.