Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters A real writing on the 30-30

I know this is not what you would like to see but I sure would .A gun writer view on the great 30-30 or 257 Savage or Roberts

Sam Fadala wrote what I think of as the definitive book on the 30-30 and 30-30AI in 1986, it is titled "Winchester's 30-30 Model 94".

What more can be written about the 30-30 that hasn't already been written, rewritten, sliced/diced, and examine in excruciating detail by dozens of writers over the past 121 years?

That is the best piece written about the .30-30 in recent memory.

(That coming from myself who views the .30-30 as a rifle loony's premo test bed for all manner of experimentation with cast and jacketed bullets, in bolt guns and lever guns.)

The 30-30 that I shoot the most is the unloved Savage 170. Despite the forearm rattle, which I agree is a PITA, it shoots better than 2 MOA with anything that you feed it.

A newbie to the world of .30-30's would be well advised to read the stuff that exists. Researching and then reading the old articles from the 20's to the present, and all the .30-30 info in all the books published in the same period would expand one's horizons on the subject far and away more than if yet another book was written. I will almost guarantee you there won't be any heretofore unknown knowledge of the .30-30 included in said book or article, with the possible exception of advances in powders/bullets. (And there lies five lifetimes worth of experiments with the .30-30 without even touching on the bullet/powder innovations of the last decade.)

Besides, it's a heckuva lot of fun doing the research into the old publications- and you learn about other stuff along the way too.

A kid showed up at the Cast Bullet Association national matches 30+ years ago with a 170, and comported himself quite well. (But that doesn't alter my distaste for those red headed step children! )

savage62,

An article on handloading the .30-30 (and some stuff about hunting with one) will appear in GUNS magazine in about 3-4 months. But as several posts on this thread point out, there isn't much to say about it that hasn't already been said--except for new powders and bullets, which are most of the justifcation for the article.

There is one contemporary gun writer who's pretty much beaten the .257 Roberts to death over the past 30-some years, to the point where his editors probably wouldn't run anything he wrote on the subject anymore. If you've missed his thoughts on the .257, you must stick to pretty obscure magazines, because he's written for just about all of them at one time or another.

Hell John, they keep coming out with new freshman algebra textbooks all the time, and at that level there hasn't been much new under the sun in a long time.

If only you could get some institution to force readers to buy every new iteration and edition the way colleges to it to students. You'd be rich!

Yeah, writing textbooks can be VERY lucrative; I've known a couple people who've done it. Unfortunately it also appears to be VERY boring, and doesn't have the side-benefits of gun and hunting writing...:-)

I have the Fadala book but it's been a long time since I read it. As I recall, it's little more than a cursory glance at best; not much to it.

Other older (and perhaps some newer) material will have more in the way of useful information.

As JO'C pointed out years ago, most 30-30s are Marlin and Winchester lever actions and are owned by guys who shoot a couple rounds of factory ammo each year, they aren't accuracy buffs or gun nuts, just everyday ordinary hunters. Those guys are, mostly, going to buy 150 or 170 grain factory ammo from Fed/Rem/Win. Maybe, if they feel the need to stretch their range potential a little, they'll buy some Hornady 140 grain Monoflex Leverevolution or Full Boar or the 160 grain FTX Leverevolution ammo. I've shot both the 140 grain and 160 grain Leverevolution ammo and it did well, but not enough better than the common at dirt 170 grain Remington RNCL for $15 per box of 20 to justify paying about 70% more.

I guess JOC never spent much time with any lever action Club such as Marlin Owners.They probably experiment with the 30/30 more than any other cartridge.I have 5 Marlin 30/30s right now.Some over a hundred years old and shot with iron sights.

That didn't make O'Connor wrong. My guess is that "everyday ordinary hunters" vastly outnumber the members of any lever-action club.

Have you guys attained vastly different results than possible with traditional 150/170 grain ammo?

I have always thought that, in his era of writing, JO'C had a better feel for what "the average ordinary hunter/shooter" was interested in than any/all of his peers.

Since I have lived in Nebraska, a state without a long history of deer hunting, I have only seen a couple of 30-30s while afield and being a gun guy, I notice that sort of thing. When I have hunting in other western states, I have seldom seen 30-30s in use, more often as truck guns carried by farmers/ranchers than by people who were actively hunting.

IIRC, Fadala advocated using his tubular magazine lever action 30-30s as two shot rifles, using handloads with pointed bullets, one in the chamber and one in the magazine.

He certainly mentioned that as an option, but I've tried spitzers in .30-30's and 150's don't shoot enough flatter than typical blunt-nose bullets to make any real difference. The muzzle velocity just isn't there.

First tried 'em in a Savage 99, where of course there's no need for blunt bullets. Also tried 'em with the Fadala method, and most recently with FTX's. Even when cranked up with Leverevolution powder in a 24"-barreled Winchester Model 64 they don't shoot all that flat.

I'm helping a friend get into deer hunting, and fixed him up with a Marlin .30-30 complete with receiver sight, and d/t'ed for a scope if he wants one. (I tried to steer him into a Savage 99 but he didn't want to spend the money.) When he got around to asking if I would handload for him I said sure, but that I would be charging him about what he can buy factory stuff for at Walmart, and it wouldn't be materially better.

I've messed with spitzers in my M54 Winchester .30-30 and came to the same conclusion as ol' Mule Deer. For hunting I stoke my .30-30's and .303 Savages with 190 grain flat nosed soft cast bullets at nigh onto 2000fps.

Can't think of 2 cartridges that I could care less to read about........

I think 30-30's are boring, yet I have one and the older I get the more I like and use it.

All you need to know about .30-30's is they're not quite as good as a .303 Savage with the 190 grain Silvertip load and you can use .303 Savage loading data for them. There!

Oh yeah, they're almost as good as .32 Win Spec.