Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Non lever action .30-30's

Anybody have any .30-30's in something other than a lever action? I'd love to hear about them and also what load you run. Pictures wouldn't upset me either. I don't have one currently but I used to have the Sears version of the Savage 340. My one buddy also used to hunt with a Savage 170 in .30-30.

I got my kid a Savage break-action single shot in 30-30, but it took to firing when I closed the breech so I sold it with full disclosure. Winchester made the Model 54 in 30-30, but I've never seen one.


Okie John

I believe Remington chambered the 788 in 30-30. They are harder to find but they are out there.

As I kid I loved Ruger No 1's. Still like them quite a bit, but gave never owned one.

A Ruger No 1 in 30-30 with nice wood would be awfully fun.

I always mused that a savage 170 would be a pretty good thick timber still hunter's rifle for deer. Never tried one and assume that the trigger is nothing particularly noteworthy.

Had one of those...killed an unholy pile of deer with it, and an elk or two. And yes..it shot as good as 788s did!

I have a Stevens 325 in 30-30............. I also need a replacement stock for it...

The Model 54 in 30/30, is one of my few holy grail of rifles.

My uncle had a Savage pump.

I'm getting one of the Henry Single shots when they come out in 30/30..

I had a drilling that was two 12 gauge barrels over a 30/30 barrel.

I have a Contender carbine in .30-30, and it is okay, knocked over a doe with it.

I think I like the idea of rebarreling a modern Low Wall into a .30-30, but I'll have to get it built.

Ruger did make a run of .30-30's in the #1A a few years ago, but not many of them. They are fairly hard to find.

Another vote for the 788.

Just looked over at those. Man, that's retro memories. Looks so much like Daddy's old Springfield .410 I have in the safe. 2 1/2" chamber. Bought it in the early 1920's. May have to get one myself.

I have my Father's Savage 340 bolt action
Savage 219 break action
Ruger # 1 Falling Block
Schmidt Rubin 1899 Straight Pull
H&R Break Action
Marlin 336A Lever
Winchester 94 Lever


F

I've owned these rifles in 30-30 that weren't lever guns:

H&R 158 Topper mannlicher
Remington 788s
Savage 24Vs, 170s and 340s

I still have a 170 and a 340 and I shoot factory ammo in them.

Did NEF ever make a Handi-Rifle in 30-30? Ive looked and dont see any for sale. would make a fun rifle to use for shooting iron sights.

I have a 14" Contender chambered in .30-30, no harder to shoot than a .44 mag and has a much flatter trajectory.

Yes they did. What I'm surprised to learn is that Ruger made a No. 1 in 30/30. That I didn't know.

I have a Winchester M54 .30-30, one of my favorite rifles. Pretty much my go-to deer rifle anymore. Holy Grail of bolt action .30-30's, IMO. I shoot a 190 grain FN cast bullet @ 1900± fps which with the receiver sight will slop into 1½"/100, when I mount the Fecker target scope on it, said load will hover around 3/4". I'll post a pic if I can figure out how to maneuver from my smartphone to photobucket.

Figured it out:

(Ignore the hunter's rations, the pic was a private joke with my pard.)




The gun was carried a lot- plenty of worn bluing, but she's tight, with a crisp bore.

I really want one of those Husqvarna bolt action single shots.

Henry has a single shot coming out in a few months .30-30 is one of the offerings.

My last non lever 30-30 was a Savage 219 and had a 220 20 gauge barrel with it. My father in-law used it as his survival gun when flying his planes. It had more sentimental value for our orchard manager than it did for me since he used it often on the ranch to sort things out so I gave it to him when we sold the family ranch.

It was an accurate piece and I'd wished I would have chronoed some rounds out of it with it's 26 inch barrel.

I've got a Contender in 7-30 Waters with both 14 inch pistol and 23 inch carbine barrel sorta close but not quite.

The latest is a lever but it's a break open combo Staggs-Bilt 30-30 and 20 gauge. Still haven't shot that one yet because I'm rounding up dies and brass.

I messed with a Martini Cadet chambered in .30-30. Heavy Douglas barrel, and with a 20x Unertl installed it would put cast bullets into groups that I would blush to brag about.

One of them little single shot, bolt action Husqvarnas look kinda cool. If you can find one that isn't missing parts and looks like lt was rifled with a piece of rusty bob-wire!

Sweet! That is the holy grail of non lever .30-30's.

Years ago I saw a Browning 1885 in 30-30. Outstanding wood... Should have bought that rifle as I've never seen another.

There was a slightly upgraded version of the Savage 340 called an 840. We had a couple of them. Half MOA rifles with 150 grain pointy flat points. Did not expand reliably though.

And, like others, I have a 14" barrel for my Contender though I haven't gotten it to the range yet.

I've thought about having a #1, #3, or Low Wall rebarreled. I'd have trouble not going with .25-20 though. I believe the Chiappa "little sharps" can be had in .30-30 though I've never seen one.

I had an H&R Handi rifle in .30-30, kind of kick myself for letting that one go. I bought this one with dreams of making it an AI, but have decided to keep it just a .30-30.

Sweet!

Mgw619 - Yes, they did... H&R/NEF made those inexpensive single shots, in .30/30, .357Mag etc. You could buy extra barrels, fitting specific caliber frame families, for about $80 each.
Took a .357Magnum and it became a .357Maximum w/o a lot of work. As long as you stayed 'smart' i.e. not turning a .45/70 into a near .458WM you were OK. Plain vanilla in appearance for sure BUT they gave you options for not many $$$. Hommessteader

H&R Handi Rifle .30-30 Win for sale.

I had a Contender Hunter 12" with a brake. It was easier to shoot than my Super 14 44Mag and shot well. The guy that traded it to me wanted it back so I traded it back. I never shot anything but paper and steel with it.
Dad has a Savage 219 that is fun to plink with but not anything I would seek out.
The last 788 I saw in person was priced at $900 and I didn't want it that bad but would probably jump if someone was giving one away at a reasonable price.
The Savage bolt actions are just too ugly for me.

Yes, I have had two. One was a Savage 325 which has amazing accuracy. It shoots 1" groups with factory 170 gr. I gave it to a grandson who has harvested a couple of deer with it.

The other was a 788. The rifle had good accuracy but I decided to give it a bit more bite. I knew the 788 had essentially the same barrel in 308 so I had Dave Sullivan at Westwind rifles re-chamber the rifle to 307 WCF. No changes were required for the bolt and just a bit of filing for the clip. The rifle retained its accuracy and works fine as a dark timber elk rifle.

Every one of these rifles are 30-30's.
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Nice!

I saw a Savage M24 in 30-30/20GA a few years ago. Nice combo, but heavy and clumsy.

A pair of Savage 24 break opens, 30-30 over 20 gauge.

I've always got my eye out for Win 54 in 30-30. One of these day's I'll grab one.

I had a Rem 788 in 30/30 back when 788s were still cheap not hard to find used. The only complaints I had with the gun itself was the magazine rattled a bit and 788s had a plastic on/off button just pressed on the metal safety mechanism lever which on mine wasn't pressed on very well as it was easy to slip off and back on.

Kind of sad when a Savage shows better wood than a modern Ruger #1.

A fellow I used to know was a coyote huntin' fiend and he loved his over/under Savage. A .222 or maybe it was a .223 on top for longer shots with a 20 gauge on the bottom for when they showed up out of the brush just feet away.

I have a Savage 340 in 30-30, the ones I've seen are extremely accurate for such a homely gun.

This is a 342 in 22 Hornet, don't have a pic of the 30-30.

I've never seen one anywhere, and hurt all over for one for a while. I finally did score a Low Wall .44, NIB, so the worst of the pain's gone.

Taylor's & Co. sells a Chiappa Little Sharps, for about $1400! For a practical hunting rifle, I'd wait for the Henry. Just got the catalog and it looks pretty nice.

I had a Savage 340 .30-30 back in the day. Played around with various loads using spire point bullets and got very good accuracy. Got rid of it after a spell and went back to my .308's and .30-06's when I wanted a bolt gun and back to my levers for .30-30's. I still can't figure what a bolt action .30-30 is good for or why anybody'd want one. Might as well just use a .308 or .300 Savage and load it down if you want those ballistics in a bolt action. The .30-30 never was about the cartridge or ballistics. It's all about the slim, trim, handy, perfectly balanced lever guns it comes in. A fat, overweight, bolt action .30-30 just plain misses the point.

I recently sold this Staggs Bilt 30-30-20. it was a great shooter with Barnes 130 ttsx handloads.

Now that's a helluva idea! Nice going.

I daresay you are missing the point. To me, the .30-30 is about the cartridge and ballistics. For hunting here in the east, the .30-30 is all a man really needs for deer/black bear. For a guy who is a dedicated cast bullet shooter (hunting, target, plinking), like me, the .30-30 is darn near ideal. For someone like me also who likes accuracy, then said .30-30 is best shot out of a bolt gun or single shot.

I bet you never gave a Winchester 54 or a Remington 788 in .30-30 a try, because if so I doubt you would be so damning of them.

Some people just can't wrap their prejudiced brains around such a concept, I suppose.

I don't need a bolt gun to get fabulous accuracy out of the .30-30. My Marlin 336 will punch nice, neat, 3/4" - 1" triangles over and over again at 100 yards. When I was younger and my eyesight was still tack sharp, I could average very close to 1" for 3 shot groups at 100 yds. with my aperture sighted 1949 Winchester 94. I have absolutely zero need for more accuracy than that from a .30-30 and no need of a bolt action to get it. So no, I'm not missing the point at all. As of last season, I have killed 80 deer with those lever action .30-30's. More deer than I've killed with any other rifle or cartridge. I don't believe I need you to tell me what the cartridge is capable of, or that it's all that's needed for deer hunting in the East. I figured that out for myself a long time ago.

Not in 30-30 yet according to this release from Henry
https://www.henryusa.com/rifles/single-shot-rifle/