Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Elk with the 30-30 Winchester?

Just curious, has anyone here ( or you were with them) who used the 30-30 to kill elk (probably more cows than bulls) and what bullet did they use? I know "of" a few young people here in Utah's Youth elk season who use them. Its been awhile, but back then they used Federal Premium with the 170 Nosler. Lets here it?

I shot my first elk (rag horn bull) with a 30-30. I wasn't keeping any sort of notes in those days so I'm speaking from memory. I think the distance was 80-100 yards. I can't be sure of the bullet but it was most likely a 170 gr Sierra and would have been some of my earliest handloads. Nothing wrong with an old 30-30 if you can get within 150 yards or so of an elk.

The generation who regularly killed their elk with the 30-30 and 32 special are nearly all gone. However they still work to put a 170 grain Coreloct or Power Point through the vitals of you do your part of correctly directing it there. The rifle your using them in has a great deal to do with range as it's and your accuracy with it determine where that bullet goes. For example if you had a 1/2" rifle with scope in either caliber, 200 yards, maybe 250 is still no problem penetrating. If you can only hit that 8" circle at a limit of 100 yards, then that is your range limit.
Best regards,
F01

Knew a couple guys before I moved to Alaska who used 30-30s for elk and were successful more than not. Both still hunted in the timber and got a ways of the roads. Both used 170 grain Remington CLs.

After moving to Alaska I came to know a few guys who were tipping over moose and caribou on a regular basis with 30-30s and 32 Specials. There was a spot I liked to go to sit and look for caribou. It was where a glacier had pushed up a ridge that gave you some elevation above the valley floor. This particular ridge went out for several hundred yards and had about a 50 yard gap in the ridge and then continued on for close to a mile. It was a great place to sit and watch. And pick low bush cranberries while I waited. The gap had a well used caribou trail in it. Every time I went there there would be a single 30-30 case close to where I liked to sit and watch. Always had a Federal head stamp on it. I assumed it must have come from a guy with a tier 1 permit whose season opened before the draw season which I was hunting. He must have been coming to the same spot every season and watching the same trail. And apparently was a competent shooter. Never found a second shell.

I never have but I know about 7-8 cowboys who have. All know how to hunt and get close enough that the 30-30 works well. One man and his son have killed over 60 with 30-30s.
If you know how to hunt you can (and I have) killed elk with a sharp stick. That's what arrows are.
The trend is to make up with equipment what you lack in drive or skill (or both) so the marketers will tell us all over and over you NEED a new wizz-bang uber-ultra,super short/long fat Ultra magnum. And the big magnums work fine if you use a good bullet in them. But the so-called need for them is not there. It never has been. I have killed many elk with guns that are far less powerful then the gun-rags tell me I need, and one with a wood arrow from a wood bow.

Some of the guns I have used that are at the opposite end of the ballistic spectrum in power or in realistic range are:
44 magnum from handguns 7
454 Casull handgun with iron sights 3
300 Savage with iron sights 1
308 Winchester with iron sights 1
30-06 with irons sights 7
45-70 with iron sights 1
58 cal cap lock with iron sights 1
62 cal flintlock with iron sights. 3

I omit the ones I have killed with my 270s, various 7MMs, Various 300 mags, various 338s and my 375H&H because they do fall into the list of usual cartridge's often suggested, and as I said, they all work fine. But so many seem to think if you do not have one of the "approved" guns you are unarmed. That's simply not true.


One elk I killed with a Browning M95 Lever action I shot 2 times.
ALL the rest in this list above WERE 1 SHOT KILLS.

Right on! Now it seems to be SHOOTING and no need for stalking or know your game skills.

I've done it and so have a few friends. Mine used a 150 gr Hornady, others Ive known used regular 170 gr Remington factory stuff.

Its not my first choice, but as others have said, get close and make your shots count...it will work. ( mine was at 50 yds)

But everyone knows you're a trick shooter


Still hunting in the dark timber it will be fine. Bob

If it worked 100 years ago, or more. No reason it wwon't work now.

The 30-30 and 32 Special will both kill Elk, i've done it way more than once, Can't remember shooting an Elk over about 75 yards with either rifle, but they were DRT. Rio7

I shot my first moose - a 3 year old bull, probably - with a Marlin 336 30-30. I think I used a 170 Silvertip (Win). I wish I still had that rifle, but it's sleeping with the fishes, after a kid got my boat sucked under a log jam. Really. Got 2 other guns too. I've re-supplied.

Like Mainer related on another post, I used the same shooting technique he did , as it was too dark to see the sights against the moose, maybe 100-150 yards away. 3 times I lined the open sights up against the sky, where I could see them, then dropped them onto the moose, raised them back up. When I was sure I had it down, the 3rd time, I made a double lung shot with exit. Used reasonably, the 30-30 has killed a lot of elk and moose.

The muzzle flash was rather impressive, I remember.

The bull ran toward me and died about 10 yards to my left in a huddle of a half dozen or so little spruce. Memorable!

My Dad's '94 is my carry rifle here on walk-about. I should kill something with it again- my last with the rifle being a ND deer in 1966. I might try it with the re-installed aperture sight I grew up with (I have a mount and 3X Leupold, somewhere, that I took off when I re-acquired it after 25 years) on a caribou hunt. I know a spot that I could likely get a 200 yd or less chance, but I'll have a back-up scoped rifle as well. "Trick shooting"....

Or on a moose. I've every confidence it is up to the task. I bought some Leverlution ?160 gr. FSX? ammo last year for it, just for the chance I might get to use it. It groups well. Or well enough.

So did a Model T.

As long as you know your and your 30-30 limitations, it'll do the job

I'd be curious to know what kind of expansion you'd get from a 170gr soft point at the .30-30's practical range limits?

I killed a big hog at 175 yards using a WInchester 150gr hollow point and still had excellent bullet performance. I'm not convinced the tougher bullets are the way to go when the .30-30 is starting out so slow already. Unless you know your shots are going to be well within 100 yards.

You certainly can with the right bullet. My choice is this one https://hammerbullets.com/product/308-cal-143g-lever-hammer/. That said I prefer more horsepower.
With my luck I would see a 7x7 at 250 yards....a chip shot with a 30-06 or more powerful.

I've shot more elk with my muzzleloader than with a center-fire. All were inside 50 yards with most inside 20 feet.

I met a guy one season hunting the same area. He was over 80 years old, from the deep south, and using a 30-30.. He asked my opinion. I said I thought it would work fine if he put one through the lungs. Unfortunately, he didn't get a shot that year. It would have been terrific to see him do it.

My dads supervisors at work used to go to Montana or Wyoming almost every year and hunt moose. One of the guides for the outfitter was a Sioux Indian and always carried a 35 Marlin, he would help guys sight in their rifles and was very patient with everyone. More than one hunter asked him why he never bought a larger gun for moose and the guide would tell them he was happy with what he was using.

I am going to load up some 190gr from Gold Country for this rifle, see if I can get it to shoot. Thanks for the replies gentleman, always good to hear from experience! Thanks a bunch, Jim

I've wanted to do it for years, it has just never happened. I've had limited time to hunt as an adult, so I never wanted to have missed opportunities because I wasn't carrying the right tool. So I usually settled on a .270 Win or .30-06.

My trying stuff out usually happens when I head to OK, to hunt deer. I can have a couple different firearms with me in the blind. Of course shooting a whitetail with a .30-30 isn't as cool as an elk, but it does scratch the itch.

When I started hunting the Flat Tops in NW Colorado or so, I met an old rancher who told me where to find the elk.We became friends and I stopped at his place several times. He had elk antlers nailed up all over his barn and out buildings.I asked him what he shot them with and he showed me his old Model 94 30-30.It had no bluing left on it and the stock was about bare of any coating, scratched, and dented.

Since then I have killed a few elk with one. My list isn't as impressive as Zihn's, but I have killed quite a few elk in58 year with quite a few different rifles ranging from a 30-30, muzzle loaders, to a 7 mag in New Mexico and Colorado. I can't say I have seen much difference in how they died as long as I kept in mind their limitations