Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire 340 yard elk with a .30-30

I enjoyed the video.
Might have moreso w the sound off (subtitles don't bother me).

LOL

IMHO takes some guts to put a video together for the public to see.
Can't please everybody, plus with the web and general nastiness of folks.......there's substantial risk of the comments being
overwhelmed with BS.

Kinda like this sub forum

I killed my first deer (of two) with a 30-30 94 in 1966. Nothing since, but it's in the house, and I've carried it for both moose and caribou, without a shot. It's my walk-about rifle, with aperature sight, the insert removed. Fast acquisition! I'd trust it out to 250 or so. Beyond that, it ain't the gun/cartridge, which will do it, but I can't or won't.

I killed my first moose with a 336 in 30-30, blade & v-sight. It worked.

Both were 100 yards or so.

I like those 160 FTX factory loads. Good groups, printing an inch or so (I'd have to review), higher, and tighter, than the 150 factory loads. No idea on terminal performance - first, one needs to shoot something!

fixed it! edit

Hell Ive killed a few deer w .35 rem and some run, some drop.
To hear a few other folks that cartridge is good enough for bigger stuff.
With my limited experience its just a deer cartridge (for me).

Store owner went on a Canadian moose hunt.
Had us find him a Win M54 in .257 Rbts for the hunt.
They stayed out a week. Never saw a bull.
Packing out, the guide stopped and showed him a legal bull.
"But my rifle is packed!", he said.
"Use mine!", the guide said and shoved a rifle in his hands.
The bull dropped at the shot.
"Nice rifle! What caliber?" He asked.
The guide replied, ".257 Roberts."

Hand, eye coordination, the ability to visually (accurately?) estimate yardage plus understanding the ballistics of the rifle/cartridge combination you're shooting goes a long way towards success.

Looks like one did the necessary work. Good for him.

Cool video.

Measures distance to the target in meters....................................but measures bullet drop in inches...................

Same guy (Brobee223) shot a cow moose a couple years ago with his 30-30 and 150 grain TSX ammo. He hunts deer with buckshot and slugs in his 12 gauge Shockwave. He’s a hard core hunter who lives in Alberta. He even makes soap from deer tallow.

Ron

That's what Tom Horn said.

L.W.

Great video --- very well done

Neat --- Daughter quietly in the background at 22:10 ---- you got em, you F'ing got em

Did anyone notice that the video about the moose hunt and the number of shots fired. Two moose were shot, both took multiple hits. You can hear the first shot, but they dubbed out the sounds of the extra shots. On the first kill you can see at least 4 addition hits with little to no reaction. Second moose took 3 hits if I count correctly. As for the 330-yard elk, one shot and down, this is a sign of a spine shot and could be done with any caliber. I was an elk guide for 9 years and have hunted them for 52 years killing 38 myself. I have seen over 100 killed. When they drop fast it is often but not always a spine hit. Have seen them killed with about any caliber. I killed one cow with a Winchester 54 in 30-30 at 200 yards and she took 2 lung shots and several moments to die. Someone mentioned that an elk can even be killed with a 22 pistol. I have done just that, twice. Both at almost muzzle distance and both with a high-power rifle backup if needed. It wasn't needed.

I use a 30-30 quite frequently for elk here. If I am not ambushing them, I am cutting up a track on a steep mountain. At that point it’s pretty fast action. Also used on black bear and deer. A couple observations, I am partial to both the Hornady 150 and 170 gr bullets. The 170 is a stump but I still get expansion out at a distance, and if you have ever hunted with a 30-30 and cast bullets, you can do well with less. The Speer peels in place and doesn’t expand much. Elk drop dead just fine getting hit with a 30-30. You can frequently shoot 1- 1 1/2” groups with a scoped Marlin. I just saw where Marlin is out with a stainless 336 in 20” and a trapper in 16”. That trapper would be fine.
S.

I've picked up some 30-30s over the last few years and would like to use them on a hunt. I bought several boxes of Speers, mostly 170g and i have lots of leverloution powder. I also have some of those 160g ftx Hornady. Looks like I should work up a load for the 160s too in case I want to go out past 200 yards.

I really liked the video and thought the guy did his homework and knew his limits. I used to do a lot of similar bullet testing and I typically used water just for convenience. I always figured at 30-30 speeds bonding wouldn't be necessary but it looks like the Federal bonded was the most consistent of the lead core stuff. Although that Barnes 190 was cool. I'm going to get about a 170g flat nose mold and try some cast powder coated stuff too.

Fun video.
Thanks,
Bb

My thought exactly. What if she had taken a bullet in the lungs? Or the shoulder knuckle?

Was the bullet still within the performance window (I’m guessing 1600-1800 fps) at 340 yards?




P

I head shot a rooster pheasant in the 1980's at probably 175 yards with a .22 LR.
Held the open sights up about 10', just to see the dust fly. Got him, had to walk down there, because her never moved.

Guess what we had for supper that night? Probably could take that shot again 1ooo times and never pull it off.

Looks like they got a hell of a big scope on that long range killer.

I really have a problem with Mark Levin. Most voices don't annoy me much but that guy is Luke finger nails on a caulk board to me. Even when I agree with a lot of what he says I can barely stand to listen for more than a few minutes.

I thought this elk video was well done and contained some valuable info on hunting with a 30-30.

Bb

I used to hunt exclusively with my dad’s m94 30-30 with open sights. Deer, prairie dogs, jackrabbits, it didn’t matter. I got pretty good with it too. One day we cut class and went jackrabbit hunting. We were on a knoll and one took off way out there, somewhere around the 300 yard mark. It stopped in front of a bush and I held over him about two feet and let it fly. Pop - flop. The guys couldn’t believe it. About then a second one appeared and did the same thing. I dropped it too. Last I checked, an elk is just a little bigger than a rabbit. It’s not that hard to hit one at 300 yards.

I was ringing Steel this time last year at this time, thru most of the spring...at 300 and 400 yds

with a 223, loaded with 8.5 to 9.5 grains of Unique, with 50, 52, 53 and 55 grain bullets. Put 750 plus rounds down range, over about a 5 month period, with averaging a 85 to 90 % hit ratio, after a couple of weeks of getting use to it and knowing where to set the cross hairs on my scope. And using a rest to hold the rifle still.

Like anything it just takes practice, and practice, to where it finally comes down to you know exactly what you need to do.

And I'd say, even at that many yards, out of a 30/30, with a 160 grain bullet in the right spot, its going to put a cow elk down. I took an cow elk in Montana, at 175 to 200 yds, with a 150 grain Nosler Ballistic, leaving the Muzzle of an 06, loaded to a 30/30 muzzle speed ( 2200 fps MV). Shot it behind the shoulder. It went about 60 to 75 yds and piled up.

On gutting the animal, the bullet had turned the lungs into a bowl of spaghetti, took off half of the liver, and was found bulged on the off side hide, but did not exit. The cow elk was 11 years old and was estimated to be 600 lbs on the hoof, by Montana F & G at the check station south of Gardner MT.

So another 140 yds, I still bet that FTX bullet still had enough MV to penetrate the vitals on an unsuspecting elk, and kill it instantly. The one I shot, was taken when it was on a dead run with about a dozen other elk.

Spend some time shooting at distances, with a rifle of any type, you'll learn what it can do, and what it can't do.. instead of just guessing... not everyone takes the time and expense to do so, and learn what the experience can teach you.

yeah, on the campfire, with the 20 years I've been on here... you see a lot of each deer season, someone will post up about taking a deer at 300 or 400 yds. Immediately they will get attacked and slandered by a bunch of members. " You didn't do that" or "no one can kill a deer at that distance with the caliber you were using."

often the naythsayers are folks more commonly from back east.

I point out that even tho I live in Oregon, I'm from back east. one of the things that folks back east don't understand, is to have high volume shooting opportunities out west, that you'll never see back east. I point out the ever present 'sage rats', that we have here in Oregon, and so does California, Nevada, Idaho etc. They are a lot more plentiful than prairie dogs are.

There size is about as tall as a 12 ounce soda can, but half the diameter. They run at 90 mph, and then stop on a dime.
Then they will stand up and look around. ON a decent season, say from Mid to late March thru the end of July or early August, I get the opportunity to put 5000 to 6000 rounds down range at them. Anywhere from 50 yds out to 200-250 yds.

Doesn't take long for an outing to give you an 80 to 90% hit ratio. 223, ( downloaded with shot gun powder), 22 LR, 17 HMR and 22 Win Mag. On a late afternoon, between 4 to 6 PM, ALL of the sage rats are out. They go up and down all day for a hour or two at a time... but not always at the same time. With a 10/22, and say five 25 round mags or so, I've gone thru 1000 to 1500 rounds in just two hours, with a 90% hit ratio. I normally go out with a couple of 223s and a 10/22 or two, and a CZ 452.

So coming back to idea of a deer or an elk, at say 300 or 400 yds, coming hunting season....a 110 skinny spike deer will look like a dump truck out there, when you've put between 5000 to 6 or 7,000 rounds down range for 3 or 4 months, at something the size of a pop can in height and half the size in diameter, and your eye has developed a 85 to 90 % hit ratio... Hitting that deer is no real challenge at all. As I say, compared to all of these little sage rats. Its huge and doesn't run all that fast, in ratio to its size.

Not sure which moose hunt you are referring to sir. This is the one I was referring to. Same guy that shot the elk.

Ron