Home Forums Lever Action Central Marlin 336 Lever Actions The old 30-30

Was my turn today with that ol' 30-30. No pics but there's a doe hanging in the shop. Rifle and load did as expected. Was a busy evening for us. My doe drug up out of the brush, and my son and daughter-in-law put another doe and an 8 point in the shop too. Wasn't the first time we brought a truck load of dead deer out the gate.

Very COOL !

It's just right Sundance....



Can't beat the old Weaver's. I have a 3x Weaver on my 336. Makes a great woods rifle.

When Herters was closing down my family went to the Mitchell, SD store and bought all the Weavers they had. We used those scopes for years and never had an issue with them. I have a K4 on my 788 Rem 30-30, my wife has a K4 on her Mossberg 30-30. I don’t have a scope on my waffle top.

If you can hunt and limited your shots to +/- 200 yards a lot of old cartridges like the 30-30, 32 WS, and 35 REM will do the job, but you've got to be able to hunt, not just shoot.

^^^^ This ^^^^

Hunt, that's right! The 30-30 is a hunters rifle, and the hunter who knows his rifle, sights, and shot placement with it, and I prefer iron sights for myself, I've yet to shoot a deer past 75yds. And I've only failed to recover one deer with a 30-30, it being my fault no doubt!
I have couple 30-06, 270, a 7.62x54, and I'd thought I'd committed to my 30-06 this fall. But again I went with my 30-30. Right Choice!

My M94 Winchester is "average" in accuracy with a typical .30-30 bullet, either 150 or 170 grain, but the Hornady 170 FP with 3031, accuracy moves into the "damn good" level. I have used that particular load to kill numerous deer.

back in the day, H322 left me with my mouth wide open. i used 150gr and 170gr Hornady, Speer or Seirra.

my m94 was sent to JES Reboring and he did an awesome job of making it the 35/30-30. a 200gr RCBS FN GC with 2400/tuft of Dacron that goes 1726fps will kill deer too.

That would be an interesting round.

Using a 45-70 a lot lately led me to finding out warp velocities are not needed. Granted, there are range trade-offs, but it's hard to deny a softer shooting gun can be nice.

I'm tempted by the 45-70 w/ unique and a 300 grain cast, recoils about like my .30-30, but trajectory is more pronounced.

Seems to me a single cavity mold for the 400 grain .45 would do for about everything as would a 170 hard cast in the .30 caliber. That's me. I'm old.

Fine work and a perfect high shoulder hit. I'll bet that deer didn't go a full stride after the shot.