Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Moment of Insanity: 30-30 Bolt Action Rifle

Do I need another rifle? No. What was I thinking?

But it was dirt, dirt, dirt cheap: Savage 340 bolt action 30-30.

I figured that with cast bullets and pistol powder it would be a good .22 plinker alternative for my older grandkids, and that with standard spitzers it would be a decent alternative for them to hunt with. If they bang it up, it won't make it any uglier, that's for sure.

So far, the only problem is that the case neck is long enough that the straight portion of a jacketed spitzer ends down inside the case. I don't suppose it would hurt anything, but it looks weird. Thinking about shortening the neck a bit. Bullet base will be a little bit down into the case, so it will have a little less case capacity.

That's a neat find Denton.

You did good.

JM

Good guns. Ugly, cheap, and at least in my experience, they're SHOOTERS. My father was inclined to do stupid things like buying his wife and his mother each one for Valentine's Day. After I got old enough I shot both of them quite a bit. With the 150 grain Sierra flat base spire point (which seldom expanded for us) over 30.2 grains of IMR 3031, both guns, with C-H-E-A-P 2-7X scopes, would put 5 holes so close together you could hide them under a nickel at 100 yards.

I think ya done good!

Tom

I killed my first deer in the early 60's with the same exact rifle. I practiced hunting and shooting squirrel with it and my first deer was a piece of cake at around 50 yards . 4 point. Your rifle brings back old memories. Great buy.

Maybe I'm missing something, but why don't you just seat the bullet farther out?

My first rifle was a .22 Hornet in the 340 Savage. They shoot fine, got a barrel band I wish they didn't have. Mine had a side-mounted scope on it before I got it.

There was a high grade model made:
http://www.vh2q.com/itemDetails.aspx?id=3557



Bruce

Cast boolits will be a hoot with that, especially with some plinker loads for the younguns. (or for yourself, for that matter ) Great ol' truck guns, ugly as sin, far more accurate than you might think. Base of the bullet being below the neck makes no difference, nothing wrong with that at all.

Jacketed bullets might be a bit of a problem on big game. The 30-30 is hardly a high speed thing and the heavier bullets might not get going fast enough to expand properly. Cast bullets should be great, though.

That was exactly my first thought. Short magazine limits COL. It's designed for the classic 30-30 style bullets.

I have a few dozen Hornady SST 150s. That should overcome the non-opening problem mentioned with Sierras. Hmmmm... wonder how an Accubond would work? Need something that will open at low impact speed.

Check to see if GPC still has 24" factory barrels in 225, then you can swap between a varmint and deer platform.

I used to load 130 grain Hornadys for my Wife's niece's Savage 340 in 30-30. When she was going to Black Hills State in Spearfish, SD, she wanted a deer rifle, so I put together an outfit based on the Savage 340. The combination must have worked, as she shot a couple of deer when hunting with her boyfriend's family somewhere around Belle Fourche.

Jeff

Millions and millions of deer, along with elk and moose, have been killed with the .30-30 shooting jacketed bullets, and they have all stayed killed.

The .30-30 is designed for 150 grainers. Shoot with confidence.

If you have a certain bullet in mind,just trim the case back to work with the cannelure of the bullet.

Maybe I'm missing something, but why not just use .30/30 component bullets? So what if they're flatnosed or round,it's not a long-range rifle to begin with, it won't hurt trajectory THAT much . And they work, that's what they're designed for, after all.
While nothing to look at, they are pretty good old rifles, especially for what they cost. I can remember seeing them in the Western Auto flyers for $69.99, and I think they topped out, just before discontinuance, at about $99.99. There were sure a lot of them around when I was growing up in Missouri.

My .30-30 did a number on a nice blacktail last fall with the 130 gr TSX. I'm guessing around 2,450-500 fps.

Took my first deer with a M94 about 30-something years ago. Still have the rifle too.

These days it's a somewhat more modern T/C G1 carbine.

That your GPS on the buck's shoulder?

Yes, it's my Garmin 60CSx

but you can't have the coordinates!!!

denton, one of my worst mistakes with rifles was in selling a mint early 340 to a cousin. I won't compound my mistake by mentioning the pittance I received.
Since that sad day, back in the mid seventies, that scoundrel has killed a truck load of deer with that rifle and an old K2.5 Weaver.

Dang I wish I had it back.

I've one sitting on the gun rack as we speak

It's only 29 years old

Yep, the .30-30 needs no pointy end bullets to strut. Just keeps killin' and killin' and killin'. The 340 is a good working gun.

What??? And spoil my record of avoiding conventional solutions??? You've got to admit that a 150 grain Accubond at 2400 FPS has a certain charm to it.



Oh... it's YOUR GPS. For a minute, I thought someone had tagged the deer with a GPS in advance. Hardly seemed sporting.