Home Forums Lever Action Central Marlin 336 Lever Actions Do I really need a 30-30 ?

I can buy 2 older Marlin's with scope for $200 each locally right now. I have never wanted a 30-30 due to the fact that I see too many idiots in our area wounding running deer with them and feel I have many better deer killers in the cabinet.
I really enjoy my 338ME and wouldn't mind playing around with an older model 30-30 to see what it can really do but could use an AR more for coyotes. A 35 Rem would be more attractive as would a guide gun but for $200 could I really go wrong?

What are you waiting for.....buy them. If they are pre-safety you can re-sell them to maybe...US.

Doc

Yeah, if they're in decent shape buy and put em on here. I might take one for say $250

Given what $200.00 buys in a scoped center fire rifle these days, I'd say they're a good deal if in nice shape. And they're a real good deal if they don't have the damned safety.

Once you shoot one you'll never give it up.

Keep it away from the idiots and you'll be fine. I've never seen anyone loose an animal because they were using a .30-30. An idiot is an idiot even with a .600 Nitro Express.

I concur!

Randy, when it comes to the normal, Extreme Firearms Enthusiast,
need has absolutly nuthin' to do with it! Only I Want counts!

30-30 carbines do their BEST work inside of 175 yards or so. I've had very good luck with my Glenfield carbine, made by Marlin back in the 1970's. This dandy muley was taken at approximately 125 yards after a long stalk in rough country. If armed with a 25-06, I could probably have shot this buck at long range and skipped the stalk. But I get more thrills from stalking game so this rifle matches my style quite well, indeed.

Sherwood

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If you have to ask then, no, you don't need a 30-30. Do not confuse need with want, one has nothing to do with the other.

Yes! Didn't you know that every gun owner must have at least one thutty thutty ?

The 30-30 is a fine deer round. Many press it into service successfully for bigger game. Plenty of moose and caribou are still taken annually with them. Idiots are going to continue to wound game no matter what round they carry.

Keep shots within a reasonable range, pass up marginal shots and shoot within one's ability (i.e. no running shots if you are not skilled at shooting running game). These rules should apply no matter what round a hunter chooses.

Mart

That is some of the best advice one could give.

The 30 30 has nothing to do with wounding deer its the fact their not using TSXyZ bullets!

When shooting antelope under 175 yards or so, it always seemed to me the old .30-30 gave more reliable kills than the smaller faster .243..you cannot keep house with out at least one .30-30..... ..

You absolutely need a 30-30! They are wounding animals because they are idiots, not because they are shooting a 30-30. Scope 'em or use the irons, 90% of shots east of the Mississippi are under 100yds, and the 30-30 is low recoil, plenty accurate. But don't let that fool you, it will reach out a little further. It is not a beanfield rifle.

Once you carry a 30-30 levergun, you will see why they have been around for so long, and still going strong. Marlin carries like a dream. Pretty much the perfect hunting rifle.

I started hunting with a borrowed 30-30. I have bolts, semi's etc, but could never shake the lever itch. I found one with a little bigger hole in the end. I found a good deal on a Marlin in .375 win. I do appreciate a little more punch, but I am using it on pigs too.

I agree, for $200 get both. If it is in decent shape it is worth $250-300. They are getting a little harder to find in good shape, and the new ones are crap.

I agree. Get one or even better, two. I had Marlin 336 in 30-30 with a straight grip stock I used for hunting in woods when I knew the shot would be close. I also used it as a loner. The last friend of my son that borrowed it killed his first deer with it (an 8 point). He then talked me out of it. I replaced it with a straight grip Marlin 336 in 35 Remington which is what I was looking for when I bought the 30-30. I love a good Marlin!

Do it. Can't go wrong if guns are in decent shape. You can always get your money back.

Anybody who can't kill deer reliably with a 30-30 is doing something wrong. The 30-30 has probably taken more deer than any other cartridge......

Have you bought them yet?

If not you should, because $200 is cheap!!!

I thought I didn't a couple of times over the years. When I found myself without one I got the jitters until I replaced the one I sold. Now have a pre-safety 336T with an XS front and a Williams Guide rear. Never will let this one go.

Randy, at that price you can't go wrong. At the very least thay are a good inveestment as long as thay are in good condition. I thought the same way as you did at one time. I did not think I needed a 30-30 when I had bigger guns in the rack. What I found out was that I was missing out. Now I have two of them. Thay are really great with cast bullets.

100% agree with this!

My dad tried other chamberings, but the only one that stuck was his older Marlin 336. While deer, turkey, and varmints were his targets, it served him well. He quit deer hunting in the seventies, so got him a .scoped 22-250. After a few months, he gave it to his grandson and kept on using the .30-30. I never thought of it as a varmint gun, but ask the coyotes that fell to it. Jack

Buy the rifle, this pass year I got to shoot my neighbors 336 and well I am itching to find one. I will in time and I am going to put an Aimpoint on it. They are good rifles I am so sorry that I sold the one I had in 1974 I should have kept it but I was young stupid and well wanted more, I should have just kept that one and the Remington 700 and not do all the collecting and trading I did over the last 45 years. You learn with age. And youth is wasted on the young!

buy it. It won't take up much room in your house and won't eat anything. You'll always be able to get ammo for it.

when the world ends, there will be cockroaches, Cher, and the 30-30..........

I've killed deer with lots of different calibers, but never a .30-30. I fixed that this past season.
Bob

Are you sure that deer is just as dead as if you shot it with a .300 win mag? Is he merely dead, or most sincerely dead?

Nice job Bob! Good looking rifle AND deer!

Another. Two cents. First deer was killed with a borrowed .30-30. Heart shot at about 75 yards, a nice buck ran about fifty yards and bled out. Field dressing showed a blown up heart.

I read that the .30-30 was not enough gun, so i got bigger, faster, and meaner rifles. I have killed a goodly number of deer over the last fifty plus years with a lot of cartridges. The only DRT kills interrupt the central nervous system. Heart lung shots give a short run, ruin little meat, no matter if it is a .243 one a .338.

I suppose I have cone full circle. I have four 336s in different configurations, along with several bolt and semi uto deer rifles. My next (and perhaps the last) deer will likely be killed with one of the .30-30s. Jack

Yes, get a .30-30.

I did.

I wanted a common, american rimmed rifle cartridge that I can use to shoot subsonic with as little powder as possible to steeeeeereeeeeeetch my brass and powder supplies and keep me in small game and plinking at steel targets in perpetuity. Tang peeps on a .30-30 levergun lets you easily adjust for the very loopy trajectory.

Paco Kelly has an article that says he got 53 reloadings from .30-30 cases only loaded up to about 1500 fps. What about 1000 fps loads that will give you well over 1200 rounds per lb of Unique?

I shoot as often as I want, when I want - and it costs about as much as bulk rimfire but with the option to go really hot.

Oh yeah, it's vewy vewy quiet...

With the new leveroulution powder the 30/30 is even better. I am new to marlins but the glenfeild I own has one of the best triggers in my safe! I am gonna for sure get more vintage marlins in my collection. But I also agree if you doubt a caliber why own it? unless you want to re sell it. My uncle once told me it is hard to sell a gun you do not like. True Story!

That rifle is strikingly beautiful

Love the sights on that rifle, too! Are they Lymans?

Ed

The sights were already on the rifle when I saw it on GB.

They are THE reason I bought the gun. They are Sharps Vernier sights with windage adjustable front globe and appear to be of the same vintage as the rifle (manuf 1900 from the SN). Same rust, dirt, patina.

The sights are AWESOME.

alukban, nice rifle. I have 10 modern Marlins, but I keep watching for the "right" 1893 or 1936 to come along. Maybe soon. I have seen a few that Turnbull has done his magic on that were outstanding in both quality and price. The one I want is out there somewhere, I just need to look harder. Jack

Every so often you find "the one" to you on Gunbroker or your other internet meanderings. I got lucky. It could've been a dog. I didn't have the change to spare but sometimes you get the durned thing anyway because otherwise you wonder what the hayul you wake up in the morning for.

It did have few checks in the wood that were easy enough to arrest. The front sight was actually loose in the dovetail but a little persuasion with a hammer made it a tight fit again. The extractor leaf spring was not there at all - all gone. The extractor thus worked sometimes. I was dying to shoot it when I first got it home so the little ol' bean worked a miracle on the spot and I stuffed a very unelegant wad of tissue in the friggin channel in the bolt that holds the extractor. It works beautifully! I have a replacement from Numrich but I'll just hang onto it until the tissue gives out. It tries to sneak out every so often and I just stuff it back in with the reamer of my Cub Scout knife when it does. I tell folks I'm cleaning out the hole in the frizzen A not to precious to shoot rifle with zero bucks home jobbie repairs that ends up with a very accurate, shooting rifle... friggin GLORIOUS!

This one was just too nice to pass up...'57 Marlin 336SC. I added an old (still bright and clear) Lyman 3X, mounted low. Another .30-30 addition. This one will be whacking a pig the end of this month (March). Love the older, '50's-era Marlins.
Bob