Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Hunting with the .30-30, how fast does it drop them

So the type of hunting that I do appears to be changing and I will be doing more brush hunting than in past. This isn't a bad thing and I'm sure that I will have fun. Right now I have a .30-30 that I've shot a lot but never used on game. It is smooth, reliable and very accurate with 170 grain Hornady round nose bullets. I have no worries about the ability of the .30-30 to effectively kill game. I also have no worries about my shooting ability. But due to my inexperience I'd like to hear from others about their experiences with how suddenly it kills. How fast do you expect animals to drop when hit with a properly placed .30-30 bullet? How much distance covered? How effective do you find it on big bodied deer? What I'm really looking for is what people have found to be normal.

My shortest blood trails on average are with a 30/30. I hunt heavy cover mostly and shots are rarely long, and I wonder at times why I ever carry anything else.

I've lost count of the number I've killed with it, and one of my bucks this year was taken with the 30/30. Forty yard shot, high shoulder, down in his tracks.

Works well for me.

I have used the .30-30 quite a bit on deer and antelope... With good hits you'll have no problem.. as paint pointed out a high shoulder shot drops them right there.. A good chest hit they seldom go far..

some of the most decisive DRT's i've had on whitetails is with the 170 CL's. granted, the ones i am remembering were spinal/neck shots but impressive none the less. my son has knocked several right down with his as well. i can only remember one of his running about 75 yards and that was with a high rib shot under the spine. an old 336 turdy turdy with 170 CL's is a deer hammer.

every one Ive shot with a 30-30 don't go far.

+1

150 gr Power Points & RL15.

I have shot quite a few deer with the ole 30-30 over the years and have never had one drop in its tracks. All were good shots right behind the shoulders with exits,most all the deer ran at least 50 yds with the furthest running about 175. I would not expect to see a drt result with the 30-30 unless you make a neck/spine or head shot. I myself don't trust the ole marlin's accuracy to do a head shot as the best groups I used to get were about 2 inches at 50yds and 3-4inches at 100yds. Needless to say I don't own a 30-30 for that reason and rely on the 7 RM and the 300 WM for the DRT work, and have had excellent results with those two calibers.

Nothing wrong with the .30-30 as far at killing deer at woods ranges. You will not find any "woods" caliber rifle that "kills" any better.

However don't expect it to produce a lot of DRT kills unless you hit the spine. That's not what the .30-30 or any other relatively low velocity, heavy bullet round does best. Where they shine is in penetration and killing by drilling holes through vital organs from any reasonable angle. Deer will mostly die quickly from blood loss, but only occasionally will they drop in their tracks. Typically deer killed with "woods" caliber rifles run 25-75 yards (sometimes a bit more) before they fall....but they are dead as soon as they are shot, they just don't realize it for a while.

This is no problem if you can track well, but in really thick brush it can get tricky. A good blood trail makes tracking so much easier. That's sometimes a problem for the .30-30. It tends to be inconsistent about leaving a good blood trail....sometimes great, sometimes pretty skimpy.

Many who hunt in heavy brush, close range situations find that the bigger bore rifles do a much better job of consistently leaving a good blood trail. Rifles such as the .35 Remington, 375 Winchester, .44 magnum and .45-70 are useful at the same distances as the .30-30, but leave a better blood trail to follow when the deer gets out of sight before falling (and it WILL happen with all of them most of the time). In my experience the .44 Magnum and .45-70 do tend to "hit harder" and result in a visible reaction to the shot and shorter runs.....but not so much that tracking isn't still required most of the time.

If you insist on DRT kills, you'd be much better off with a round with more velocity such as the .270, .308 or .30-06 to provide more "shock"....but even then a dead deer will sometimes run a ways. There does not exist a rifle that will kill them "in their tracks" EVERY time....at least not one that can be shoulder fired.

What I've noticed is not so much what you hit them with, but where you hit them. I killed deer with 3 different rifles last year. A .243, a .30-30, and a .44 mag. All lung shot, all ran a moderate distance.

I killed a deer at the end of the 2009 season at a lasered 236 yards with a .30-30, the 170 grain Hornady went through both lungs, deer ran about 20 or so yards and fell over.

I've had two "went down so fast they disappeared" kills. One with a .300 WinMag at 40 yards, one with a .30-30 at the same distance. Both CNS shots.

Anyway, those are my experiences. The .30-30 is a reliable killer.

20+ years ago one of the hunting rags (Outdoor Life, Sports Afield?) had an article about dropping deer in their tracks. They did a survey type study and found the 150 grain .30-30 tops followed by the .300 Win Mag. I don't remember the order of the rest but it basically included the top 10 deer rounds.
Myself, I think there's too many variables to say one caliber drops them faster than another. Two examples come to mind. I shot a buck quartering to me with a muzzleloader loaded with a 350 grain .40 cal conical and only 70 grains BP that entered in front of one shoulder and exited behind the opposite. Dropped on the spot and never regained his feet. No bones other than a rib were hit. This fall my SIL shot a buck at 20 yards with a .44 Mag carbine loaded with WW 240 grain HPs through both scapula and he ran about 70 yards before falling. To my mind the reactions to those shots should have been the opposite.

A .308 would work better and be easier to carry.

Easier to carry? Strange comment.

Wouldn't that depend on the gun, not the cartridge?

What?

I've killed a few elk with the 30-30 not to mention several deer, an antelope and even a turkey. antelope went the furthest at 30 yards. 2 elk went less than 5 steps, bullet placement is key. don't hesitate to put the smack down on deer with it. all mine were bang flops on deer.

+2, and I have not noted a very big diff when the 150 & 170's are used. Two guys in the hunt club have and use them, one shoots each type bullet, both factory, deer in the 150-165lb range. Not so ironically, the guy using a peep seems to do a little better that the guy using a scope when the deer are moving, which in these pines they usually are, but that could be a bit speculative on my part (FWIW, they both now use scopes, the boogers)

On a side note, I find it interesting that the new 'hot' caliber for the AR-15 platform, the 300 BLK, seems to pretty much mimic the 30-30, just using spritzers................

it all depends... I"ve had some 100ish yard trails with the 30-30 over the years. NO big deal really.

If I had a need to not trail something, the first thing would be shot location over anything, its the ONLY reliable thing.

Then I"d add high MV into the mix with a barnes bullet.

257 wtby and 100 ttsx have given the shortest trails and even a bang flop from a liver/gut shot my buddy did with his last weekend. He stayed off the shoulder alright...

I've had some drop in their tracks and some run 50 yards or less. I love the old round and still use it some. My favorite load is the 170 Silvertip.

I have never shot a deer with the 30-30 that went more than a few feet, most down in their tracks

As he original poster I have to say thanks to everyone for the feedback so far. So far all of my deer have been shot with either a .270 or a .30-06 which has generally resulted in DRT or a run of no more than 25 yards although a couple went farther. I've shot black bears with .30-06, .35 Whelen, .45 Colt (carbine) and a .375 H&H. It's nice to see how happy people are with the .30-30, not just that it works but it seems to work to complete satisfaction.

With my transition to brush hunting a friend offered to sell me a very nice .444 Marlin and I was thinking about it for the sake of more DRTs and shorter runs after the shot compared to the .30-30 but now I'm not so sure it offers any advantage. Having said that some people seem to swear by the 265 and 270 grain loads simply dropping deer on the spot with great consistency.

I love the big bores, I truly do, and I've killed quite a few deer with them. The only ones dropped in their tracks with big bores (45/70, .444 Marlin, .375 Winchester ) were high shoulder shots. The other deer all ran a lot further than I thought they should have. Several were low shoulder and point on shoulder (quartering toward) shots and they still ran up to 75 yards away. Several of those I could take the front leg from the impact side and flip it up over their backs. That's how demolished the shoulder was. Dead deer either way.

I really like them, but on deer my experience has been they kill no better than the 30/30.