Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Buying a 30-30 was a crazy idea.

No Not CRAZY AT all, My 1st given to me in 1972 to me By my Dad, and Shot a ton of Game.
The 30-30 Probably has killed more game than any other Cartridge out there
There Fun to Shoot.
STEVE

I have a model 94 Trapper 30-30 and a model 336W 30-30. The former is my constant hiking companion and the latter is my fun-hunting rifle. As soon I have fulfilled my seasonal "obligation" of punching my elk tag, I put away my serious hunting rifles and grab the Marlin. It has become total enjoyment for me to be able to casually still hunt deer using the Marlin and just soaking up the whole hunting experience in the process. CP.

Said it before and I'll say it again. When I was growing up if the word "deer rifle" was mentioned, this was the rifle that immediately popped into my head!



The Model 64. This one was born in '53.

You know the best thing about the 30-30 is the rifle. A 94 or 336, but especially the 94 balances just right. That magazine gives it a little muzzle heavy feel that belies its short and insubstantial barrel. The flat receiver makes carrying a breeze as well.

No rifle, and I don't care how light, carries as easily or naturally as a Winchester 94 with iron or receiver sights. There is just nothing like it.

On top of the sheer delight in hunting with a light .30-30 carbine, be it Savage (my favorite), Winchester, or Marlin, one thing many people overlook is its versatility as a cartridge for target shooting. If your game is paper punching at 100-200 yards there isn't a much better choice than a quality bolt gun or single shot chambered for the .30-30. It lends itself well (ideally to some people) to cast bullet shooting with velocity levels from sub-sonic up to low 2000's- something for everybody.

If you put a gun to my head and told me I could only have a heavy barreled single shot for experimenting with & a light handy carbine for deer hunting, I would make them both a .30-30. (Runner up would be .22 Savage HiPower, or .22 Hornets if it weren't for the deer hunting bit.)

The 12th step...NUT; The first 11 deal with initiation and preparation. Seems though, [that] 12th step never gets completed. It's like the Eveready Bunny....Just keeps going.....and going....and.....

WILL.

blueeyes: I like your tag line. I would add: "Never sweat the petty stuff, and always pet the sweaty stuff!"

'preciate it gnoahhh. But, in all honesty I stole..errr...uhh,, borrowed it from someone whom I've forgotten over the years. I really had to change the wording a little to make it "forum-appropriate". I like your addition too, but I think someone would probably try to make a PC issue out of it

WILL.

I can't believe no one has mentioned the .303 Savage. It's pretty much the .30-30's red-headed step-twin cousin....two pods in a pea...or, whatever...?

I've put 150 and 170 grain .30-30 core lokts into deer from about every angle and never had one come apart. The only ones I ever recovered were 170 grain from lengthwise shots and they were near picture perfect mushrooms after penetrating nearly full length. I busted both shoulders more than once with 170 silvertips and core lokts and never recovered one.

Those are ballistics not too dissimilar to a 257 Roberts.

Hmm guess I'm on ignore or turdlike clan or something.




Mike

I shot about 10 rds of Trailboss and 165 gr Meister cast bullets a few weeks ago at 50 yrds and with the XS sights managed about a 5" group propping on my shooting bag on the bench. They were noticeably low so will have to turn the site out some.

Mike

I've said this before but my really beater looking 336 has a super slick action and one of the best triggers in the safe. I might head out tomorrow to look for a scope base, just for fun.

Hey, one of my holy grail rifles in a Spotless Model 54 Winchester in 30/30...

Missed it. Negative, someone put some urethane or something on the stock.

Got one. When I have the Unertl mounted on it, the stars are in alignment, and I squint just right, it'll put 5 180 NEI GC'ed cast lead bullets driven by 14gr. 4759 into an inch (and often less) at 100 yards off the bench. I don't know how it does with jacketed stuff, I never got around to trying any.

They got the magazine geometry right on that one too because it feeds everything as smoothly and reliably as you could please.

That explains it all quite well. I'm still going!

YOWZA! I feel all warm and fuzzy just knowing that set-up exists and is being shot. Such things are out of my league, but it's nice to dream. Something about a bolt gun in cartridges designed for modest pressure sounds sooo cool. Another I would love would be a Mauser in 45-70.

Yeah, I owned the gun back in the 80's, and shot in a few Cast Bullet Association matches with it. Then I bought a house and sold a few guns to sweeten the down payment and it went away- to a good friend. Fast forward to a couple years ago he finally relented to my badgering about selling it back. It is one of a couple that will never leave my grubby mitts again.

I have a couple of pre 64 94's and just love them. One cold afternoon after a week of fighting a Mini 14 to get decent groups, I took one of my 94's out.

100 yards, 5 shots with a buddy spotting me. After 3 shots I asked him how it was shooting and he just said "keep shooting". Down range the group was a 1 1/8" cluster dead center and 2" high (just how I sight them in) for 5 shots with iron sights and federal blue box. Made me want to wrap the Mini around a tree.

I turned to my buddy and said what do I need to fight this Mini for when this old gun can do THAT? He agreed. Before that first group I had not shot that particular rifle in about 5 years. That reminds me, maybe it's time to take it back out to the range again.