Picked up a well used pre-safety Marlin 336 RC 30-30 a while back that has become kind of a project gun. If used at all, it would be for hunting in the Virginia woods where sight distance is pretty limited. Recently mounted a Leupold 4x and am interested in opinions on what distance to use for setting the zero. Thanks.

For woods hunting either 50 or 100 yard zeroes should be about the same....flat from the muzzle out to 100. Sounds like you won't be shooting too far so bullet drop won't be an issue.

If you sight it in at 25 yards it is going to be dead on again at 150 with very little bullet rise in between....that is what I use. I think that this is where the legendary "sight all rifles in at 25 yards" got started. Works great for a 30-30 not so good for faster rounds.

All of this goes pretty much the same for 150 or 170 grainers. 30-30's are a lot flatter to 150 yards than most people think.

Back in the day when I used to shoot a 30-30,I had it dead zero @ 100yds.These days if I was going to hunt with one,I think I'd go for about 1 1/2" - 2" high @ 100yds and that would put me good to 150yds or so,which is about as far as one should be shoot deer with it.It is a good cartridge,but as all cartridges,it has it limitations.As long as you don't try to make a long range cartridge out of it,you will do fine with it.

I agree with the 1.5 sight in.. Mostly I have hunted open country with my .30-30 Marlin.. But my shots were kept to 150 or less. If you happen to get a bit longer shot than 75-100 this will take care of it easily..


the one problem I have with sighing in at 25 yd. is any error will be magnified 4 times at one hundred.. I hear sight in your 22 at 25 yards and you'll be fine.. Often times I was way off at 50-75 yards, because the error at 25 was so small I didn't pick up on it.. 25 yd is a great place to start, but I would check at longer distances.. 1.5 at 100 would be my pick, especially with a 4x scope..

I'd definitely go with the 100 yard. Maybe even 75. The very few times you have to shoot further, you can compensate. But why sight higher if 95% of your shots are closer. I'd rather be dead on those 95% of the time shots rather than what to worry about of you are not.

Even my elk hunting rifles are sighted in for dead on at 100 yards as thru the years, most shots have been under 100 yards

I zero mine dead on at 100 yards.

100 yards dead on the money.

for me depends on your distance.My personally spot most shots are 50 yards with a max shot of 110 yards i start at 50 get zeroed then check the 100.Probably find very close poi.

My Marlin .30-30 is strictly a woods gun with a 1-4x Leupold. My standard handload is a 170 gr. Speer flat point & some IMR-3031 which chronographs at a little over 2000 fps.. I zero it at 100 yds. which puts it 2-3" high at 50 yds. For where I use it that fits the bill nicely. If I'm someplace where I need more "reach" I've got bolt guns for that. Unless I'm in a shotgun zone; then it's a 12 ga. 870 fully rifled slug gun. Never played with the Leverevolution pointed 160 gr. FTX bullets for the .30-30 very much because at 100 yds. and under the "old school" .30-30 bullets still work good just like they always have at those distances.

That rifle will work fine out to 200+ yards if you know it well enough.

I've had Hornady 170 fps fully penetrate deer at that range.

Not saying that it's the best tool for that job, but it is capable of more than just 100 yards.

And I like your choice of scope. A wise choice for that rifle considering it's intended use.

If you sight the F'n thing in for 150 yards, (which would be about 1 1/2 inches high at 100 yards) believe it or not, you can still kill deer at 50 yards, 60 yards, 75 yards, and 100 yards. It also does not cost one nickel more to sight it in 1 1/2 inches high at 100 yards. It does not take any more time. It does not take any more ammunition. And, then, if you get a shot at 150 yards or even 175 yards, you can take it with the confidence.
I have not hunted a lot, I will readily admit that- But I have never hunted in one place, in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Montana, or Wyoming where I have been guaranteed that I would not get a shot past a certain range, be it 50 yards, or 100 yards or even 300 yards.
When you get in your truck to drive to town do you put a block of wood under your accelerator pedal because you probably won't be driving past 40 MPH?
And another admission of my lack expertise- I have never killed a deer with a 30/30 But I have killed some with a 32 Special which has ballistics amazing similar to a 30/30.


Royce

All of mine are sighted in at 100 yd., but all of mine have metallic sights. I might or might not change that to 150 if I had a scope on.

I zero mine from 2" to 2 1/2" high at 100 yds. You center up your deer and you have a point blank range out to 200. If you have a really close shot at a steep downward angle say from a tree stand I just aim at their arm pit but I always aim at hair.

I'd try that 160 Hornady FTX and if rifle groups well with it:

I'd zero it at 150 yds:

Muzzle = -1.5" and 2,046 ft-lbs

100 yds = +1.3" and 1,630 ft-lbs

150 yds = +0.0" and 1,448 ft-lbs

200 yds = -3.5" and 1,283 ft-lbs

250 yds = -9.3" and 1,133 ft-lbs

I zero my Glenfield carbine to hit 2 inches high at 100 yards so it's dead on at 150 yards.

Sherwood

The big concept here is Point Blank Range. To put it another way: how far out do you want to shoot a deer without worrying about raising the crosshairs.

I ran the numbers for the new Hornady 160 grain FTX and figured that a 4" target would be reasonable. I also computed based on a scope that's 1.5" off the muzzle.

The numbers were as follows:

If you sight in dead-on at 25 yards you're cool out to 172 yards. That's a little close. That trajectory crosses the 100 yard mark at 2" high, and the 150 yard mark at 1.09" high. The Point Blank Range of this round is 172 yards. That is, it goes no higher or lower than 2" off the point of aim out to 172 yards.


Now, if you take a more conventional bullet, say a 150 grain Hornady FP, will only have a PBR of 161 yards, again sighting in at 2 inches high at 100 yards with a 4" target.

If you were to take the same Hornady FP and zero it dead-on at 100 yards, the bullet would be over 4.5 inches low at 175 yards. The PBR would shift to inside 140 yards.

. . . Or if you were to sight-in dead-on at 50 yards the PBR would shift back to 138 yards.

The thing with Point Blank Range is to figure it out so there are certain sections of the front end of the trajectory that are a bit high, so that you gain the ability to reach out farther.

I use PointBank software. It's a free download. Whenever I cook up a new load, I run it through and calculate the PBR for the load. It usually results in a 2"-high-@100 sighting in. In fact, I've done 30-30, 30-06, 308 WIN and 25-06 loads for deer hunting and they all come out to the same 2"-high-@100.

You can see by the variety of answers that there is no #1 set answer here. Dead-on at 100 for a guy who never takes a deer outside of 100 yards can make sense. Dead-on at 50 does not take that much away from a rifle's reach, and a guy hunting out of a treestand in the woods is not going to know the difference.

I zero my scope so the bullets strike about 2.5 inches above point of aim. This is my "dead on" zero for 150 yards.

Sherwood

Nicely done, Sherwood. I use a similar zero for my 336 in 32 Win Special and 170r bullets.

I like to be dead on at 100. Most of my shots are just shy of that range.

I have hunted with a marlin 336rc 35 rem since 1978 I just sight it in to hit dead on at 25 yards. My longest shot was 156 paces most were from 40 to 80 hit each one just where I was aiming.

25 yards, iron sights. You will be more precise at the ranges precision is possible without glass.

What?

And what appears to be a small error in that group grows to inches at 100 yards.

I use 25 yards for an INITIAL zero to get things on paper, but try at least 100 yards, 200 if possible, then shoot as far as I can find room for.

"...more precise at the ranges precision is possible without glass." You can aim dead on for an eye or, as some PH said, choose which nostril to hit at close range without having to hold off.

1X can be deadly up close. Single plane sighting might even make it faster.


And a red dot is even better.

I like 2 inch high at 100.