Originally Posted by HuntnShoot
Originally Posted by DollarShort
Originally Posted by HuntnShoot
I'd have recommended a 357, but nothing wrong with the 30-30. Easy to load both with specs from squirrel to HD to elk in timber. I've found the Marlin in 357 to be far more accurate and easy to find good loads for with all types of power levels than the Marlin 30-30. And if you imagine a 30-30 somehow has more power than a 357 out of a long barrel, well, it's just because you haven't seen them in action. A 180 XTP at 1700 shoots through 10 milk jugs with 4 1/2" plywood pieces spaced between them at 25 yds. And the milk jugs didn't just leak slowly. I was glad I had 12 jugs set up, because the slug, weighing 135gr, was in the 11th. Good luck getting any bullet 170gr and under to do that in a 30-30. 357 rifles are elk guns.

I would've taken a Marlin 1894c in 357 but the only one I saw recently was $1100 and it just wasn't worth that much to me.
And luckily, I won't be after any elk or milk jugs. Just the occasional hog or deer, maybe some paper plates, rocks, small to medium predator if they're a bother.😀

Besides, I got about 260 rounds of ammo in the 30-30. And will probably get a new mallet loader for it to load up some additional plinking loads and maybe some heavy hard cast.


In 30-30, I shoot everything from cast 115's to the RCBS 180 that weighs exactly 200 in my alloy with lube and gc. The 115's are easy to push to 2k with the slower pistol powders, and the 200 works best with a compressed charge of 4350 or a full charge of 760. The 30-30 is certainly versatile, particularly if you get your hands on cast bullets. For a Marlin, I recommend sizing at .311".

Thanks for the tips. I'll probably just get some kind of ball powder that might double for 223 if I get into that. Something like W748, CFE223, or Leverevolution, as I'd like to keep it simple.

Although I did read about some kind of flake powder for plinking loads with light boolits that I might give a try. I'll have to do some more research as I don't recall exactly what it was. Read about it when I was originally thinking about using Trail Boss, but the reviews I read weren't good on the TB.