Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting more than a 30-30?

Over the last several years, my friends and I have killed lots of game. We use small 7s, a 270,280, 308, 300H&H and a couple of '06s. We shoot mostly whitetail and exotic does, pigs, one red hind and two cow elk. The deer and the pigs were in the same size range, 75-140lbs. They all died within 100yds. all the pigs died within feet of where shot.Most deer ran, at least a little bit. This is mainly because we try to shoot pigs through one shoulder and deer are heart lung shot. All of them shot with a 30-30 would have been just as dead. Not counting long range shooters, how many deer would you have gotten just as well with a 30-30? capt david

All but 1 I guess but I don't hold any special cult love of the 30-30 so that doesn't mean much to me. Own a pre 64 Win 94 and an Savage M1899 both in 30-30. The rifles mean a ton to me. The chambering does not.

From the last five years I can only think of two that couldn’t have been harvested with stick n string....30-30 would have worked for those. More dependent on hunting locations methinks.

Are we still beating this dead horse? [bleep]...

Out of 200+ deer only two I probably couldn't have killed with a .30-30. Course I've killed several at 200 - 250 yards with my .30-30. My longest kill ever was 440 with a .243. Don't think I'd have tried that one with a .30-30.

What most shooters seem to miss is a fact that it's a bullet HOLE that kills, not the bullet, not the cartridge, not the scope, not the rifle.

It's the HOLE!

So if you can cut a 1" or a 2" hole clear through a deer, elk moose or bear or anything else.... what cut that hole is pretty much irrelevant. Archers do it all the time with sharp sticks that don't even remove the tissue in the hole the was a bullet will.

You can use a spear, an arrow, a bullet or a hand drill and all the game would be just as dead, just as completely, no mater what tool was used to make the hole.

The tools make the "installation" of the hole easier. But 100% penetration with a 2" diameter is going to work just was well to kill a deer as any other "2" clear-through hole". Different guns can make for different diameters of holes and different depths of holes, but what works is diameter and penetration. How big around is that hole and where did it go through! It truly is that simple.

Faster bullet drop less so they make range estimation easier. They deflect less in wind too. But the idea that velocity itself is more deadly is simply not true.

Sometimes a higher velocity bullet will make a larger HOLE because of the shocking effect it has on tissue filled with fluid, but that is still all about the size of the HOLE! In many cases a wide hole that is made by a bullet breaking up is not AS deadly as one that is narrower but goes clear through and doesn't deviate much from it's line of travel.

So I have to agree that within it's range to make a hit and expand a bullet, a 30-30 kills deer as well as any other rifle including the magnums.

Sometimes the larger holes made by more powerful guns drop the deer faster, but they don't end up any deader. I have killed about 15 with 30-30s in my life and seen about 20 others killed. If the hit is in the vitals a 30-30 seems to drop deer about as fast as a 300 Savage, a 30-06 or a 7MM Mag. Not as far away I am sure, but I never saw a deer killed over about 225 years with a 30-30, and I personally never killed one with a 30-30 over about 150 myself.

Speaking strictly for myself, I have made so many longer range kills in 50+ years that it's almost not fun to do it now. I will probably use a 30-30 or some other iron sighted rifle to kill my deer and antelope this year again, because I like to HUNT them and get close enough to be sure of my kill, even with rifles that only shoot bullets at 2000 to 2400 FPS and have bead front sights.

Oh, probably most, but I shot most of them with a muzzleloader or a single action revolver instead. I think a .30-30 would have worked, other than the poaching aspect of using a c.f. rifle during a ML-only season for some of them.

Tom

My second longest shot on a deer (200 yards) was with a 30-30. Only deer farther than that was 300 yards with a 30-06. That one I wouldn't have attempted with a 30-30.

I agree with this. I've never shot one with a 7mm mag. or .300 Savage but I have killed a bunch with the .30-30, .30-06 and .308 and never saw enough difference to say so.

None of them legally. All of them otherwise.

I think that the 30-30 is under appreciated and that JOC got it pretty close to right when he wrote the chapter on the 30-30 in The Hunting Rifle close to 50 years ago.

My Marlin 30-30 with Hornady Leverlution ammo was very accurate well beyond 100 yards. I killed deer with it out to 175.

The only one that comes to mind was the unlucky 8 point that took a 180 grain Partition from a .300 WM when he was on the run behind a 6" diameter ash tree. Through the tree then nearly the deer lengthwise. A M94 carries real well, but they never fit me too well and I like the precision of a low mounted scope on my bolt actions.

I've killed a few farther than I would try with a 30-30. But the rest the 30-30 would have worked.

I made one or two shots when I hunted in Oklahoma and Texas that I would not have attempted with a 30-30, but it would have been fine for everything else.


Okie John

Pretty much all of mine could have easily been taken with a 30-30. I hunt the woods of Alabama where bow range kills are more frequent than shots past 100 yds.

I have used my 30-30 to take most of my deer in the last ten years. Most shots are under 100 yards. The only exception is mule deer hunting the shots have been longer. In that case, the 30-30 stays home.

I've killed three doe antelope 2 where with a 30 wcf and this year's was killed with a 6.5x55 swede,i have no problem using a 30 wcf.

would you like to talk about gaymoor's?

Leave the .270 out of this.