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

It may be funny in NY, but it is reality here. It is what it is.

Maybe it's also a season length thing. Like here, gun season is 2 months long and you can legally kill 3 deer a day, everyday. All the states I have lived in had long seasons so it was always fun trying different things for the hell of it

All deer shot would have fallen to a 30-30. I agree with the above, if deer season was longer and deer more plentiful you would see more here in the Northeast. I hunt Maine, VT, PA and Ct. On occasion you still see lever action 30's and 35's but pumps out number them at least 3 to 1 and bolts now outnumber them at least 10-1

Makes sense.

We are allowed one buck a year and maybe an extra doe of two depending upon location. For the buck tags we tend to use the most effective tool possible.
Many like to experiment with different guns on the doe tags though.


Although at times we even experiment with buck tags......
30-30 victim




Flave, with a 30-40 Krag victim.....
Close to a 30-30

I know I've hunted with over a dozen different rifles during the course of a season. That's more rifles than some seasons...

Bout sums it up.

You'd never hear that me. The last deer I killed with a 30/30, it was either the 3rd or 4th shot I had ever fired through the rifle. I put out a few hedge apples and walked off 50 yards and busted one hedge apple per shot offhand. Called it good for hunting.

If it makes alot of difference then there's alot of shytty hunters out there. I've got a safe full of scoped bolt rifles all capable of sub MOA accuracy. None give me any appreciable advantage over my scoped Marlin .30-30 where I hunt. In fact most of the time my bolt guns stay home and the Marlin goes hunting. I've killed more deer with the Marlin than any three of the bolt rifles combined. In more open country I'm sure it would make a difference but hell even then you aught to be able to put yourself within .30-30 range. I hunted open farm land for 20 years with a slug gun and always filled my tags.

I still see a decent number of leverguns but they're mostly 45-70. The 45-70 has taken off like wildfire around here. And heck, I use one too.

I might be a contrarian and use a 32 Special this year. As all good looney's know the 32 is way more caliber than a thutty-thutty that's why they call it Special.

A friend uses a 45-70 and in his hands I call it the deer educator as he takes cracks at deer 300+ yards away and then wonders why the bullet landed at their feet. Go figure?

Every single one of them.

This large bodied buck weighed almost 300 lbs but was no match for my well placed 170 grain Power Point bullet. I shot him through the chest organs at a distance of approx 125 yards or so. 30-30 is a keeper!

Sherwood

I've got to admit, that's a new one on me.

Better choice isn't what hunting is about. Some people jump at all the newest and latest, not knowing that nothing new has happened in the past hundred years since smokeless powder, jacketed bullets and bottleneck cases. Most people couldn't shoot an MOA group with a gun that was capable of that.

I shoot old rifles because they still work and kill stuff. I think the 30-30 is a bit overbore and like the 25-35. Everything from varmints to Grizzly bears...

I'm sure much is new to you every day.

Except your posts. Different day, same old sh**.

Look in the mirror dipshyt.

I speed read your post and didn't get it right. I too use the rifle most likely to do the job and for some of my hunting a 30-30 or 44 magnum carbine do just fine.

Now hold on there, Baba Looie; maybe, maybe not. If we believe that a .30 WCF is up to the task (as I do), then using one isn't an impediment to success, except maybe some places out West or over beanfields. I can only think of one deer that might have gone free on my meager list of kills. And more game isn't necessarily a plus everywhere either. Most places in the East, South, and
maybe the Midwest, there's no shortage of deer, but finding places to hunt them can be tough. As it is, outbreaks of various diseases sweep through heavy deer populations periodically like the gnat-borne one that hit here about 2011 or so.

The reason I don't currently own or use a .30/30 is that few to none of the new ones appeal to me, and in addition most aren't especially good candidates for the other facets of shooting that draw me. I like bolt guns and falling blocks, and am starting to get interested in kipplaufs, should one within my budget appear. The .30 calibers I have get loaded to approximate the ballistics of rounds from the .30/30 to the .308, and others generally get loaded a bit under max but up to the job at hand. Everyone likes good groups, but if I'd demanded moa out of all my rifles, I'd have stayed home most of the time over the years. If anyone wants to use a .30/30 or other levergun, or limit themselves to iron sights, or whatever else winds their clock I'm all for it, as this is, as Old Jack said, all fun and games, just so long as they don't start on me for using "Sniper Scopes" or whatever else offends their tender sensibilities. I've heard all that crap before.