Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Gotta love the classics! The great 30-30

A Marlin .30-30 was the 1st rifle I ever shot. Always wanted to whack something with one. Finally got this TX 8-pointer with a 336 few years ago. Neat rifles...especially for a lefty.
Bob

Only deer I killed with a .30/30 was with, of all things, a Savage combo. The usual chest shot yielded the usual brief dash, then collapse, just like those shot in the same place with .308s, .270s, etc. They can only get dead, not deader, or deadest.

sbhooper, I have a Henry on the way as well, but mine's a .308 because I have piles of .308 stuff on hand, but nary a bit of .30/30, unless you want to count the bullets. My usual .308 load probably only cranks 2500-2600, so not much difference except the impact on my wallet. Mine's getting either a 2.5x Leupold, or a Burris Scout, whichever fits the best.

Something like 10 Model 94's in the safe and the only thutty-thutty I own was my late grandfather's Stevens 325.

I have never fired it.

Lots of old time Ranchers around here still have a 94 30-30 in the pickup.
Got GrandDad’s 1963 Model in the safe at the Ranch.

My first deer rifle was a Winchester 94 Classic with a 26" octagon barrel purchased used in 1974. Very accurate rifle. Killed my first half dozen or so deer with it. One of my biggest firearms sale regrets. I still currently own 2 Marlin JM stamped 336 30-30's. One will be the property of my grandson in a few years.

my Glenfield 30-30 and last years buck. got a 1971 0r 72 94 in 30-30 that lives in the truck

About a month ago I saw a custom Remington rolling block single shot rebarreled to 30-30

It kind of depends on where and how you hunt.

A quick handling 30-30 is probably more useful/practical and just a deadly as a suppressor equipped 6.5 Creedmoor if you're still hunting tight cover, but probably not as useful/practical if you're over-watching a farm field, clear cut, of power line ROW.

I occasionally hunt with a 30-30 and I have used a Westpoint 474B, a house brand Savage 170, as a truck gun.

A good, but overlooked and economically priced, lever action 30-30 is the old Mossberg 472/479. I bought a matched pair of them for the brothers whose family managed my MIL's ranch. I originally bought them a matched pair of Marlin XS7s in 243, but they wanted 30-30 lever action saddle guns, so I got them the Mossbergs. Same/same happened with brothers in VT. I bought them a matched pair of Marlin XS7s in 243, but they wanted pump action rifles and weren't (IMO) physically large enough to handle the recoil of a Remington 760/7600 in 270 or 30-06, so I got them Savage 170s. I understand that they all punched their first deer with those rifles. They will probably move on and buy/sell/trade for other rifles during their lives, but they'll always remember the rifle that they took their first deer with.

The most interesting 30-30 that I've seen to date was a Remington-Lee that must have had every upgrade option that was available in 1899(?). It was a presentation gun with engraved silver(?) inlays in the stock. I have long been amazed by the variety, qualities, and oddities that passed through the late Bill Guilderdale's little gun shop on Route 100 in Stockbridge, VT.

at the moment i have 3 30-30's
my favorite is this one

My .30-30's are of a different flavor also. Here's one, my favorite. Winchester Model 54.

Awesome pic!

I killed my first deer with an M94 30-30 made in 1911. I was all of 11 years old. I've taken maybe 17 deer with a 30-30 of one sort or another back in my early tears of hunting coastal California. Back then you could take two deer in the coastal hunt but only one if you did the inland hunt. That early M94 was originally my Great grandfather's gun, handed down to my Grandfather as a wedding present. My dad got it when pop passed away and he later gave it to me as he had no interest in it. I'll probably pass it on to one of my grandkids if one has any interest.

Most of the deer I've taken with the 30-30 was with hand loads using cast bullets, usually the Lyman #311291. I tried #31141 now called 311041 but I never could get it to shoot worth spit.

I have two M94s, the 1911 gun and one made in 1980 or maybe 1981, two M64s, one in 1938 my birth year and another in IIRC 1957, the last year they were made. I also have a Winchester M54 in 30-30 and a Marlin 336 Texan. They're my "fun guns" and I just shoot cast with them at the range.

Funny thing. In 2009 I did a hunt for antelope and after a fairly easy half mile stalk was close enough (75 yards) that I could have just as easily taken that goat with a 30-30 and cast bullets rather than the .270 I used. Go figure.
Paul B.

In the not so distant past I've had a Marlin 336 and a Savage 219/220 with a 30-30 and 20 gauge barrels but the only one in possession currently is a Clerke/Staggs Built 20 gauge over 30-30.

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Shoots well but has only killed cans and paper targets.

I hate every time you post anything about that rifle.... I'll be lusting after that thing again for a week...
item number one on my fantasy bucket list... a Model 54 in 30/30...

I inherited my granddad's 1935 acquired Marlin 30/30 when he died in 1968...
some A Hole stole it out of my 4 Runner back in MN in 1994...found out who..
never got the rifle back, but I got real even with him tho...

I have the 1966 Model 94 my dad bought at the RAF Alconbury Rod & Gun Club, he bought before we left England in 1966.... cost was $49 for it on base at the R&G club... first rifle I ever deer hunted with...

I picked up a Stainless Marlin 336 when they were a limited run model... then two years later it became a catalog item...

Also picked up a 26 inch barrel Model 94, which was a limited run back in the late 1990s... for $300.
Then they 94 was canned from production for like 2 years... and then relaunched.... the same rifle I had paid $300 for was now $1200 to $1300 in the Winchester catalog...

Regardless of what non magnum caliber I carry in the field to deer hunt, I load it to 30/30 speeds..

as I say, I don't need a 500 yd deer load, to take a blacktail at 200 yds or under.

I got a M94 for Christmas when I was 16, but I couldn't hit anything with it, and deer were scarce back then. It got traded off for something I COULD hit with, probably my first 700 Remington. I've moved on to other things.

I did find a nice 336SC awhile back, a 1960 model, and scooped it up. It shoots pretty good, too, but with my eyes, I had to stick an old M8-4X on it. It handles "okay", but not as nice as that M94, which I wish I had back.

My dad wasn't a gun guy. Had one deer rifle, one shotgun, and one 22 (which I didn't even know he had, never saw him shoot it).

His rifle was a 1954 Marlin 336RC in 30-30. I think that's the first year they were drilled and tapped? Don't know where he got it from, it dates to the year my folks got married and I'm sure he was too broke to buy it then.

Two years ago I got to take it out hunting. It still works just fine... two shots into the chest at 75 yards maybe 2" apart. I don't think the 2nd one was needed, he just didn't know he was dead yet.

That was a special hunt.

I've got one Model 94 in .30-30 WCF. I don't think of it as a classic yet because it's only 36 years old. It's a 94 AE (Angle Eject). But it is classical. I can hit anything within 300 yards. I load Hornady Flex Tips. They make it a solid 200 yard gun and I'm not afraid to take it farther out than that.

As for classic, I think Mausers as well as 94s are classic. I have a number of them. About 31 years while I still had an FFL, I bought 5-98 actions for $25 imported by Fed Ord. I kept one and sold the other four to three guys on my deer lease. They had them barreled in 3 .25-06s and one .30-06. I had to be the odd ball and had mine barreled in .280 Remington. I consider that to be a classic. It has a B&C Fiber Glass Stock on it but it's still plenty classic with its 26" E.R. Shaw heavy sporter barrel and now a brand new Leupold VX-3i 3.5-10 power scope. I had a 3-9x40 VX-1 on it for 12 years which worked fine for me.

Also, about 10 years back I bought 4 Yugo 24/47 Mausers and have two sporterized. One I had rebarreled in .257 AI. Another I just had sporterized and left as an 8x57. I ha ve one more that I will sporterize and rebarrel. I'm keeping one original Mil Surp. That one I will rebarrel to 6mm Remington. They're classic Mausers and perfect for the 57mm case rounds like .6mm Rem., .257 Roberts or left in .7x57 or 8x57 or what have you.

And that all would be really intriguing, in a Mauser thread.

My Father had one of those in his collection, but it had been rechambered to 30-40 Krag at some point in time.