Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting 30-30 vs 44 Mag

Let me set this up for you.
1) I really liked the performance of my new-to-me Ruger 44 Carbine last year with 240 grain XTP's.
2) the Ruger has suffered a catastrophic problem. It may not be repairable. It's at least out for the season.
3) I've got a couple of 30-30's on the rack. I know folks have said the 30-30 and 44Mag have similar performance on deer out to about 80 yards and then the 44 Mag starts to flag by comparison.
4) I've personally had bad luck with the 30-30, but I know many folks think it's aweome. I've been hesitant to use it. In fact, I haven't taken it hunting since 2002. However, this situation has got me thinking.

Mind you, I've never bad-mouthed the 30-30. I'm the first to say it's a combination of bad luck and irrational jitters on my part. However, I'm thinking now may be as good a time as any to try and put this all behind me. If the 44 Mag can put down a buck at 100 yards that well, a 30-30 . . . well, it ain't gonna bounce off, right?

I have 2 rifles to bring to bear on this: A Savage 340 and a Marlin 336. The former is slated for #1 granddaughter, but she's still a tad young.
I have a bunch of FC brass. I have bullets:

Hornady 150 & 170 FN's and 130 and160grain FTX
Winchester PP 150's.

I have H4895, LeverEvolution and BL(C)-2

I'm looking for a short-range treestand/groundblind gun. Max range will be <100 yards.

I'm interested in your experience with these components with the 30-30. My goal is to get one of the 30-30's back in the rotation for this coming rifle season.

Here in central ME, the .30-30 is still very popular. 170 gr factory CLs, STs, PPs, and the Federal version outsell the 150 gr versions. Supposedly 150s are downloaded in deference to point of impact shift vs the more traditional 170s.

Used Hornady and Speer 170s and they work fine. 170s are more apt to "fail" (whatever that means) by way of insufficient expansion on chest shots than from not enough penetration after striking a shoulder blade. Load those bullets fast in a .30-06 and you might see the reverse.

Starting over again with the .30-30 would use Leverevolution to maximize muzzle velocity. And either that 160 gr FTX or a 170 gr Nosler partition.

Given a choice between a .30-30 or a .243 for thick cover I'd select the .30-30. Both kill deer reliably, but the .30-30 will likely result in a blood trail - nice in the event you need one. If it didn't do that reliably it would not still be so popular.

If you shoot bullets in a 3030 that were designed for it they do a good job expanding and putting down a deer. My experience is inside a 100 yards.

Brian Pearce considers a .357 mag rifle comparable in effectiveness to a .30/30, and the .44 to a .30/06, at short ranges. Based on my very limited experience with both, and similar ballistics with MLs, I think that up close, a .44 might thump 'em a bit harder. Would gladly hunt with either.

.30/30 gets better farther out, especially with the pointy bullets.

Been shooting a Mod 94 Trapper since ‘84 or so and have had success with 150/170 Hornady bullets, BL-C2 and RX15. Go to load for the last 20-25 years has been the 170 gr and RX15. Neither pigs or deer go far after the shot. Ranges less than 100 yds, mostly under 50.

I haven't killed enough deer with either one to notice any difference between them. All were inside 60-70 yards. Too small of a sample size to draw any conclusions.
Paul Harrel made a video comparing the 2 and it can be seen here.

My experience says that properly groomed the .44 will put them down quicker, but then I've not used the .30-30 with cast for deer.

The .44


100 yards with a red dot sight.


Never recovered a bullet from the .30-30, target below was 50 yds with a receiver sight.


My other .30-30 is a Contender and it is rather fond of Sierra 150 grain spitzers. Deer have different thoughts...briefly. Might be they would work in a bolt gun fairly well.

I shot my first deer with a savage 340. I hated the rifle then, I was a young dumb kid. My cousin used a 30-06, my dad used a ruger 44 carbine or a savage 110 in 7 rem mag. My uncle used a 35 Remington. Back then I didn't understand what I had and I wanted something that seemed more like a long range cartridge in a fancy synthetic stock. My dad ended up trading it away and bought me a Mossburg 100 ATR in 270 win. I love that gun also, but still to this day I have never shot a deer over 120 yards. I now hunt thick and nasty swamps along the Mississippi river in Tennessee. I grew up hunting the oak ridges and bottoms of the Ozark mountains in Missouri. I have been looking for a savage 340 for a few years to get one back in the arsenal. I shot a deer with the 150 grain winchester silvertips (not the balistic silvertips, but the originals), but I have also shot the leverloution and they will perform fine on deer also. 30-30 is a fine deer round and I wish I had understood it better back when I was young and dumb.

The first three deer I shot were with a Savage 340 carbine using 150 gr,. Sierra flat noses on top of a mild load of I3031. Probably getting 2100 fps. All three went down immediately, all were shot in the chest at less than 75 yards. I moved "up" to a Marlin lever rifle and used a slightly hotter charge of 3031 and the same bullet with exactly the same result. The bullets exited, left good sized exit holes and deer laying pretty close to where they were shot. I still own 2 30-30 Marlins and occasionally hunt them. My Marlin loads were getting around 2250 fps. The Sierra 150 is the perfect 30-30 bullet. My 44 magnum experience is that using cast semi wadcutters running 1600 fps the deer will run a bit leaking blood to be easily found. Using softer bullets like the 240 grain Speer HP at slightly higher speeds you get a bigger exit hole and quicker kills. I would say I have taken some 30 deer with the 30-30 and 12 with the 44 magnum in rifles. Personally I can't say one is a lot better than the other as I never lost a deer with either. I believe that the 44 magnum using cast flat noses will penetrate much deeper than any 30-30 load I tried. Today my 30-30 is an AI version from a Contender carbine. I am pushing a 150 gr. Hotcor flat nose a bit above 2500 fps using Leverrevolution powder and it is waiting it's turn in the stable to take it's first deer. Jug test have shown the 150 gr. Speer to expand and penetrate in a reasonable fashion when pushed a bit past 2500 fps. Hopefully a test on a deer will be in the works this year.

The two bucks fell within about 30 seconds of each other. One on the left to my Contender (DRT) and the other to my friends Marlin 336 .30-30. We were about a 1/2 mile apart at the time. I think it was a family affair.

There are a number of people around who want Savage 340's. It surprises me. I picked two of them up recently for around $150 each and sold them for $280 and $300. And they weren't hard to move at those prices either. I'd like to keep one but hey when you can double your money why not?

I use the 150 grain bullets in both of my Model 94's.

They just work.

Even on turkeys without tearing them up.

Been using the Sierra #2000 in the 30/30
for a good while. I've had no "failures " as
portrayed in the magazines. I quit trying to
make a. 308 out of it some years back.
I've shot about as many with the 1894
Marlin 44 mag. It leaves the muzzle "expanded"
so it doesn't need any magic to kill a deer.
The 30/30 and the 44 mag work just fine
for deer as is, and don't need any voodoo
to use 100- 150 yards.
I've done it over and over and I'll likely do
it again next month

I'm off soon to the farm to test out 7 boxes of loads-- two of which I filled this AM.
150 gr Hornady RN over LVR -- probably my first choice for the 336
160 gr Hornady FTX over LVR -- polly #2

170 gr Hornady RN over H4895 -- #1 choice for the Savage 340

. . . and various other loads from the larder to see how they print

Wish me luck! Thanks for the advice y'all.

I use the Hornady 170 grain FP in my M94 Winchester, with 3031. It seems to be the most accurate combo in my rifle and is, of course, very effective on the deer and bear around here. This rifle has proven time and time again that in its element, it's a very good choice.

I also had a Ruger 77/44 for a while and used a 300 grain LBT Hardcast in it. Penetration was more than adequate and the effect on deer was about the same as any rifle I've used chambered in rounds such as a .243 through the .45-70 loaded with both heavy hardcast and 300 grain HPs going as fast as 2200 fps.

After the smoke cleared, I thought the .30-30 load to be about as optimized as I could get it, the .44 would probably be as effective with a 240 grain jacketed or a 250 grain LBT, and the .45-70 was much more pleasant to shoot with a 300 grain JHP at 1800-1900 fps and had no loss of apparent effectiveness.

Lotsa luck on your run-up to the season. I hope that the .30-30 finally convinces you that it is indeed worthy.

Meanwhile, I have a .308 to wring out, and of all things, a 6.8 SPC that I grow fonder of every time I shoot it.

I know a couple of guys in PENN that use both calibers for white tail deer, they both like the two calibers, but tell me they use the 30-30 a majority of the time.

If you have trouble killing deer with a .30-30 you either need to take shooting lessons or brush up on game anatomy, one or the other. I've killed more than enough with it to know beyond a shadow of a doubt this is true.

I have a 44 in a 788 and a 30-30 in a Marlin.

If I were hunting in thick woods I'd pick the 788. Where I normally hunt I'd go with the Marlin. I had a Ruger carbine, but was unsatisfied with it an cast bullets, so I sold it.

The Marlin I normally would shoot 170 grain - I have 150 and 170 grain REM CL's on hand. But I think almost any jacketed bullet designed for the 30-30 would work. I also shoot cast in the 30-30, but I've never tried those bullets on deer.

With the 44 I'd use cast 240 - 250 gr, gc and cast from ww's - though jacketed bullets would work also, in my opinion.

In the last maybe forty years, I think only once I shot deer over 100 yards - I had 6 tags, I shot 5 and they were grouped together - range ~ 300 to 350 yards, glad I had an '06 that time.

I have killed ten times as many deer with my 44 than with a 30-30 but I wouldn't hesitate a second to take any shot with that 30-30 that I would with my 44, and beyond. ANY WHERE.

Over many years of hunting I have killed Elk, Mule Deer, Whitetail, Speed Goats, Bear, Predators, pigs, and Exotic's with a 30-30 Blue box 170gr. and Remington 150gr core lock, 94 win and a 336 both work about the same,, there's no flies on a good 30-30. Rio7
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