Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles tell me some hunting story's with the 30/30

tell me some hunting story's with the 30/30, just picked up a Winchester 94 src it makes me feel young again. lets here some story's about hunting and shooting, you marlin guy's jump in to!

Well...Uh... hum...

I can't remember that far back and I don't remember details except a few deer and I changed
cartridges and never looked back.

Jerry

MIddle of the day, moving from point A to point B, not paying attention, and stumble upon four does feeding in the bramble... not 20 yards away... all butts pointing my way. Marlin 336 lever action in my hands comes up, I rack a round into the chamber, take aim at biggest fatest doe (now broadside and wondering what is going on) and CLICK!!! cross bolt safety!!! Deer scatter. Doh!!

Note to self: leave the cross bolt safety off. put a silicone grommet over it to keep it from activating. hunt with chamber empty until you need to rack a round to fire.

My very first ever deer hunt. Winchester M94, 30 WCF made in 1911. My Great grandfather's rifle.

Labor Day weekend in Lake County California. My dad and I are sitting on a rock pile on stand when I get the urge to go most likely to do with massive adrenaline rush or something of that nature. Dad hand me the TP and tells me to go over to a stand of bushed about 25 yards away. I lean my rifle against the bush while nature takes its course when a nice four point buck walks right by me. Here I am squatting and all I can do is let the deer pass. I then shot him in the back of he head. My first deer. One word of advice. Don't do it while taking a dump. The recoil and my rather unbalanced position set me back on my can, smack dab in the middle of the mess I made. I was all of eleven and maybe 95 pounds soaking wet. It took two canteens and a lot of TP get me cleaned up. Over the year while I lived in California to took a lot of deer with that old 30-30, some with my home made cast bullets. I still have that rifle (carbine actually) and I still take it to the range every once in a while
Paul B.

Why would anyone hunt with the chamber empty on a 30-30?

I don't know.

My first deer, fell asleep on the stand and when I woke up there were three does and a little buck in front of me. I pushed the safety off of the Savage 340C and popped one of the does right in the ribs about a third of the way up behind the shoulder. She took off spraying blood and fell just out of sight. Old Red box Federal 150 gr. Flat noses. That rifle had chamber issues and went down the road but the 30-30 worked perfectly.

When i was 13 I was hunting the breaks in MT. There was a small heard of 2 pt mule deer working towards me and would travel just below the ledge I was on. They crossed below me and at ~50 yards I pulled back the hammer then squeezed the trigger and shot one just in front of his hip going away when he jumped over some obstacle. He folded like a duck and didn't even thrash around. The bullet exited after destroying the heart. I can't remember if it was a Winchester or Marlin since we had both in our family at the time. I am pretty sure the bullet was a 150g Remington.

I still hunt rocky wooded terrain for deer. More than once I’ve gone @$$ over tit and hit the ground when I lost my footing. I never still hunt a 30/30 with a round in the chamber. It takes a nanosecond to rack the lever as the rifle comes up... and that is why I grommet the cross bolt safety.

If sitting down in a blind, chambering a round is ok until I choose to move.

My go to deer rifle, though I admit to having used others.

Likely the most interesting outcome began with an afternoon walk. Stumbled across a fork horn and as the range was good popped a round his way. Unseen small branch deflected the bullet and he ran off about 50 yards and stopped in a clump of bushes. I knew he had been hit but did not realize the bullet had been deflected the first time. Fired number two at the boiler room and that one deflected into his left ham.

That's when the tracking began. Lot of blood along the way, wound up in a creek bottom swamp where the average visibility was about 15-20 yards. Stepping along softly I came to the edge of a swampy bog, paused and then a great commotion commenced about 10 yards away. The buck came off the ground in a huge leap and my Model 94 barked. Case closed, the third shot took out the neck vertebrae about 3" behind its ears.

Then I had to drag him about 200 yards up the hill....

I bought a pair of consecutive serialed number Theodore Roosevelt 94 winchesters back in 1975. My younger brother wanted the 20" short rifle. The dealer wouldn't separate them so my brother asked me to talk to him. The other 1 was 24" half mag rifle , so i bought them both and kept the long barreled one selling the other to my younger brother, we have an agreement that if you sell it has to be to the other or if one passes the other inherits the other gun. My brother lives in a shotgun only state and I never used mine to hunt with. I got the itch to use it on the last day of deer season back in 16. Hunted all morning looking hard for a good buck no go, at noon I went back to the truck and ate a sandwich and drank the last of my coffee thinking the hell with it, might as well use the teddy and whack a doe for eating. No sooner than that thought crossed my mind I caught movement in the left mirror 2 does climbing the hill behind me. I eased out of the truck and quietly as possible chambered a rd. They stopped up on a little knob, I put my left elbow over the rear box corner for a rest and the sights in frt of the shoulder boom splat and down she goes. After watching for a couple a minutes I realized she was down for the count and I then lazered the shot 99 yds. I'd hit pretty close to where I aimed and sure wondered why I'd spent 40 some years using scoped rifles. The 150 gr rn Corelokt over 748 did the job quite well, yeah I'm one of those guys who reloads even 30-30's. MB

I hated that POS with a passion. Stock would bruise the hell out of my cheek.

The End.

I was once hunting with a 30-30. I had a round in the chamber. I slipped on a rock and went ass over tit. Nothing happened because I was correctly using the half cock.

A buddy took a shot at a running deer with a 30-06 and knocked a hind leg off I pulled up my 94 and fired hit the deer in the head running at about 350 yards. Talk about luck.

You were trying to hit it weren’t you? That’s good shooting.

JoeBob that is good to know. I don’t trust the half cock if rifle goes one way and I another. I have had too many close encounters with Murphy and mechanical devices.

Winchester Mod 94, bobcat jump out in the middle of the trail I was watching, trotting away from me, I whistled, he stopped and looked back over his shoulder, bam.... through the shoulder and spine, fell over right there, a measured 125 steps, iron sights.... I had better eyes back then.

Sitting in a tree stand, next to a fence, nice little FL 6 point runs up to the tree, turns and looks back before he jumps the fence, bam.... about 3 yards, jumped the fence and ran about 30 yds.............

Guessing you're a tall fella? I had a similar issue with my '94 Trapper back around '84 when I bought it....LOP too short. Added a pad and it's been a joy since then.

A friend of mine I grew up with in PENN was armed with a 94 on the first day of buck and a large 8 point came running passed him full tilt. He missed him and proceeded to empty the magazine in the bucks direction.
Buck fever had over whelmed him and he looked down to see one spent casing and 5 unfired rounds laying on the ground. He swore he heard all of the rounds going off when he worked the action. His brother killed the 8 point a minute later about 150 yards away from him