Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Is a 30-30 enough for Elk?

Yup! Use a good 170 gr bullet and pick your shots well. It will do just fine in timber distances. In my elk area that means uder 150 yards if that!

150-170 grain 30 cal bullets don't bounce off elk.

Period.

Having said that you DO need to push them fast enough to do a good job and velocity affects the killing range..

In terms of terminal perfermance, the 30-30 is one of the most perfected big game rounds out in terms of it's bullet performance. Everything is nicely balanced in terms of bullet construction vs velocity for the round to expand and penetrate very well WITHIN IT'S EFFECTIVE RANGE.

A case in point- Every hear of a bullet "blow up" or other failure when fired from a 30-30? MANY wounded animals that arise from the use of a 30-30 have NOITHING to do with the round but to the RIFLES it is used in.

Lever action carbines with course iron sights do not lend themselves well to precise bullet placement past 100 yards under most hunting conditions, even with a fine shot behind the gun.

A decently accurate(2 moa or under) rifle of any style with a good scope aboard in 30-30 can take Elk very cleanly out to 200 yards IF a good bullet is used and IF the shooter does his part by putting the bullet in the right place.

I would use the 170 Nosler Partition round nose slug and push it to at least 2100FPS or more in a hanload or use Federals very fine Premium load with the sames sepcs here-

http://www.federalpremium.com/products/details/rifle.aspx?id=302

At 200 yard it will have just under 1,000 Ft Lbs of evergy on the target WHICH IS ENOUGH for an Elk if a bullet like the Nolser is used to enure BOTH proper expansion/penetration and if it is put in the right place..

The term "undergunned" is a funny thing to me in application since context is crucial.

At one extreme are those of the "it can do the job" pursuasion. There are varying degrees of this of course but the basic premise is that "caliber X" is capable of killing anything that's ever walked "if you do your part" because somebody has done it before. Larry Kelly killed just about everything that walks with a .44 Mag revolver, including elephant. So what are you gonna do, say a .44 revolver can't kill an elephant? Obviously not, but that doesn't mean I consider it something contextually appropriate for that task either.

At the other end are those will will insist that anything less than a .300 magnum is practically inhumane for anything above antelope or, perhaps, smallish whitetail.

So, will a 30-30 kill an elk? Well, of course it will. So will a 25-35. I don't think of either as great elk calibers but it has nothing whatever to do with what they CAN do (which is kill elk severely dead) but what they are very ill suited for, like a 1/4ing shot at 225 yards. If presented the elk (or big deer for that matter) of a lifetime for that shot I don't want to be thinking about what my rifle CAN do. No, you don't need a .378 Wby either but for the shot I've described above I consider the 30-30 pretty darn iffy. (And just to head off another pet peeve of mine that's the best shot you're going to get. None of that "Well, a real hunter would become a wisp of smoke, silently flank the elk using raw masculinity to supress their scent, and take him down with a Vulcan nerve pinch." stuff)

I've got a friend that's never, in his entire life, fired a shot at a deer from over 100yds with the vast majority being 70 or less. That's how he hunts. He's done all of it with 30-30 or .35 lever actions. In the context of how he hunts he simply doesn't need anything else. IF you are content to only be hunting in such a context for elk then you would likely do fine with your 30-30.

I've probably just been very wordy to get to this question. Do you want the shots you can and can't/will and won't to be decided by your ability or your rifle's? I always hunt with way plenty rifle for whatever quarry I'm after under the conditions I'll be hunting. For me and elk that's a .340 Wby. Do I (or anyone) need such a thing to kill an elk? Nah. But there is no situation I will ever find myself while hunting this hemisphere where that caliber doesn't exceed my skill to use it. I like that.

I wish you luck regardless!

On a partcular day when I know I'm going into heavy timber to hunt elk,I would just as soon take my 44 mag carbine as my .06, and do not feel under gunned.I have thumped elk with it and it puts them down right now, Can'r see why a 30-30 would not work either.
ANY firearm has it's limitations, just a any hunter does.

it was a fine elk cartridge in years past, but as hunters have grown smarter, and elk have grown tougher, it has become inadequate. i read where some gunwriter (expert!) said minimum for elk should be a 30-06. go figure!

That's a great post, there.

guyandarifle, When did Larry pass away I just saw him the end of nov the end of hunting season. danny

Y'know, I have no idea where I came across the information but it would appear I may have been misinformed about Mr. Kelly's demise as I have since found nothing else on the subject. Thanks for correcting me and actually I'm glad to hear Larry's still with us.

I would believe that there have been many an elk taken with a 30-30 Winchester or Marlin but neither would be my pick as a go to rifle for hunting elk. The 30-30 is a deer rifle and I'll stick to my guns with that statement. However, you give me an 1895 Marlin in the .444 or a 45/70 lever gun and I'll bring those elk steaks home.

If I had hunted elk to 10 years without success I might well come to the conclusion it didn't matter if i carried a gun at all...

On the other hand, I would be much more likely to decide that any shot I got would be a long one and would equip accordingly. A .30-06 would do nicely.

We'll, when I say I hunted 10 years ago, I SHOULD have said I hiked a short while with a gun, lol. I was very impatient, lazy and young back then, went where I thought the Elk should be, which wasn't far from the road in most cases, and when I didn't see anything in 30 minutes, we'd just go back to camp. Now, I'm a little more patient, plan on doing a LOT of Elk research to find a hunting area that is promising, learn where Elk ARE in that particular tempurature range (50* vs 10*), and scout the area in the summer.

I don't agree that the 30-30 isn't a preferred caliber for deer, but for Elk it's gonna be less than adequate for the long shots that may or may not present themselves. Maybe after I hunt them for years, and know them a bit better and can get in closer, the 30-30 would be a 'challenging' gun to hunt with, after sneaking in for a close humane shot on a big bull

Now I will save my pennies for the gun I want, the 338 Marlin Express (grin). I have to have a lever gun, and don't see any other caliber offered in a traditional looking lever to have the capabilities of that caliber or the 30-06 that is a proven Elk cartridge.

The 338 or 308 Marlin would do just fine, as far as Lever rifles go, doe it have to be a Marlin? You could go with a Browning BlR and have a few more choices in cartridges. As for the 30-30, since you live in elk country, you can take the time to look and look some more and choose a reasonable shot, now what would be reasonable for me may not be reasonable to you or the other way around. I would hunt elk with a 30-30 if that is all I have or could afford. Any rifle is better than no rifle at all. Maybe money would be better spent on a pair of Bino's.

I have a Browning Lightning in my safe right now that my friend let me borrow, but I just can't get into the look of the gun. It just isn't traditional looking, and that's why I like the Marlin's. They still look like the old saddle guns

First lets get a few things out in the open here. The 30-30 that killed elk in the past most likely was a 24-26 inch barreled one as that was popular barrel length when they first came out. the 20 inch barreled 30-30 is a very good deer rifle and I will not argue that. I would use a 180 grain lead wfn bullet and yes I do have that mold 311041.
Second I would rather hunt with my .375 winchester with its 26 inch barrel and 268 grain lead bullet. Another choice would be my 45-70 with 425 lead bullet.
In case you have missed it I don't shoot long range anymore so all my choices will work for me YMMV.
Third you have to know your firearm and its limits and then everything else just falls into place.
Fourth when I lived back east and always hunted with my 24 inch barreled 30-30 I ran into more people with 375,378 and larger wetherby mags that could not hit the board side of a large barn at 100 yards so what good was the magnum, absolutely none.
Never buy a firearm you can't handle. I don't have any magnum rifles because I can't shoot them well enough for my standards. I see nothing wrong with magnums if you can shoot them but so far haven't found the need in my hunting for one.
Fifth if I wanted another type of rifle instead of a lever I would use my 270 with 160 grain nosler or my 30-06 with again a nosler bullet only 180 grains.
Sixth I just don't believe that Elk are any tougher skinned now then they were 100 years ago. I do think they have gotten smarter at hiding from man/woman hunter and the hunter has to work harder now but that isn't the question of this thread.
As has been said if money is tight and you have only a 30-30 and it has a 20 inch barrel then shots should be limited to around 150 yards or less to ensure a good hit. I just don't get the excitement of tracking a wounded animal for who knows how long with the possibility that someone else will get to it first.
Seventh do I think the 30-30 is a good first choice if I have money to buy a another rifle, nope but it will get the job done if necessary. I like bigger holes so if you match the bullet to the caliber to the game to the range you can have fun.
I would like to hunt elk with a muzzle loader one day and that is slower than the 30-30 but elk fall to them every year. So in ending this get the rifle that you can handle well, shot the heck out of it so know how it shoots and the range it works best at and then go hunt elk. Caliber should be at least .277 diameter and 150 grains from my chair and all the reports of what has killed elk.

the 30-30 is fine for elk, when you get into close quarters in the dark timber a 30-30 will really shine. my old man killed more elk with his 336c 30-30 with a 150gr sierra flat nose than any other rifle. placement and being close enough are obviously important to the success.

I never buy factory ammo so I don't know about those leverevolution loads. I load my own so when I think 30-30, I automatically reach for the box of 170gr Partitions. Can't see why they would not work very well on any Elk....

CLB

Yes it will cleanly take elk and do it a dang bit further in distance than those that have never used it on anything let alone killed an elk seem to think.That lil pipsquek cartridge was almost single handedly responsible for nearly instant obsolecence of a whole host good levergun cartridges.
If a levergun is what you think you need and you don't have the confidence in a 30-30 take a look at a Browning blr in 308.
Neighbor kid shot this one a couple 3 years ago with his 30-30, the range was far enough out to make the uncleansed have a sever case of the vapors.

Lets be precice i these matters -

the .30-30 WCF does not kill anything nor any other cartridge.
Their projectiles do.

Aside from that, talk about a loaded question:

.30-30 WCF

Variables:

Available projectiles:

150 gr. FN C&C
170 gr. FN C&C
150 gr. TSX FN
170 gr. Nosler Partition FN
Hard Casts

Available launchers:

Variable: barrel length (specifiy)

Variable: Game animal

Spike, Cow, Calf, Herd bull

Variable: Animal Condition

Weight, State of Agitation

Variable: Shot Placement

Broadside lung, shoulder, paunch...

Just from the top of my head - that list of variables should make it clear that many more things need considering than cartridge choice - which, cutting through the chase, only governs projectile diameter and obtainable velocity.

Rant off.

I hear you on The BLR, I had one in 358 Winchester, I could never warm up to that ugly looking gold trigger. Now if it was just Matte Blued and a steel trigger blued or not well then it would have been a different story. I don't know why browning dose that. They do. So I don't currently own a browning rifle.

Here's my .02, the 30-30 is more than adequate, no disclaimer required. As to the question, I would go for the 338MX, just because. Who couldnt love a Lever in 338?

On a side note, I think the best expanding bullet for the 30-30 and its velocity is the power jacket by Sierra. A perfect match for this caliber combo.

Yet to try the Hornady Leverevo.

Joseph