Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting What % of your deer kills could have been made just as easily w/a 30-30?

I am especially curious to hear what Eastern hunters have to say on this. I can't recall a deer I have shot that could not have been taken just as easily with a 30-30. Of course I hunt mostly hardwoods and wooded mountain slopes where a 100 yd shot is considered long.

Even out here on the plains where I live probably at least 50%..my 444 will soon up that statistic.

Not only could have been taken by a 30-30, but were.

100%. What fun is that? Killing whitetail is easy enough with any rifles, I perfer silent, up close and personal------Hoyt style! Going to throwing knives and then blowguns next

I've shot several that were farther out than I'd want to use a 30-30, but the majority are in close enough for a 303 Savage or 30-30. Call it 90% were close enough.

But a big portion of that is that I'm willing to work on getting close enough. I know plenty of guys that will just start slinging lead downrange. Some are plenty good enough to do it, most aren't.

T B B - Not exactly from the East, I hunt So. Ark.

I started to reply maybe 30%, but out of curiosity I checked my records for the past 10 yrs.

It even surprised me, ONLY 20%. That is 4 out of 20. Maybe that's why I haven't owned a 30/30 in a lotta yrs.

Hunting power lines or bean fields?

100% Not a problem at all. That includes western mulies as well as whitetails, elk, antelope. Not an issue.

I'm with Calhon on this. Anywhere from 75% to 90% of my western hunting success could have been done with a 30-30. That includes Elk, Deer, and Black Bear.

Now is we go to talking about varmints, then the percentage would drop a lot. Hard to hit a running coyote at 250 yds with a 30-30. Well maybe with more practice. :-)

Similar. CUTOVERS on paper co. timber land.

My philosophy is, why limit your possible killing range when you can shoot a flat shooting cartridge? eg. my Tikka T3 Lite 270 is so very light and handy. I can hardly tell the diff between it and my Ruger 10-22. I don't feel handicapped hunting a 270 vs. 30/30.

about 30% , alot of my game has been shot past 200 yards and I would not stretch a 30-30 that far.

I definitely see your point regarding range, but I have never handled a bolt gun that is as handy and carries as easily as a trim Winchester or Marlin Texan levergun. Also, a 270, 280, 30-06 etc destroys a lot more meat on close range shots than a 30-30, 32 Spl, 35 Rem etc.

I'd say 90%+ of the deer I have killed were either taken by a 30-30/303 Savage or could have been easily.

Really all but 1 whitetail buck is all that I can think of, though a lack of a scope would have made more of a difference than just having a 30-30 on that particular deer.

100. All of mine have been taken with shotgun and muzzleloader.

why do alot of people out west think we on the east coast all live in some thickass jungle and can't ever shoot over 100yds.

i hunt in the mtn areas of va. and i can shoot out to 600yds on all my property . my longest shot on a whitetail has been 440 yds
a few years back ,one last year at 405 yds,a bear the year before at 300yds. here lots of people hunt with long range guns,we get some close shots but very few carry short range guns.

Here ! Here !

About 10-20%. Most of my shots are longer than the standard 150 yards that is attributed to the 30-30 range. In the time I hunted in MN (Twice) one shot was at 10 yards and one at 180. Both shot with a 358 Win. However, my nephew killed the biggest bodied whitetail I have seen with a 30-30 as it ran by his stand. It didn't drop right a way and took some looking in the tall grass, but the 30-30 did the job.

plenty with 30/30. i hunt really hilly country in east tn. most of it is thick with some hardwood ridges. i'd say just about every deer i've killed has been under 75 yard shots.

All my deer have been taken under 200 yards. Put a scope on the 30 wcf and I could have taken them all with it...

probably 75% at least....eveen though i have several areas i could sit and watch 1000 yard long clearings, i usually choose to sit in stands in creekbottoms, & trails in the timber.