I've shot a couple black bears with a .30-30 but that's it. In my two uses it had been perfectly fine. I'm curious when others have used a .30-30 and regretted the choice. What didn't it do well for its intended and reasonable use?

For most things, within reasonable range, the regret would most likely be poor shot placement.

...........It would not be a poor choice as long as the user understands its limitations ahead of time, by as you put it,,, "its intended and reasonable use."

Used one years ago, mostly for a B tag rifle, but it filled my A tag a couple times cause I was after a meat doe when an opportunity for a buck presented. I never shot at a game animal with a .30-30 past 200 yards, usually closer, and I thought it anchored deer very well. Within its range limitations I think the .30-30 is a good, reliable deer rpund.

I have found it to more of a shooting lacking ability, which applies to all cartridges.

It is a poor choice where I hunt. Lots of shots from 150 to 300 yards. I love the 30-30 and pack one when I don't really need to fill the freezer. I would have no issue killing anything as large as elk sub 150 yards with a 170 gr. bullet.

Todd

Once, years ago. A nice deer stepped out at the edge of a field about 250 yards away, looking at my buddy and I waking back towards the truck. The rifle is a Winchester M94 and had OEM sights on it, which I felt were totally inadequate for that shot.

A Williams FP, Skinner post front, some 8 inch paper plates at 200 yards, and a couple hundred practice rounds from various field positions led to the demise of the next one that did that. 236 yards and a dead deer.

I had been hunting a thick patch of woods and was coming out near dusk, caught 5 deer feeding in the field.

I still prefer my .308 for that, though, but letting that first deer walk stung and I felt obligated to address the shortcoming.

Pigs and Bears have fallen to that rifle, too. I've never found it lacking within its effective range for the game I hunt.

I've used it on deer, bear, and even moose. I've never regretted having it along

I’ve killed a few deer with a 30-30 and my son a few more. Where I hunt in Michigan most shots are only about 50-60 yards away hunting deer runs around swamp edges and such. For that a 30-30 works about as well as anything and the deer shot have only run 10-40 yards with a good blood trail.

I'll give ONLY 3 examples but have seen/experienced many others.



Here my R foot is against a 9 pt buck in a Regrowth C/O and shot from that stand. It was 10' to the floor. He was surrounded by sagegrass, bushes and Oak and Pine seedlings.
Lasered distance was 250+ yds steep down hill.




Last season these deer would have been in 30-30 range however look PAST them and you might as well throw a rock.
They were closer than any other deer seen.


AND here last season



The distance is not the issue. Find a Buck with irons. Make an ethical shot. BTW there are 6 in that view.

Need I say more?

Jerry

For deer, the 150 is a better choice than the 170 as it tends to open up better. I think the guns have sold the cartridge. Who doesn't like a Win 94 or Marlin 336?

Mine happens to shoot 170s much better than 150s, so that's what it is.

I hunt on tree farms in the Pacific Northwest. You can look one direction and see prime 30-30 country then turn 180 degrees and need a sniper rifle. A scoped 308 or 30-06 is a far more versatile choice around here.


Okie John

I can’t tell you how many articles I’ve read by “gun writers” who claim you need a brush buster to hunt the PNW. And what you just described is exactly what I’ve experienced. Pretty easy to have a 300 yard shot present it’s self.

I’ve always wanted a 30-30 but I’ve never owned one. I doubt I’d ever use one to hunt with though because of what Okie John described.

[quote=JBabcock][quote=okie john]I hunt on tree farms in the Pacific Northwest. You can look one direction and see prime 30-30 country then turn 180 degrees and need a sniper rifle. A scoped 308 or 30-06 is a far more versatile choice around here.


Okie John
——————————-

I can’t tell you how many articles I’ve read by “gun writers” who claim you need a brush buster to hunt the PNW. And what you just described is exactly what I’ve experienced. Pretty easy to have a 300 yard shot present it’s self.

I’ve always wanted a 30-30 but I’ve never owned one. I doubt I’d ever use one to hunt with though because of what Okie John described.

———————————

Yes, y’all got the picture.

A 270 or 7 Mag will kill just as well at 12’ (feet) as
a 30-30. *i have done that *

I have NOT owned a 30-30 since > 1974.

Never have thot I wanted another.

Jerry

It is a bit of a circular question really: does the .30-30 reasonably suit the uses for which it is reasonably suited? How could the answer be anything other than yes?

It'd be more useful to ask "to what do you think the .30-30 is reasonably suited, based on your own experience? What didn't it seem to suit?"

FWIW I've found my .30-30 perfectly well suited to medium-size deer (fallow) and pigs at the sort of range I usually shoot them.

Like anything you need to use it within its capabilities. I don't criticise my bow for the fact that I want to be within 40 yards to make a killing shot with it, I just make sure I get close enough, and enjoy the challenge.

My own .30-30 was built at about the end of the 19th century. With a peep sight and a 26" barrel it is very accurate, and in decent light I can reach out to maybe 200 yards, which accounts for the great majority of my shots on deer and pigs. It does what it says on the tin.

After reading the thread, I'll still buy into the supposed 'fact", that more deer have been killed with a 30/30, than any other cartridge...

Most of my hunting has always seemed to be within 30/30 ranges as I call it... I use the 30/30, as I love the round...

but then many of my handloads in other calibers I hunt with, are usually loaded to 30/30 to 300 Savage Speeds.. 200 to 250 yds or so...

99% of all game just about anywhere are taken within those ranges...

any cartridge has its limitations, its more about understanding those...

maybe over the recent years, people are finally being talked out of using 30/30s, just to sell newer guns and ammo, ammo certainly isn't available like it use to be.. but now even 30/06 isn't as available as it use to be.. now its the 6.5 I Need More that is filling the shelves each deer season...

but within its boundaries and 30/30 will work as well as it always has...

Kind of what a bud said when I asked why he used a 264 Win Mag or 300 Ultra Mag the most when deer hunting.

He said they kill up close AND far out.

Shooting ability has nothing to do with the obvious (to some) range limitations of certain cartridges, 30-30 included.

Were you unable to understand this sentence?

"What didn't it do well for its intended and reasonable use?"



Perhaps you'd feel better if I also mentioned a person's hunting ability or lack of too.

Its range is not a problem for me, but the dearth of rifles, especially new ones, that appeal to me is. I have no problem finding .308s and have a lots and lots of brass. There are a couple of .30/30s that I’d like to have, but they seldom show up.

I understood perfectly what you originally posted but the above rambling is beyond comprehension.

Try a 190 grain cast bullet if you really want to make a .30-30 sing. Made soft enough to guarantee expansion, and driven at an even 2000fps (out of a Winchester M54 24" barrel, more like 1900 fps out of a 20" carbine) it's sweet. When you stop and consider it's within 30 grains of the weight of the old standard .30-40 Krag bullet, at the same velocity, and the reputation that one earned as a slayer of big game, well, you do the figuring.

I have two 30-30's. One for cast and one for jacket bullets. Both have bolts and are just fine for the why, what and where I use em.

It was exactly the wrong choice for me the day I left camp in the morning with my Savage 99 30/30 and my .308 ammo pouch.

Absolutely every caliber/chambering/ammo has limitations. Its up to the ethical hunter to know the round, gun, and his own limitations.

About the only exception is hunting private land with no clearcuts and you don't plan to leave the property. But I hunt places like that with a revolver.

You're right about the gun writers leading people astray. I once hunted Roosevelt elk in the rain forest with a guy from Idaho who showed up with a 35 Whelen. The only shot he got was around 300 yards and he passed it up. He knew the cartridge was capable of making that shot but he wasn't sure that he could make it.


Okie John

For me as a 13 year old deer hunter when a 400 lb. black bear stood up on his hind legs about 50 feet away. Still think about that one and i'm in my 80's

As a young teenager I dropped my first buck with a borrowed M64 .30-30 and he just rolled down the hill stone dead. Then as a 16 year old when I was "all grown up", a .30-30 just wasn't harry chested enough for me because every grown up knew that a person needed a .30-06 to properly hunt deer. In later years when lighter seemed righter when I was driving green swamps for the old guys, a lever action .30-30 just didn't shoulder as well as say my 99F or my 141, 760 or 742. A couple guys in camp never got the memo that there might be something else better, so they bought those Trapper M94's that we called the "Daisy deer rifles". Fast forward to driving a nice buck out in front of Bob with his short sighting radius, open sighted Daisy and he only winged it low just in front of the hind leg. Half a day, a mile and a stream crossing later I caught up with it running out the stream bottom and smote the 11 pointer correctly with my .308. I always figured that I could shoot a close deer with a rifle that shot far, but that I couldn't shoot a far deer with a rifle that shot close.

I grew up with a Mod 94 Classic Carbine. SE Texas, we used the 150 corlokt factory loads. Our deer were small ( even a "huge" buck went about 140 pounds, most went around 90pounds. We shot hogs behind the ear or through the shoulders if further out. "The rifle" the 30-30 was in was unsuitable for me for shots over 100yds. Its chamber was oval ( a factory Friday night gun) brass had a distinctive bulge. I could shoot the head off a squirrel at 30 yds and hit a Skoal can at 50, but only get 6" groups at 100 from a rest (pickup hood) and only "nicked: an MT antifreeze jug, from the sit, at 150yds...with 5 shots! I saw my uncle shoot/kill a doe right at 300yds with his M94/irons, so the round is just fine....the platform is limited is all. I have always found the Marlins to be more accurate with any bullet weight. I've loaded 110 30 carbine bullets to 190 Hawks in them. Plus, you can put a Wild West Happy Trigger in the Marlin, and scope it! Now your talking 300yd shots if one can shoot. I don't have one now as Life is too short, I MUST play with something new! ha

As a boat gun when the boat sucked under a log jam... but I did shoot dead my first moose with it. M336. Lost the rifle of course..

Currently my walk-about piece is my Dad's '94. Thinking strongly of taking it caribou hunting again this year- I know where I will sit with it if I do, should get me a shot under 100 yards if the bous co-operate. Aperture sighted. Took it last year and first day I had to use the .260 my son was carrying for a 294 shot to kill a (other hunter's) wounded caribou as it came back past us. Next day I used a scoped 70 to kill a caribou in the fog at 15 yards.

So I might try it again - I haven't killed anything with the '94 since my first white-tail back in 1966. It's due.

[okie john/]
You're right about the gun writers leading people astray. I once hunted Roosevelt elk in the rain forest with a guy from Idaho who showed up with a 35 Whelen. The only shot he got was around 300 yards and he passed it up. He knew the cartridge was capable of making that shot but he wasn't sure that he could make it.


Okie John [quote]

YEP. "THEY", gun writers, in the 70s-80s were responsible for my concept of 300 Mag--338 Mag being the normal or
minimum for hunting Elk.

I HAD 1 338 WM in Ruger 77 O G tanger -> Hardest Kicking Sum Buck I have EVER shot. 375 HH is tame compared. That Tanger 338 went down the road so fast it raised dust ! ! !

My 8mm RM (yep G Ws) shoots more powder and 5 grain less bullet wt. FASTER than the 338 and is pleasant compared to that.
I still have the 8 Mag. The stock is the diff.


Windfall said above ^^^ "I could shoot a close deer with a rifle that shot far, but that I couldn't shoot a far deer with a rifle that shot close".

There are NO truer words.

I have hunted swamps and other thickets and there is always open territory either going to or coming from such.
Even the Indians thru down the bow/arrow for rifles. Principle is the same.

Jerry

If used within its performance envelope it is a very capable medium game cartridge and with tougher bullets, capable of taking elk and moose with properly placed shots. As with most situations, proper placement of a proper projectile will do the job.

Very few deer are out of range for my 30-30 where I hunt.. Very few but not all.

For that reason I prefer the 7mm-08.

g

Nice to know I'm not alone in doing things like that.

The only time I regretted it I had a .30-30 with a 4 X scope in my hands and saw an honest 32" mule deer buck a tad over 300 yards away...out of my comfort zone with that rifle, and he walked out of my life forever...

Killed more critters with the .30-30 than all the rest combined. Everything has limitations, even the Creed.

The owner of a deer camp I used to go to called the 30-30 a "sharp stick". When I asked him why, he replied that if you were looking over a large clear cut with one in hand and there was a nice deer on the far side at 300yds, you might as well be standing there with a sharp stick in you hands.

He was right.

That can be said about any bow, handgun, or rifle chambered in any cartridge where the target is “out of range”. There is a limit to a person shooting any of them.

my savage 99 is a 3030. really great shooting gun. my 94s are 45 colt trapper, no ugly safety , and one made In 1897 in 3855 use the savage so much the others don't get to play.

Have never been let by my 30-30 WCF. It has taken several deer for me in years past.

The only reason it rarely comes out for Deer Camp, is that I no longer do well with iron sights (Eyes + Age seem to have a wicked effect when combined).

Just like absolutely every other cartridge ever made or will be made, “it works well, if used within its limitations.”

95 percent of the deer I have killed were in range of a good 30-30.

I have hunted and killed deer and elk with a 30-30, 44mag carbine, 45-70, three different muzzle loaders. Everyone of them I past up shots due to their range limitations.Then again, I have done the same with a .308, 30-06, 7mm mag.

It's not a big deal.

Only when I muffed the shot. Be Well, RZ.

Well every time I’ve been to Idaho Montana New Mexico Arizona eastern Oregon eastern Washington most of western Washington huntin, they are handy if a guy hound hunts bear or sits in a stand, I’ve got a few laying around but I never reach for em … carry on and keep the warm and fuzzy goin on

I was hunting thick timber bordering open flat country with a .30/30 and when I came to the edge and there were several trophy sized animals across the open field on the opposite end of the open field. That was 30 years ago and never carried a .30/30 again until recently when hunting limited timber areas or in tree stands for white tail. The smallest property I ever hunted in Oz was about 8,000 acres nestled between other properties of similar or larger size so the hunting landscape is larger than you find here in a lot of the US. Flat shooting scoped rifles were more apt there to the point that the only person I ever met hunting with a lever rifle there was using a Miroku (Browning) lever in .308.

They are always the right choice when I simply want to hunt with a .30-30. I went to Texas a while back specifically to kill a pig with an old 94 that had a lot of sentimental value. Worked great.



When I am serious about killing something the .30-30 stays home.

In lever action silhouette knocking the rams over at 200 yards were with the 30-30 wasn’t 100%.

when i walked onto a logging landing and saw 3 grizzly cubs on top of the slash pile. Momma not in sight. a 105 wouldn't have been big enough at the moment.

I guess my only 30-30 experience has been on several hogs and one blacktail deer. I have a 94 with iron sights and after a while I just needed better sights. I know mounting a scope on a 94 is possible but the ones I’ve handled just didn’t feel right when scoped. I guess for me it came down to ergonomics & IMO other rifles offer more comfortable platforms. Never had a problem with power of the cartridge, everything I shot was killed without fuss. No shade but just not my cup.

I have been knocking over deer sized animals since 1970 with a 30-30. Shooting distance has been about 50 - 125 yards of so. None got away.

Sherwood

Like I've said before I like hunting with lever actions, so be it..
Lots of times for deer season I used a muzzleloader instead of any number of rifles, so that pretty much says it all.
It's want I want to hunt with that day. It's no different than the times I went with a 454, Muzzleloader or a Winchester Trapper.
It's about the hunt, otherwise everybody would be using a 6.5 fat bag mag longstretch loudenboomer.
Have fun.