handloader1

With a quality bullet like a Barnes X, or Nosler Partition elk can be taken humanly out to 100 yds with the 30-30 Win. Good luck.

BeaverJack

The problem with the 30-30 an' elk ain' t the bullet, the velocity, or the rifle. The problem is 2 weeks. That' s right, modern hunters got 2 weeks a year. In that time, they gotta keep the ol' lady an' the kids happy by takin' ' em to Disnyland, catch up on the yard work, an' still bag a wapiti. Ol' timers had time. Mos' had skills too. Somethin' we' re losin' to technology an' urban hunting schedules. They weren' t apt to go poppin' off at monarchs beyond the range of their weapon. An' if they did an' lost one, so what? More elk' s been lost to the 30-30 round than any other. Remember that 20 years after the introduction of that round, we hit the low point in elk population. Conservation jus' didn' t matter.

Now, considerin' all this, should the average joe take his daddy' s whitetail woods rifle model 94 after his annual elk? Better to take an' extra week at Disnyland an' fergit the wapiti altogether.

Buckshot

I hunted Idaho last year for elk with a guy who has killed more elk than most of us could even dream about, the caliber he used? 22-250. In his words " Shoot them right in the hump and they dont go anywhere" .
As Clint Eastwood once said " A mans got to know his limitations" and that of his gun too, a 30-30 will do.

BareBack Jack

We all hear this argument all the time" what elk gun" or" what is the best elk caliber" .I have just one response for all the hunters out there.If all your hard work,time,money,vacation is to no purpose by all means use what ever rifle you wan' t.Yeh I' m sure there are pepole out the that hunt elk with less that ideal cartriges.But lets be humane in our ethics,let' s keep our tradition.

For me I work to hard to let my rifle not finish my hunt,I have put time,money and soul in to hunting elk,year after year.For me to use a less than ideal cartrige,I might as well go out and buy a beef and leave the hunting up to the folks that miame and wound.

The 30-30 is less than ideal for elk but it will work and so will a 22lr if you call your shots.

BeaverJack

In mos' states, that man would be a criminal. Think there' s a reason for that? Mos' folks don' t go around patterning their behavior off criminals, and realize that there' s a reason for game laws. As for experience, I see more elk die in one season than mos' fellers see in a lifetime. I also see more hunters shoot under field conditions. I also find more products of bad shootin' than mos' people ever see. 30-30 ain' t a elk rifle. Ain' t ever gonna be a elk rifle. An' soon as we got more fellers totin' 30-30s than 30-06s, I' m hangin' up my hunting boots for good!

BareBack Jack

Like everyone here has said the the 30-30 is not an elk rifle,it has been used for one yes,I have even used one,poor judgement yes,but it did kill the elk.I have one thing going that a lot of you don' t.I take a full month off for hunting season.I live in Montana and I can aford to call my shots,if I can' t get a good shot I reposition or follow till one comes about.

Am I ever going to use the 30-30 for elk again,no and neither should anyone else.
The market today is flooded with good elk rifles and for a person not to use a good Hi-Powered Rifle in a caliber from .264 to .416 is plain stuppidity and stubourness.I realy don' t think you get into good elk rifles till the fast .30 calibers.

For the man/woman who gose out west or lives there and plans to hunt a short period of time would be well advised not to used the 30-30 for elk.

rather_be_huntin

A blanket statement is all that is needed when discussing a 30-30 for elk but I' ll tell you what the problem is with the statement you made above and the statement everyone else has made that " under the right cirsumstances" a 30-30 will kill an elk. Replace the word " right" with " perfect" . It should read " under perfect circumstances" a 30-30 will kill an elk. Thats the plain truth.

But hunting isn' t perfect circumstances most of the time. You say limit shots to under 100yds. How to you know where 100 yds is, thats right your guessing. Got a range finder you say, how many times in real hunting circumstances have you really been able to use it. Ok you use the rangfinder and its 95 yds. You' ve still got wind, uphill shots, downhill shots, quatering away, quartering to, the animal maybe walking, turning, shooting from hunting postions etc, etc, etc. Bottomline is you can' t pull out you' re bench and get that " perfect" shot placement everytime. That means you very possibly might hit bone, a rib maybe the shoulder.

The 30-30 is too slow to be a realiable bullet on bone. At the muzzle its energy is about 1800 ft-lbs and is all the way down to 1300 at 100 yds. By some peoples standards that doesn' t have enough energy for elk in a stick up more or less at 100 yds. For me maybe 20 yds tops. If your elk rifles reliable effective range is 20yds then its not for the game you' re hunting.

The point is in PERFECT conditions it will kill an elk. My personal ethics tell me to buy a rifle that will perform well on the game I' m hunting in bad conditions. When I spend 10 years to draw a trophy elk tag there ain' t know way, no how I' m taking a 30-30. And the guy who draws making it so I have to wait another sure as hell better not be shootin trophy elk with it. Cause chances are he' ll actually kill 2 or 3.

ELKampMaster

Lots of folks that have never taken a " whack" at an elk may just assume that elk and deer are the same -- they aren' t. Granted, they both look similar at a distance; have four legs, grow antlers, and live out doors but that is about where the similarity ends.

Since it' s football season..... a little analogy:

Deer " play ball" at the high school level. Elk " play ball" at the NFL level. You can put a tackle on both a high school running back and an NFL running back, but you' ll likely notice a big difference in the result of your tackle unless your performance is FLAWLESS. Elk can shake off a mediocre tackle (especially if you are underweight) and head for the goal line (parts unknown) whereas deer tend to drop like a 90 pound pencil neck. Until you see an elk take a " fair but not perfect" hit that would have flattened a deer (no I' m not talking perfect sniper heart/lung shots here) and then run off without so much a flinch or a limp you don' t know what you' re missing -- and it ain' t pretty.

Never Go Undergunned, Always Check Your Sight In, and Perform At Showtime,
EKM

rather_be_huntin

Thats exactly the point I was trying to make. Good post EKM!

Coastie

O.K. then, rather-be-hunting and EKM, you have both bad mouthed the .30-30 at ranges under 100 yards ad nauseum. Just what rifle and round do you each individually use?? What is your average shot distance, what is the longest shot you would normally attempt?
rather-be-hunting, I too own about as many ballistics tables and reloading manuals as anybody can use and I can interpret the results about as well as most.
So tell me, with all of the 300 plus yard shots I keep reading about from these guys hunting Elk out there, just how much difference is there actually? A .30-30 at 100 yards or under using a 170 gr. bullet is delivering 1355 foot pounds of energy. Your old standby .30-06 with a 180 gr bullet a whopping 1190 at 300 yds. or 1300 with a 220 gr. bullet. Yes I know that your 375 H&H Magnum at that range does a lot more, but how many guys so armed are taking those close in shots? You don' t read about shots at 100 yds or less by these people, they are always shooting halfway across the state. A bad hit with a cannon wounds just as bad at those distances as poorly placed shots at closer ranges with lighter rifles.
Judging range is just as or more important with your heavier rifle than it is with the .30-30 especially when you start reaching out there as seems to be the fashion. Shooting up or down hill? The same holds true, the longer the range and the steeper the angle the more important. You said yourself that these animals aren' t going to wait around all week for you to break out your handy dandy gee whiz gadgets to get things all neat and tidy for you so how do you judge distance and angle any differently than the rest of us neophytes?

BTW,EKM, I don' t watch football.....I' d rather go hunting.