stormin1563

Where are you guys from? What season are you hunting? What unit are you hunting? These are all factors in this question. Some areas don't offer real long shots....

Muley Hunter

I could take plenty of long shots if I wanted to.

Bullcamp82834

Ditto.
Just because I don't choose to shoot long as a habit doesn't mean I can't do it.

WNYhunter

stormin1563, we are in western ny they were hunting first rifle season in Colorado for elk just north of craig co. Like everwhere else, there is opportunity for long and short shots.

buffybr

Like Clint Eastwood once said "A man has to know his limitations."

That is true with people and firearms. As has been posted, a .30-30 will kill an elk, so will a .22 LR if the bullet is put in the right place.

I have killed enough elk that I would rather see an elk walk away than to wound and loose one with a marginal shot or marginal caliber.

My favorite elk rifle now is my .300 Weatherby and it shoots moa out to the 400 meter (440 yd) backstop at our range where I practice with it just about weekly.

The last elk that I shot was a bull that I spotted at about 300 yds, then I snuck to within 100 yds where I made an almost instant kill shot with my .300 Weatherby.

It seems to be "in vogue" on many outdoor hunting shows to make long range shots on big game animals. Today's rifles and scopes certainly have the ability to make those shots, but most shooters can't. I've seen too many deer, elk, and antelope that were wounded and lost by hunters making poor shots at whatever range for me to advocate long range hunting.

So like Muley and Bullcamp posted, I see plenty of game at long ranges, but I'd rather shoot them at close ranges.

florizark

The black powder version of original 30/30 killed lots of elk & moose in the day, if we are to believe the stories and accounts. Bow hunters kill elk every year with less ballistics than the modern 30/30 provide. Just saying....

Topgun 3006

***Well I see someone that lives down south and probably has minimal, if any, experience hunting elk has now compared killing one with bow/arrow to a centerfire rifle and even used the term ballistics when trying to compare them! Pete, I knew if this thread went long enough it would happen and it did in this post, LOL!!!

Muley Hunter

I chuckled when I read it. Maybe if our guns shot broadheads it might make sense.

flags

There was never a black powder version of a 30-30. The 30-30 has always been loaded with smokeless powder. The name stands for 30 caliber and 30 grs of powder.

Note the following:

The .30-30: A Historic Overview

Today what is known as the .30-30 began life as the .30 WINCHESTER SMOKELESS. In 1891, the Winchester Repeating Arms Company first began experimenting with smokeless powder to develop a higher velocity smokeless cartridge that would bear the Winchester name. They decided on .30 caliber after working with the military on the development of the .30 U.S.Army (.30-40) cartridge.

When the 1894 Winchester rifle was on the drawing boards, they ultimately decided to use the .38-50 Ballard cartridge case of 1876, and neck it down to hold a 160 gr. .30 Caliber "metal patched" bullet.

The resultant .30 WINCHESTER SMOKELESS cartridge which carried the .30 W.C.F. (Winchester Center Fire) designation on the head stamp, first appeared in Winchester's catalog No. 55, dated August, 1895. Several months prior to this, the first ads announcing the arrival of this cartridge began appearing in the sporting press.

Three months after WINCHESTER’s first advertisement of their new .30 WINCHESTER SMOKELESS cartridge, their biggest competitor, the Marlin Firearms Company, announced their version of this cartridge chambered in their model 1893 rifle. Since Marlin did not manufacture ammunition, it worked closely with the Union Metallic Cartridge Company (U.M.C.) located in Bridgeport, Connecticut. U.M.C. replicated the .30 WINCHESTER SMOKELESS cartridge but gave it a different name. Since 30 grains of smokeless powder was initially used in this cartridge, they named it the .30-30. Cartridges were head stamped U.M.C. / .30-30 S. The S was dropped from the headstamp within a few years.

The name .30-30 followed the prevailing practice of that period where the first number designated the caliber in inches and the second number the powder charge in grains, however, in this case, the second number denoted the charge in grains of smokeless powder used rather than black powder as with such cartridges as the .32-40, .38-55, .45-70, .45-90, etc...

http://www.leverguns.com/articles/3030history.htm

Muley Hunter

No 30-30, but plenty of lever guns shooting BP cartridges. That's probably what he was thinking of.

I shot CAS for two decades, and really got into the cowboy guns. My favorite was the Winchester 66 in 44-40.