JagMagMan

Anything from .243 on up with good ammo will kill a deer as dead as they get! Again, shot placement is the key.
The problem I have seen with the 30-30 is people trying to stretch it's range! As Clint Eastwood said, "A man's gotta know his limitations!"

ButchA

+1

See this? (my old Marlin 30AS .30-30 with plain iron sights)

If you look closely at the rear sight elevation, I have it set dead on for 50 yards. That's where I leave it. I have no intention of trying to push my .30-30 out to 150-200 yards. It used to have an old 4x32 scope on it, which I took of and hocked on Ebay. I don't want a scope on it anymore. My old Marlin .30-30 is now primarily used in the heavy brush and thickets where I am able to quickly crack off a shot at 25, 30, 50 yards, etc... If I happen to jump a deer.


For more longer range hunting, I have also a Savage .308 rifle with a 3-9x40 scope on it. I have this rifle set 1" high at 100 yards. It is more than capable of doing everything that the old .30-30 won't do.


The way I see it, I have two rifles for two different styles of hunting. Both are equally capable of dropping a deer in their tracks. One close range, the other long range. The best of both worlds! [8D]

stalkingbear

Of course your .308 is still good for close range shots as well as long range. That's what I like about my browning a-bolt

vabyrd

There is too much of an obsession on shooting a deer and having it fall where it stands. Get over it. The 30-30 has taken more deer than any other cartridge around. Just learn to shoot, tracking is part of deal so learn to do it as well.

spaniel

I continue to be amused by people who claim deer were hit "solidly" or "right in the boilerroom" yet they never recovered the deer to actually verify that this is where they were hit.

In my younger years I made a number of poor shots that required tracking. Over the years I have tracked dozens of deer for other hunting partners or acquaintances. In all those years, upon recovering the deer, I only found ONE that had actually been shot in the heart/lungs and ran any significant distance -- it was shot with a 12 gauge Barnes Expander slug that fragmented explosively in a large surface crater without penetrating the shoulder blade.

If the deer tears off several hundred yards, you didn't hit it where you should have. Period. The only exception to this I buy is if you chose the wrong bullet and shot it with something like a fragmenting varmint bullet that won't penetrate far enough before expanding. Without fail it seems these shooters of wounded deer tell me how solid they hit it in the chest then we recover a deer with a chuck of meat torn out of the butt or shot in the guts and they wonder how they could have done that or even claim it can't be the one they shot!

Either the shooter screwed up ammo selection, or the shot placement. It's not the 30-30.

I was watching a hunting show on TV last year and they were sermonizing how the 300WM was the minimum cartridge needed for whitetail deer. I turned it off. Gimme a break. I own a 300WM, I bought it and use it to take elk at longer ranges, I would never have bought it for whitetails. When did mass destruction of half the animal become more important than proper shooting skills?

idunno

Out of the 6 deer I've shot with a 30-30 my first was a bad shot, too far back and bedded down 70 yards away to be finished off by my dad. 2nd was a DRT right in the boiler room. That one was about 40 yds and only 55 lbs. 3rd was running and hit high and back then shot a second time and DRT. 4th made a 10 yard circle on it's side and didn't go anywhere else. 5th was hit slightly quartering to and took out both lungs and the far side shoulder. She rared up on her hind legs, turned 180 degrees and bolted back into the woods. The woods were very thick and looked like someone went through there with a spray gun painting everything she passed. With some help I found the deer about 300 yards away after some pretty rough tracking. The last one was shot through both lungs and went down and make a big circle about 30 yards before expiring. Out of the 6, 2 were hit marginally and required follow up shots. The other 3 gave results varying from DRT to a 300 yard trailing job.

I guess my point is that deer will react differently. I have heard of a 125 lb spike running 200 yards after his heart was blown up by a 30-06 at 50 yards. As long as you do your part as the shooter and accept the responsibility of a tracking job and follow through with it, there is no centerfire cartridge above a 243 that is a "crippler." That title goes to the shooter

ButchA

True... But there is just something classic, historical, and traditional, about hunting with an open sighted .30-30. [8D]

Granted, my Savage .308 is now my "go-to" gun, but I don't want to carry it into the thick heavy brush. That's why I keep the two rifles the way they are, for two different styles of hunting.

garywilson1

In 1998 I had neck surgery an was told by my doctor no high powered rifle for 6 months- and white-tail deer season was only weeks away! Because I wanted to keep using my neck and everything below it, I bought a Ruger Ranch Rifle in .223.

Since then:
40 shots hunting with a .223 Federal 55 grain Nosler Ballistic tip.
40 dead deer (buck and doe). Some dropped immediately, some ran up to 25 yards. Shots were taken between 20 and 175 yards.
1 shot with a 30-30 and one dead deer. She walked off about 5 yards, stood for a minute, and then fell down.

Who cares whether .223 or .300 WM? Hit 'em where they live and put 'em in the freezer. Wait and pick you shot if you can.

All were heart/lung. Only 2 were shoulder shot because of thick brush they could potentially escape in.

BigEarl

You definately can't argue with success and the old trusty 30-30 has killed more deer than you could count. I personally killed 4 deer with my old 30-30. One shot each, they ran about 25 yards and dropped. The first one was with open sights when I was like 14. On the other hand my .270 took me 2 shots to drop the only deer I killed with it. Go figure.

Doe Dumper

Theres a reason the 30/30 has been around for over 100 years. Thats because when used within its limits it is an absolutely wonderful deer hammer. I seen 3 drt kills with an old Marlin this week with nearly zero meat damage. Them old school guys with the open sights and their 30/30's swear by them and the millions of deer the round has taken over the years probably would too.

Its a low recoil, shooter friendly, cheap ammo, solid, dependableround that is aboslutely up to the task if the shooter holds up his end. As far as the "solid hits" part goes Ive tracked many of those types of hits by other hunters that turned out to be gut shots or something to that effect.

If you arent finding them its because the shot placement is poor... Theres no way this round could ever be called inadequate or a crippler.....the real problem with 99% of those scenarios would be the man on the trigger.