bearhuntr

Why hasn' t the 30-30 died away a long time ago?

frizzellr

That' s simple. Ammunition is cheap and the rifles chambering it are cheap. People who know nothing about guns but want to hunt generally grab the cheapest thing they can find. Another reason is you have Joe Blow working in sporting goods at your local Wal Mart who doesn' t know a 22LR from a 308 Win touting the 30-30 Win as a great deer rifle to a customer who knows even less. I would challenge anyone to honestly say they actually chose a 30-30 on its ballistic merits.

JagMagMan

I think that most of the defenders of the 30-30 here, are pretty familiar with the 30-30 and it' s limitations. With practice, and knowing the 30-30' s limits and discipline not to stretch it' s limits the 30-30 is a " adequate" gun. 150 yards is about the absolute max, (100-125 would be a better limit).
My main peeve with the 30-30, is that, like the .22' s, it is given to youngsters as a first gun. In these cases youngsters usually don' t have the shooting skills or the distance judging skills needed to make good shots with the 30-30.
Other than that, I just don' t understand why a person that is looking for a " deer" rifle would go out and spend money on a 30-30 when there are soooo many better choices available!

Icefisher

Well Football
Alot depends on your location for whitetail deer
Here in Pa the avarage shot at deer is under 40 yards.
I see this thread is becoming a 30-30 bashing thread.
You should know your limits with any gun, the guys with 17 Hmr' s (myself included) are just learning the limitations of that cartridge.
Some county' s in pa restrict the use of high powerd rifles for deer to
shotgun w/slugs again those guys have to know their limits.
I sometimes carry a M-94 32 win spl, great carring gun (light)
with no scope I would limit myself to about 40-50 yards with that gun
but thats me I dont feel real comfortable with open sights.
Dont get trapped into the never-ending wizzing contest
about big gun, bigger gun
Hunt safe
Hunt smart

James B

Elkamp. My 6.5x55 is the model 96 Swedish Mauser. I trimed the barrel to 24 inches. Welded on a new bolt handle and added a Timney sportsman trigger which is set at just over two lbs. It is one of the most accurate rifles I have ever had and I have had a lot. Most all of the surplus Swedes had bores that shinned like a new dime. My buddy and I redone about 25 of them to sell which we installed Ramline black stocks on. Mine still has the military stock because it was a fine looking piece of wood. It has now developed a crack though at the rear of the tang. I will most likely put a composite stock on it now. I first shot it with Hornady 140 grain bullets and its first three shot group was about 5/8 of an inch. I never changed a thing since. It kills deer out to 300 yards like a gun twice it size. Thats about as far as I am willing to shoot at a deer. I still see to many variables at ranges beyond that from my years of steel target shooting which was all done with a 308. Magnum rifles were not allowed on the range during matches. I shot a lot of deer with a 300 Win Mag but no longer like the noise and the recoil. Bad shoulder and just don,t see the need anymore. I went through the Magnum phase BIG TIME.

ELKampMaster

Footballplaya,

Now that merits of the 30-30 have been vollied back and forth, we need to return to where it all began, i.e. your Savage which I assume is chambered for 7mmRemMag.

When shooting the light weights, technique and rifle fit are pretty much a non-issue as you can be doing it " all wrong" and there is still no substantial negative consequence. On the other hand, a 7mmRemMag is getting powerful enough that if you violate the fundamentals of either technique or have a poorly fitting rifle then it will " let you know about it" . Please take it to a gunsmith and say, " hey does this thing fit me right and if not what does it need and why?" If you' re a " big boy" and the stock is on the short side, then that is likely half of the discomfort factor. Also, any magnum deserves a worthy recoil pad and they are NOT all created equal. The Pachmayr Decelerator is a fine choice and comes in various thicknesses if you find that you need to " lengthen" your stock.

Stay the course - stick with the NFL -- don' t go back to college ball.

Best Regards,
EKM

iowabuckslayer

you might try one if the older remington semi-auto 30-06' sin the carbine. iused one once and it was as fast as my 30-30 but if you wanted to take a longer shot you had enough gun. the only down side is the noise. make sure you wear your ear protection.


as for your 30-30 i always liked 150 grain silvertips made by winchester. alltough these my be hard to find now days.


good luck!

C. Davis

With all the advertisement of the magnum cartridges, it is easy to see how the 30-30 has been forgotten. Heck, even the .300 mag. seems to be no good anymore because now they have made a cartridge that is shorter, fatter, and just a tad hotter than the already blazing fast .300 mag.

As for me, I kinda feel silly sitting in the thickest of thickets trying to outsmart a Buck with even my .270 when I know that my shot will be no farther than 50 yards and I know that the dividends are dead dear every time in that situation when I pull the trigger on my Marlin 30-30.

Now, If I were sitting on a pipeline or in the Texas Hill-Country looking out across hundreds of yards of mesquite tree every now and then, I certainly would be sitting their with the .270 (even though my favorite gun is the Marlin), and rightly so since 90% percent of my hunting is done in the thickets.

I find it interesting that some of the guys I hunt with will carry their magnum cannon to a stand were they can' t even see farther than 100 yards, but who am I to criticize? If you are like me, the time between hunting seasons is way too long, and if you have been dying all year to lug that 300 ultra mag through the woods then I can understand.

C. Davis

boltman

I' ve killed a pile of deer with a marlin 30-30. I hadn' t used it for about ten years until a couple of years ago when my 7mm rem mag was in the shop. I pulled out the old 30-30, slapped a leupold 1.75x6 on it that I had lying around, and used it to kill three deer that season. The guys bashing it most likely haven' t use it. It' s an excellent deer round and is capable of killing deer as far as 90% of the hunters out there have any business shooting. A 150 or 170 gr bullet at 22-2400 fps is plenty for any deer that ever walked. I' d pick one any day over the .243, now there' s a real underachiever.

loner

has anyone taken the time to compare the ballistics on the wsm loads to there original loads? it is interesting to see people flock to buy these hot new items when they have really added nothing but a few fps.our society is driven by " new and exciting products" .each time a new cal. is introduced,it creates a new gun sale.each new gun sale generates new ammo sales etc. it is like bowhunting to me,if the speed of sound contnues to be faster than the fps of all bows,what does a bow with 100fps greater speed have to do with much of anything except the silencers you use to keep deer from being tipped off from the shot?