30-30 for hunting?

ooglassoo

ooglassoo

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What do you guys think about a 30-30 lever for hunting deer? Sunday I am trading a Sony psp for a lever action 30-30. The guy says its a Browning but I tried to search Browning 30-30 and found nothing. I guess I will find out what it is on Sunday, but what do you guys think is it powerful enough for deer?
Thanks
Dennis
 
If you’re getting the box fed Browning lever action you’ll be able to feed it the spire point bullets along with the regular round and flat nose bullets, it’s an advantage no doubt. Please give us a range report when you get to try it out. I found this on the Net and thought I’d put it out here in case you’re getting one like it. Good luck with your purchase.
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My rifle is as we'd expect for a Browning gun. Well made and well finished. She is just beautiful if a bit plain. With her 24" barrel, she's a bit longer than any other levergun in my safe. Yes, she has that distinctive (and advantageous) box magazine "hanging" below the receiver and some will balk at that as an impediment to comfortable carry. However, I find that the rifle balances right at the forward edge of the magazine and so it functions to provide the stop that keeps the rifle slipping through the hand and is in no way as uncomfortable for single handed carry as one might imagine it to be. When shooting the gun is every bit the lovely siren I imagined she might be.

The action is both smooth and tight with no rattling. Cartridges run through with little effort and, so far, no problems. Indeed, this action is about the smoothest of any of the famous Winchester levergun actions I've ever tried. Even new, it is slick and fast. Both round nose and spire point bullets are just the thing with neither providing problems of safety or in feeding. No problems in accuracy either! Groups of factory 180 SP ammo shoots into 2-3" at 100 yards with the issue open sights.

I expect that it will do some better after I get a good aperture sight such as the Lyman 38 reproduction I bought. Just need to get the gun to Jon Ritenour in Harrisonburg to drill and tap it for the one screw necessary to mounting. This sight promises to be both more traditional and to provide a greater range of elevation adjustment. That elevation adjustment might just come in handy with the wide range of bullet weights usable in the .30-40 cartridge. Mine came from a private seller who got this Ukrainian sight from Buffalo Arms. These sights are imported from the Ukraine and may not be currently available except from buyers who've not yet installed their sights.

Loading of the 1895 action is obviously not done the same way as the tube fed leverguns but it isn't quite the same as other box magazine guns either. There's a particular methodology used that ensures proper feeding of rimmed cartridges from the box magazine by ensuring the rim of each cartridge is ahead of the following cartridge.

http://home.comcast.net/~parslowb/labels/Reproductions.html
 
ooglassoo said:
This may be a dumb question but how do you put a trigger lock on a lever action?
Click to expand...

Yeah, it's a problem. The typical small two-piece "true" trigger locks really don't work. You can take one of the cable style locks and either open the action (lever) and run it through some opening that would prevent the action from closing again or, maybe, with the lever closed wrap it through the lever and around the stock twice, then lock it. Neither solution is particularly elegant but you should be able to do one or the other.

ETA: As others have indicated, the old .30-30 is a great eastern deer cartridge. I suspect more deer have been taken with it over the years than all other cartridges put together.
 
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30-30 may be top one or two open sighted rifles for up close brush hunting that exists. Not too sure of really long shots but I used to shoot an old '94 Winchester and it was a lot of fun to run ammo thru. It sounds like a good deal if it is in decent shape, whether or not it is a lever or bolt action.
 
To lock my levers, I use a cable lock through the lever and around the stock to prevent the action from opening.
 
I would not get the 30/30 if you need to make long shots. For shots in the brush/woods under 150 yards or so it will be fine. Over that and there are other calibers that should work better for you.

As for the trade, even if it isn't the right caliber for your needs, I would trade a PSP for if as long as it is in reasonable shape. If it ends up being a Browning BLR (especially in .308) you will hate it and should sell it to me!!

Dave
 
Tackdriver said:
I would not get the 30/30 if you need to make long shots. For shots in the brush/woods under 150 yards or so it will be fine. Over that and there are other calibers that should work better for you.

snip

Dave
Click to expand...


Your about 75 yards short on your guesstimate. If your zeroed at 150 yards with a 30-30 you'll get movement of deer accuracy from 0 out to about 225-230.
 
The 30-30 Winchester model 94 was the one rifle that "everyone" owned through the century. When boys grew up, their daddies would buy them one and that kept things going for Winchester for over 100 years. Today, no one buys their kid a rifle so Winchester found themselves out of business.

Those rifles are "brush guns"....nice and compact, easy to swing in the woods and bring to your shoulder and extremely accurate at 100 yards. With just iron sites, it's easy to ring a gong at the back of the range even though the sites are pretty rudimentary. Shoot some Remington soft-points or those new polymer tipped rounds and you'll kill deer with it with one shot. Followup shots are quick and easy with the nice action, too. It's robust, accurate, and compact.....three assets for a rifle you're going to drag through the woods.

Rome
 
A man told me that the .30-.30 cartridge has taken more deer in this country than any other cardridge. I don't know if it's true or not, but almost every person I know that hunts has hunted with it at sometime or another. I guess the .30-06 is right up there, though. I have a Winchester model 94 and I love it. I usually cable lock it when travelling.

ooglassoo said:
What do you guys think about a 30-30 lever for hunting deer? Sunday I am trading a Sony psp for a lever action 30-30. The guy says its a Browning but I tried to search Browning 30-30 and found nothing. I guess I will find out what it is on Sunday, but what do you guys think is it powerful enough for deer?
Thanks
Dennis
Click to expand...
 
Taipan01,

I do not want to argue with you on this and maybe I am mistaken. But I do disagree. My understanding is that an ethical shot on deer requires about 1100 foot pounds of energy upon impact. My dislike with the 30-30 is not is ability to group well enough, but its inability to retain energy.

My memory could be failing me, so I may be wrong on the 30-30 or have it confused with another caliber. If so someone let me know.

Dave
 
Tackdriver said:
Taipan01,

I do not want to argue with you on this and maybe I am mistaken. But I do disagree. My understanding is that an ethical shot on deer requires about 1100 foot pounds of energy upon impact. My dislike with the 30-30 is not is ability to group well enough, but its inability to retain energy.

My memory could be failing me, so I may be wrong on the 30-30 or have it confused with another caliber. If so someone let me know.

Dave
Click to expand...

No, you're correct - both the 150 gr and 170 gr standard factory loadings have well below 1100 ft-lbs of retained energy by the time they get out to 150 yards. Obviously, many deer have been killed with less, but at some point the question of hunting ethics needs to be considered.

Also, a .30-30 zeroed at 150 yards with either bullet will be hitting almost 5 inches low at 200, and nearly 10 inches low at 230, which means some holdover would be necessary, with all the problems that gets you into, and then there's the issue of group size at that range with a rifle and iron sights combination that's really not expected to do much better than 3 MOA accuracy.

Zeroing at 200 yards would largely correct the point-blank range problem, but obviously does nothing for the energy or accuracy issues, and some of the ballistics limitations might be lessened with the new Hornady ammo, but all of that said the .30-30 is still best suited as a short-range, quick-handling woods rifle, at which it excels.
 
I hunt back in my home State of PA and use either a .54 flintlock or a 30-30 Marlin lever gun
I can't speak to hunting up here in New England but I'd wager that 30-30s take 50-60 thousand deer a year in PA. And, yes, those numbers are right, in fact I might be a bit low in my estimate for 30-30 take. It's still one of the top five calibers.
It used to be okay for bear but PA bears are too big today, you gotta use enough gun.
 
Fixxah said:
30-30 may be top one or two open sighted rifles for up close brush hunting that exists. Not too sure of really long shots but I used to shoot an old '94 Winchester and it was a lot of fun to run ammo thru. It sounds like a good deal if it is in decent shape, whether or not it is a lever or bolt action.
Click to expand...

Just keep it under 200yds, I put at least 2 rounds into a big doe last November in Missouri and she kept going. Looked around for blood at least 2 hours and found nothing.
 
The Winchester model 94 in 3030 is an ideal hunting rifle for close quarters like heavy woods and small fields. It's most definitely an 100 yard or less rifle but, gosh, it's wonderful for what it does, is compact, light to carry and quick to acquire the target. I'm on a small metal gong at 100 yards with the rudimentary iron sites all day long. I wouldn't attempt a longer shot with it unless I was desperate.

Rome
 

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