No 30-30 thread?

[John]

:shock:

I've been "gunny" all my life, many times I enjoy the acquisition and ownership so much a particular gun may sit around a year or more before I get around to shooting it.

But rifles in general do not interest me much, I have two of what I consider the best all-around rifle ever made - the Marlin 30-30. One is scoped for hunting, the other is open sights for defense. It's a bit pricey, but I have done some plinking with the open sight gun. It's pleasant to shoot, more accurate than I am, and packs a deadly punch. So what do they make all those other rifles for? :lol:

 

[grumpyvette]

Ive been extensively into HUNTING big game and LONG RANGE rifle use all my adult life,
the 30/30 is a great deer rifle inside its effective range,its cheap to feed, and reasonably effective, but its flat or round nose tip bullet profiles, and common 150 grain-170 grain bullet designs, dictated by tube magazines, and case capacity and its fairly low, by todays standards velocity leaves it limited to about a 150 yard-200 yard max effective range on deer size game.
now thats fine in most areas where most deer are shot at under that range, and statistically most deer are killed at under 120 yards, but if you look at lets say a 257 Roberts, 7mm 08 rem,308 Winchester or 270 Winchester and their ballistics, you'll quickly see why those calibers have an advantage, in trajectory and retained energy out past 150 yards.
now I've owned a 30/30 marlin and its a nice rifle,
but I feel I significantly upgraded with my swap to a 358 win BLR,
and while I would not feel at all under-gunned for brush country deer with a 30/30 marlin ,
ID suggest a 257 Roberts, 7mm 08 ,270 win or a 30/06 sprg in a Remington 7600 slide action,
or a savage #110 bolt gun is a far more versatile rifle

BTW don,t think for a moment I don,t like those marlin lever rifles, I own and hunt the thicker timber here in florida with a marlin 1894 44 mag version, but just like the 30/30 the 44 mag has a more restrictive range that some of the other calibers I listed, but like I stated thats not a big deal if you hunt areas where you'll seldom even see game past 70 -90 yards, plus with the 44 mag I can hand load hard cast bullets and shoot for a few cents per cartridge, far lower cost than factory ammo
.

 

[John]

Oh, I wasn't serious at all - that was entirely tongue-in-cheek. I do love them and it's my favorite rifle, but I do know there are far too many "rifle jobs" the 30-30 will never come close to doing. It meets my simple rifle needs very very well. I do have a NIB Bushmaster that's in the box full of packing grease that's been in the house almost a year and a half now - my first, and I do need to shoot it/sight it in.

 

[grumpyvette]

"Why a 30-30"
honestly,
a 30-30 just never impressed me,but Im in the minority as they sell millions of those rifles.
it might be great in the opinion of many guys,
but I found other options suit me better,
Ive owned both a 94 Winchester and marlin 336 30/30,
both were good functional guns but I found I like a marlin 44 mag carbine better,
for hunting thick brush and a browning BLR in 358 win, is my choice over the 30/30 or the 44 mag, if I expect to get shots at bigger stuff than white tail deer at over 70-120 yards,
where I find the 44 carbine works just fine on deer.
the 44 marlin carbine I have, has been extremely reliable using 300 grain hard cast gas check bullets over 20 grains of H110
the 358 BLR uses a 250 speer over 44 grains of imr 4064 ,
so I can,t think of any reason to own a 30/30 personally
Ive re-read this thread several times and can,t help but feel that anyone reading thru the thread might get the idea a 30/30 is much superior to a 44 carbine , I have not found that to be true, both work reasonably well, neither is ideal or really impressive in my mind,
If you want impressive kills get a 30/06 or 270, win, but then your talking about a much larger heavier and expensive rifle,
now obviously the load used and where you hit game mater,
Ive used a hard cast 280 grain-and- several 300 grain bullet designs with a fairly wide flat nose in my 44 ammo,Ive used LEE and lyman,plus a few NEI designs.
in my experience Ive seen little or no difference in the performance on deer and hogs between the 30/30 I used with remington 170 grain soft points and
what I feel is a properly loaded 44 mag,(310 grain hard cast bullets)
now Ive only killed about a 1/2 dozen hogs and 3 deer with the 30/30 ,
but Ive killed several dozen hogs and at least 8 deer in the last 45 years, that I can remember with a 44 mag carbine or revolver and the results have been similar, in a few cases game dropped where it was hit, in most cases it made a short run then dropped, with either caliber.
the point is that in my opinion either caliber does a good job, but neither is as effective as the guns that hit with more authority like a 308 win, 30/06 sprg or 358 win,
but that in no way makes them inadequate for the job.


http://www.handloads.com/loaddata/defau ... pe=Handgun

BTW I added a 2.5X scope and a recoil pad, both make the light 44 marlin carbine, far easier to shoot with my old eyes.

yeah the recoil pad added might have little or nothing to do with reducing recoil,I installed a recoil pad on mine because I shoot best with a 14.3" length of pull stock, and yeah, it looks out of place but the rifle now shoots as if its part of me.

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/941689 ... white-line

http://media.midwayusa.com/pdf/referenc ... nstall.pdf