{"id":1048,"date":"2019-05-31T16:17:20","date_gmt":"2019-05-31T20:17:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wholesalehunter.com\/blog\/?p=1048"},"modified":"2020-02-02T23:25:46","modified_gmt":"2020-02-03T04:25:46","slug":"how-about-a-30-30-by-craig-boddington","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wholesalehunter.com\/blog\/how-about-a-30-30-by-craig-boddington\/","title":{"rendered":"HOW ABOUT A .30-30? By Craig Boddington"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It\u2019s often said that the .30-30 Winchester <\/a>has \u201ctaken more deer than any other cartridge.\u201d Axioms like this are hard to prove and I can\u2019t prove this one. Over the years, I\u2019ve taken deer with numerous different cartridges\u2026but only a handful with a .30-30.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even so, I think it\u2019s probably true. Introduced in 1895, the .30-30\u2019s original 160-grain load barely hit 2000 feet per second, slow by today\u2019s standards\u2026but faster than any black powder cartridge. Compared to the large-cased cartridges of the day, the .30-30 was a tiny little thing. Early users quickly learned that its new smokeless propellant harnessed a lot of power and flattened trajectory. The .30-30\u2019s also-new jacketed bullet penetrated well and offered a new dimension to bullet performance: Expansion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the euphoria over this newfound velocity the .30-30 was often used for large game, elk, moose, and even big bear. Undoubtedly, it still is, and with perfect shot placement (and, in its traditional lever-action platform, with fast repeat shots) it will get the job done. However, in 1895 and today, deer are America\u2019s most widespread and popular big game. The .30-30 was quickly found extremely effective on deer-sized game\u2026and remains so today. No one can estimate how many millions of deer have fallen to .30-30s. Winchester has made 7.5 million Model 94s, most of them in .30-30, and millions still in use. Add in hundreds of thousands of lever-action .30-30s from Marlin<\/a>, Mossberg<\/a>, and Savage<\/a>; a few slide-actions, and a major sprinkling of single-shots. The .30-30\u2019s rimmed case is probably best-suited to traditional tubular-magazine lever actions, but it was chambered to a surprising number of early bolt-actions!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Bruce Duncan with a big Idaho tom mountain lion and his battered Model 94 .30-30 carbine, short, light, easy to carry, for generations the odds-on choice for houndsmen.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Despite the many cartridges that are faster, shoot flatter, and harness more power, the .30-30 remains among our best-selling cartridges. Perhaps more surprising, it remains among the top cartridges in reloading die sales. Admittedly, this is partly because there are so many .30-30 rifles out there. However, I think it\u2019s also partly because the .30-30 remains a useful hunting cartridge, with relatively light recoil and deer-killing efficiency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

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Hornady\u2019s LEVERevolution ammo has greatly increased the versatility of the .30-30. Left, 140-grain MonoFlex and 160-grain FTX; far right, a standard 150-grain round-nose load. Traditional blunt-nosed bullets are very effective at short range, but Hornady\u2019s spitzer bullets with flexible polymer tips extend effective range to at least 200 yards.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Nobody ever said the\n.30-30 was a long-range cartridge\u2026but not everyone needs<\/em> to shoot at longer ranges. On our Kansas farm most of our\nwhitetails are taken at less than 100 yards\u2026and only a couple of stands offer\neven the potential for a shot beyond 200 yards. If you\u2019re sitting over Southern\nsoybean fields or endless expanses of Canadian wheat farms, then that\u2019s a\ndifferent story. But, across the continent the .30-30 shoots flat enough for\nmost whitetail hunting\u2026and hits plenty hard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although I\u2019ve taken few deer with a .30-30, I\u2019ve used it a lot for wild hogs. In Texas and the south, most hogs are taken from stands; as with whitetails, the most likely shooting distances are known. Alternatively, a fair amount of hog hunting is done with hounds. In all dog hunting shooting distances are very close. Whether for hogs, black bears, or mountain lions, almost every experienced houndsman I\u2019ve ever known has a short, fast-handling, and much-battered .30-30 carbine. Most of my hog hunting has been along California\u2019s Central Coast. Dogs are legal, baiting is not, but most of my California pig hunting is glassing and stalking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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John Stucker, Boddington, and Doug Mangham with some hogs taken on Doug\u2019s and John\u2019s deer lease in the Texas Hill Country. Our rifles ran the gamut: Stucker used his Sabatti .450\/.400 double; Boddington used a .257 Roberts\u2026and Doug used a Marlin 336 in .30-30 with a Skinner aperture rear sight!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In spot-and-stalk hunting\nyou have no idea what kind of shot you might get! Pigs have keen noses and excellent\nhearing, but either they can\u2019t see very well or use their eyes only as a\ntertiary defense. Get the wind right and move quietly, and in our mixed cover\nan approach can usually be made. As with deer, I\u2019ve taken hogs with a lot of\ndifferent cartridges. In the 25 years I\u2019ve lived on the Central Coast our\nyear-around hog hunting has served as my cartridge-bullet-rifle test lab.\nLonger shots are surely possible, but over the years I\u2019ve taken just a couple\nof hogs beyond sensible .30-30 range\u2014and I\u2019ve never had any reason to suspect\nthe .30-30 was anything less than plenty of gun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mind you, wild hogs can be larger than any deer, and although the whitetail is very tough, I think a big boar is tougher. But not tough enough to withstand a well-placed bullet from a .30-30. Despite mild paper ballistics, the .30-30 has a lot going for it. In 1895 Winchester chose the .308-inch bullet diameter of our then-new military cartridge, the .30-40 Krag<\/a>, adopted in 1892 A few years later we moved to a larger-cased rimless cartridge that we came to know as the .30-06. The .30-06 is faster and more powerful than the .30-30, but here\u2019s the point: Since the 1890’s we have known that a .30-caliber is a big<\/em> bullet on deer-sized game. Within a cartridge\u2019s effective range, a .30-caliber hits harder than a bullet of smaller diameter. With a century and a quarter of experience, we also know that, at .30-30 velocities, .30-30 bullets perform well, expanding reliably and providing deep penetration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Almost all current .30-30 rifles accept either scopes or red-dot sights, significantly extending range\u2026especially in low-light conditions. This is a Mossberg M464 .30-30 mounted with an Aimpoint red-dot sight.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A century or so back the\n.30-30\u2019s original 160-grain load was replaced by 150 and 170-grain loads, which\nremain standard .30-30 fodder. As smokeless propellants improved velocities\nwere also increased; the 150-grain load is standard today at 2390 fps; the\nheavy 170-grain load at about 2225 fps. The .30-30 rifle I have the most\nexperience with is a short-barreled Model 94 Trapper. It grouped especially\nwell with Winchester\u2019s old 170-grain Silvertip load, so that\u2019s what I\u2019ve\nusually used. Historically, the tubular magazine lever guns are limited to\nflat- or round-nosed bullets, with aerodynamics sort of like thrown rocks. In\nmy 16-inch barrel my actual velocities are lower than advertised, but who cares.\nThat slow 170-grain bullet consistently delivered through-and-through\npenetration on both deer and wild hogs, and I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve taken a shot\nbeyond 100 yards with that rifle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today we have newer, game-changing options. Introduced in 2005, Hornady\u2019s LEVERevolution<\/a> line incorporates sharp-pointed aerodynamic bullets with flexible polymer tips that are safe to use in tubular magazines. New propellants allowed slightly increased velocity. LEVERevolution now offers two .30-30 loads with spitzer bullets: 140-grain homogenous-alloy MonoFlex bullet at a zippy (for the .30-30.) 2465 fps; and a 160-grain FTX (Flexible Tip eXpanding) at 2400 fps. Sight either load about three inches high at 100 yards and you\u2019re dead-on at 200 yards. So stoked, the .30-30 is thus perfectly viable beyond 200 yards on deer-sized game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Kansas neighbor Chuck Herbel on the bench with his favorite \u201ctruck rifle,\u201d a Winchester 94 .30-30. He recalls that he bought it when he was a young beat patrolman in Wichita\u2026at a retail price of 60 bucks!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Depending on where and\nhow we hunt, many of us don\u2019t need to shoot even that far. So, allow me to let\nyou in on a little secret: Hornady\u2019s new bullets expand well and penetrate\nreliably. However, blunt-nosed bullets, especially flat-points, tend to deliver\na heavy initial blow, and typically, blunt-nosed bullets initiate expansion\nmore rapidly than sharp-pointed bullets. Those of us who crave ranging\nabilities have damned blunt-nosed bullets since the 1900\u2019s. However, I submit\nthat the .30-30\u2019s tremendous reputation as a deer cartridge is based, at least\nsomewhat, on those hard-hitting traditional blunt-nosed slugs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Historically, most of my hunting with a .30-30 has been with iron sights. This sharply limits my range anyway, so I\u2019ve mostly used traditional flat-points and round-noses, and I\u2019ve been perfectly happy with the results. Today, with iron sights getting a bit fuzzy, I\u2019ve gone to either scopes or red-dot sights. With extended capability, I\u2019m using Hornady\u2019s spitzer<\/a> bullets, also perfectly happy with these results\u2026but if you know<\/em> your shots will be close, don\u2019t overlook the traditional blunt-nosed slugs. Everybody, including Hornady, still offers them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Boddington admits that he can no longer resolve open sights as well as he once could\u2026but his M94 Trapper still passes the \u201cpaper plate test\u201d easily, adequate accuracy for short-range work on deer and wild hogs.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

With so many brave new cartridges we tend to think of the .30-30 as mild and unassuming, but let\u2019s not sell it short. The formula that derives kinetic energy in foot-pounds uses the square of velocity, while bullet weight is taken \u201cas is\u201d and bullet diameter (frontal area) is not considered at all. Slower cartridges cannot win the foot-pounds race, but most experienced hunters agree that paper ballistics don\u2019t tell the whole story. Hornady\u2019s FTX 160-grain load (not <\/em>a light bullet!) at 2400 fps develops 2046 foot-pounds of energy, over a ton. This is theoretically adequate for elk, more than plenty for deer, and enough for most anything between deer and elk. The amazingly popular 6.5mm Creedmoor, with a 140-grain bullet at 2700 fps, develops about 2200 foot-pounds. With foot-pounds, velocity always wins, so this is more kinetic energy than any .30-30 load can deliver\u2026but not by all that much! No scientific formula exists to properly factor in bullet weight, frontal area, and bullet performance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My experience suggests that a .30-caliber (.308-inch) bullet hits harder than a 6.5mm (.264-inch) bullet. Certainly it delivers more energy on impact and makes a bigger hole! If you need to shoot at longer ranges Lord knows we have plenty of choices\u2026but for short to very medium ranges don\u2019t overlook the .30-30\u2026it\u2019s still the deer-slaying machine it has always been! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s often said that the .30-30 Winchester has \u201ctaken more deer than any other cartridge.\u201d Axioms like this are hard to prove and I can\u2019t prove this one. Over the years, I\u2019ve taken deer with numerous different cartridges\u2026but only a handful with a .30-30. Even so, I think it\u2019s probably true. Introduced in 1895, the … Continue reading “HOW ABOUT A .30-30? By Craig Boddington”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[173,31,68,69,174,33,160,154,140,39,118,124,17],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wholesalehunter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1048"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wholesalehunter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wholesalehunter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wholesalehunter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wholesalehunter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1048"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.wholesalehunter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1048\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1197,"href":"https:\/\/www.wholesalehunter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1048\/revisions\/1197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wholesalehunter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wholesalehunter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wholesalehunter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}