.30 carbine for white tail deer... why not?

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Leafy bug, that is strange. What type of bullet was used? Did it hit both shoulder blades? Did it fragment or lose a considerable bit of mass? I always weigh retrieved bullets to new ones to compare weight.

I've seen some regular old soft points do similar things but it was always attributable to the bullet hitting both shoulder blades.

I also agree with your post on ethics. I wouldn't use this caliber personally because it's rare that I can get closer than 50yd to my game but if you're in some thick woods and can get them within archery range, almost any center fire cartridge will do the trick if aimed correctly.

There's some shots you don't take even with a belted Magnum, so I agree, being an ethical hunter is knowing when and when not to pull the trigger.
 
Mardanlin,
It was a 150gr soft point. I did not hit any significant bone, and the bullet was completely intact. It did mushroom, but very little fragmentation.
I was suprised by,the result too
 
The first deer I saw killed was shot with a .30 Carbine. It was down, and the other left standing was hit with a .22-250. The hunters were abandoning it.

The resulting conversation turned up the .30 was armor piercing Army surplus.

At the time it only reinforced the notion that only .308 was the minimum practical round. Later on I found .30-30 would do the job, then 7.62x39, then 5.56. Each has it's maximum effective range, which is a lot shorter than what some brag about shooting paper.

If you choose to hunt with .30 Carbine under 100m then it would also go that you'd have little need for any kind of optic, either. Exactly the same as the AR pistol I'm building for the same purpose. I see no reason to see a target further than I can ethically take it.
 
I'd hunt whitetails with any of the above, but would consider the 30 carbine a 25-50 yard gun. The 357 mag, from a rifle is a 100-150 yard gun, a 223 is a 150-200 yard gun.
Click to expand...

I'd agree. Hit any bone thicker than a rib, and its not going to go well.


The suitability of a cailber has a lot to do with hunting skills, and the ability to get within range and conditions for a marginal caliber to work.

My question to the OP is this: What is your reason for wanting to use this gun? Is it because you've taken a lot of deer with more suitable arms, and you are looking to increase the challenge, or is it because you are wanting to go deer hunting, and this is the gun you have? What is "challenging" for a seasoned veteran might be a really bad choice for a less than seasoned non-veteran hunter.
 
Erno86, When did that law come about in Maryland? The only time I ever saw someone hunting with a .30 carbine was in Maryland about 20-25 years ago.
 
The .30 Carbine is legal in VA or at least it was 35 years ago when my high school hunting buddy was taking deer regularly with his. Bagged more deer than I did with my 336C 30-30
 
In Ohio, I can hunt deer with a 5" barrel 357 Magnum. I can use a rifle chambered in 38spl or 45acp. I have no doubt whatsoever that my M1 carbine could do at least as well as any of those three...if it were legal, that is.
 
I have killed a few deer with a 357 magnum revolver. The 30 carbine rifle is at least as powerful as a 357 magnum pistol. I think you are ok so long as you are realistic with your own abilities.
 
as long as you use round nose soft points and not FMJ, I don't see any problem with it. I've used 9mm on deer, all you have to do is learn your holds, learn it's limitations, test penetration, expansion, ETC.
 
If it's all you have and you are willing to use the right ammo and pass up any shot that isn't close enough, why not. If you're just trying to prove something, why?

Tony
 
Mom's cousin was a Marine in the Pacific in WW2. He really liked the .30 carbine for what he had to do there. His comment was "When we saw a Jap, we let him have a full mag and that usually did the job". He carried a .30 carbine for deer hunting. Since he only lived a mile from my place, I could always tell when he saw a deer-5,6,10 shots blasted as fast as semi-auto would send them. Yes, he killed some deer but mostly because he was a good hunter in a target rich environment. No one knows how many were wounded and got away.
At VERY short range, the.30 carbine will kill a deer given proper placement and bullet construction. As an everyday hunting cartridge, it's a dismal failure.
PS. I'm not Larry Potterfield but that's the way it is.
 
"At VERY short range, the.30 carbine will kill a deer given proper placement and bullet construction. As an everyday hunting cartridge, it's a dismal failure."

That's pretty much the way I see it. I've messed with them, off and on since 1954. Fun to shoot. I've wound up with my father's bring-back from the ETO; enjoyable little critter. But I wouldn't use it as a primary hunting rifle.
 
My dad use one years ago for deer hunting. He always said if it didn't have 110 Gr HPs it was useless to try downing anything deer with it. During one of those events just prior to his quip. He was posted in a tree scaffold with his 30 carbine one deer season. I was one of the six deer drivers pushing deer out of a 40 acre parcel for those posted old gents. A yearling fawn broke the brush line just in front of me and high tailed it straight to my dad's stand across a wide open cut hay field off to one side. He shot and emptied that little carbines 20 rd clip on that little deer. It was hit in so many places I doubt there wasn't a piece of meat that didn't have a hole or blood shot in/on it . At the deer's exhausted final stop right in front of the ol'mans stand. They both ended up looking at each other. Deer standing panting & bleeding and the old guy out of ammo and shaking his fist at it. Another poster sitting in his stand down from my Fathers shot and down the little buck after laughing his butt off over all that commotion. After supper that night my father took a fair amount of good humor ridiculing. The very next night again after supper it started all over again but this time those neighbor fellers who we hunted with presented my dad with a packaged gift. Turned out to be 30 rd banana clip. My dad never carried that rifle out in the field to deer hunt after that occasion in the Fall. But it was well known his summer salt lick scaffold seen allot more activity with old guy and his brand new 30 rd G.I preferred mini assault deer rifle. Boy them were the days. Laugh & laugh some more till one's tears flowed.
 
I have seen one deer taken with a .30 carbine. My father shot a big doe at about 60 yards with a FMJ round. Fired one shot. It ran 15-20 yards and dropped dead. That little FMJ round blew a hole in that deer's liver about the size of a golf ball. Surprised me. No, I'm not advocating the use of FMJ ammo. The point is that a M1 carbine, within reasonable range, will no doubt do it's job if you do yours.
 
I have killed a deer with one but I wouldn't recommend it. It just doesn't do a lot of damage and very often doesn't exit. If the deer runs a ways the blood trail is likely to be nearly non existent. Way better choices out there.
 
Met a poacher once who used the M1 carbine, said it was one-shot out to 75 yards, no further, since he only wanted to shoot once.
 
.30 Carbine/Deer?

Well, Leafybug... There you have it; As many different opinions for as against.

As for my $.02... I've loaded the 110gr RNSP carbine bullet for my Marlin
.30-30s since the '70s for varmint loads and light loads for the in-law's kids to shoot. Some were run through a CORBIN cannelure tool and loaded to 2000fps+/- to parallel .30 Carbine ballistics. And YES... They have taken their share of deer. Forget shoulder shots; Go for the chest dead behind the shoulder....cross-side, keeping it to 50-60 yds. more or less and you'll get your deer.

Bedlamite.. you might find that the BARNES 110 TTSX may be a tad too long to run through the Carbine mag. I load it to 2100-2200 fps in the H&R
.30-30 barrel for some of the smaller hogs we have running around here, as well as some deer at longer ranges (100-150 yds.), as well as with the SIERRA SPEER and HORNADY SP counterparts. Sometimes single-loaded in the Marlins w/one in the tube.

Leafy.. You've heard both sides of the argument. The .30 Carbine HAS taken deer, just how cleanly, or not, has depended on the shooter and his method. It's up to you to decide just how you wish to do it.

While stationed at Ft. Benning years ago there was a soldier who carried a RUGER Blackhawk w/10" barrel in .30 Carbine in the stand when hunting the shotgun/pistol areas. Any deer which came within 20-25 yds. of his stand ended up going home with him...... Nine times out of ten with a .30 cal. hole through the boiler room. "'Nuff said for the Carbine round.

WILL.
 
My Grandfather has hunted with his M1 Carbine many times. He was never into shooting as much as me. He's took more than a couple deer with 110 Grain Soft Points, in original stock and sights, too.
 
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