Hornandy 3030 160g leverevolution

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Koda94

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I was thinking of switching my sight in to the Hornandy item no. 82730 load and wondering if its worth it or really has any accuracy advantage? Currently I’m sighted in at 100 yds with a Federal 150g load, in the past I’ve sighted the same Federal load in at 200 yds for deer hunting in more open country with success.

the Hornandy load is new to me, I've never tried it. It claims to only drop 12.6 inches at 300 yds. with a 200yd zero if I read their website correctly... http://www.hornady.com/store/30-30-Win-160-gr-FTX-LEVERevolution/

Im curious if anyone has any experience with this ammo and if its worth using? Im shooting a Marlin 336 with a 3x9 scope.

thanks in advance.
 
sorry

Well no experience with the Leverevolution ammo, but I'll offer a comment or two.

Honestly, I think the Lever ammo series is an answer to a question nobody asked, and a ploy by Hornady (who I like) to sell more ammo. I'd hazzard to offer that most game killed by 30-30 is taken at 100 yds or under....maybe way under, and for that the old, standard slugs do just fine with no improvement.

Although your Marline/30-30 is capable of it, if 200 yd shots ( that's speculation on my part) are in your hunting future, I'd offer that you really need to consider another rifle/caliber combo. The advent of the price point/poly rifles make doing so more affordable than maybe ever before.

"Course I have no idea of anybody's circumstances, but if I were going to use a 30-30 I'd zero it with traditional 150 slugs (maybe at 150 as opposed to 200, to reduce midrange rise) , check my POI at 200 (if you must) , 100 and 50 to see what was going on, and have at it. A 200 yard shot would be against the odds, but would appear long, and holding over would be a natural tendancy, and knowing same you be ahead.
 
Their trajectory charts are a bit misleading. They don't actually list a range where it is zeroed, just showing it .2" high at 200 yards. The actual zero could be anywhere between 225 and 250 yards. They also show 3" high at 100 yards and if you look closely they show it tested in a 24" barrel.

If you take any round nose 150 or 170 gr bullet hand loaded to the same speed, then zero at 225 or 250 yards the drop at 300 yards is going to be virtually the same. All of the other manufacturers show the 30-30 zeroed at 100 yards. I don't like being 3" high at 100 yards. If you do that you could easily shoot over a deer at close range.

You'll never get those speeds from typical 20" barrels either. Their real advantage is that the pointed bullets do impact at a little faster speed. This may, or may not help at longer ranges. It won't hurt.

That doesn't mean they are a bad choice, just don't expect to turn a 30-30 into a long range gun. Those bullets in my experience don't cost any more than regular bullets and tend to be accurate in most rifles. I've read that some don't feed them well, but this appears to be rare. I'd give them a try.
 
I always used the super x winchester 150 in my marlin. Handed it down to my son and went to buy him some ammo. Super x was out so I grabbed a couple boxes of the 160 leverlution. He managed 3 deer opening day, better than any day I ever had.
On paper they don't seem to group as well as the super x did. But, we couldn't tell by what was in the freezer. Imo 30-30 is always 200yd cartridge with no problem. We have rung some steel with it at 300 but I can't comment on any group size. Ours wears a 4x scope so really isn't set up for anything over 100 anyway. Like others said most dear kills are under 100, probably under 50. That is the 30-30 strong point.
 
I used them the one season I shot a 30-30. There are 2 things about them you should keep in mind:

1. Not every gun will group well with them. I got lucky - mind did OK. Some people with identical rifles as I had were getting shotgun sized patterns.
2. When my gun was sighted dead on with normal 150gr RN bullets (at 100 yds), the LeverEvolution group was centered almost 2" higher.
 
The best part of the Leverevolution thing is the powder. I dont care much for the Hornady bullets. But that powder works wonders in my regular 30-30, 32 win special loads.
With the standard FN bullets you get about 100 fps extra for nothing. Plus a bunch of guys are finding it a good powder for cast bullet loading.
I have not used it for that yet but I will.
 
The best part of the Leverevolution thing is the powder. I dont care much for the Hornady bullets. But that powder works wonders in my regular 30-30, 32 win special loads.
Click to expand...
What is the powder? Is it available by the lb or are you re-working the factory loads?
 
The reason Im interested in this round is it seems to stand out ballistically compared to other commercial loads... its stands out enough to be an outlier, IMO. Thats why Im questioning the accuracy of what Hornandy is saying on their website.

all things being equal, and they never really are, I generally get the results Federal lists for their 150g. Federal no longer sells the ammo last I stocked up and sighted in on, replaced with their new Fusion line... regardless this means I need to re-sight in so now is the time to switch ammo and im considering the Hornandy leverevolution...

I plugged the info on some the new Hornandy load into my comparison spreadsheet. Attached is a screenshot.... compared to others this new Hornandy load shoots flatter, faster and has more energy than all the rest. Thats a significant improvement for the ol 3030. see for yourself....

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I'd hazzard to offer that most game killed by 30-30 is taken at 100 yds or under....maybe way under, and for that the old, standard slugs do just fine with no improvement.
Click to expand...
Most killed with all rifles of any caliber is taken at less than 100 yds.
Around 90% is at less than 200 yds
 
I like the ammunition and I like the bullets. I have a non-traditional .30-30 in the form of a Remington 788 bolt action. It runs from a single stack detachable magazine, so I can use any spitzer bullet I want. However, the ogive on most spitzers is too far back and to seat the bullets to fit in the magazine, they don't always work without having to trim my necks way back to fit the ogive outside the neck.

The Hornady factory ammunition shoots small clover leaf patterns in my M788 rifle. Though I must admit that the 170 grain Winchester silver box does the same. I don't hunt with this rifle, I do play with it quite a bit. I find it doesn't matter what you use just make sure it shoots the best in your rifle.
 
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from those that have used the Hornandy ammo it sounds like their quality is reputable, I may stock up on some of this and give it a try.


FWIW I’ve taken plenty of big game at 200 yds including with my 3030
 
Never shot a deer with the LeverEvolution, but it sure stretched out my old Glenfield.

Minute of milk jug at 300 yards consistently.
 
The advantage of Leverevolution ammo is not accuracy, but a flatter trajectory from the pointed bullet helped by a bit more velocity from the custom load.

It will turn a 30-30 into a longer range rifle by maybe 50 yards. It will not make it a long range rifle.
 
Bullet drop is not as important as remaining energy. Only 1025 ft-lbs. with that stuff.
The Leverevolution ammo is really about the bullet being able to be used in a tube mag and not much else. Don't think there's enough advantage to 'em to make any difference. There's no guarantee your rifle will shot 'em well enough to even think about a 300 yard shot either.
1323 pixels is too big.
 
I agree about the remaining energy, although that should still work for deer.

A lot of comments here keep referring to not needing to shoot long range with a 3030.... to clarify Im not wanting to make it a long range rifle nor do I even want to shoot out to 300 yards, but what I like about the advertised ballistics of this Hornandy round in improving the trajectory of the range I am comfortable with this rifle; 0 - 200 yds.

the 3030 has a terrible trajectory it drops like a wet sock. If I sight it in at 100yds it drops about 17" at 200. if I sight it in at 200yds it shoots over 4" high at 100. This new Hornandy round seems to almost cut that trajectory in half.
 
I bought a Marlin MXLR in .308 ME in 2007 and I have used it every year since. My rifle, using this ammunition, is very accurate and the flex tip bullet is absolutely devastating on deer. I have yet to lose a deer that I have shot with this bullet. My son has the same rifle and uses the same ammo, and his experience is the same as mine.
 
Not necessarily knocking the leverevolution ammo, and if it's accurate in YOUR gun, then by all means use it, but reading various threads over the years mentioning it (whether talking about .30-30 win, .45-70, .444 marlin, .44 magnum, etc), it's come to my attention that people who like it seem to think (and claim) that "it adds [ 30 / 40 / 50 / 60 / 70 / 80 ] yards to your range!!".

Well, no. Ceteris paribus (discounting the extra long barrels they test it in), in the real world, the added BC (which is still not great) is gonna add about 5 or 10 yards to your PBR - maaaaybe 15 yards. It's an advantage, but a very small one indeed.
 
Koda94: Try sighting in at between 2" and 3" high at 100 yards. That will give you a "good enough" deer hunting point blank out to about 200 yards.

gunrunner1: The .308 ME is NOT the same thing as a .30-30, even though Hornady uses a similar (but NOT identical) 160 gr flex nose FTX bullet. The .308 ME is a hotter round that performs about the same as the .300 Savage. The .308 ME actually gives you honest 300 yard performance.
 
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