Jack O'Conner
New member
This photo was sent by a friend. Unfortuanately, I do not have details to share about the hunt.
30-30 is a keeper!
Jack
30-30 is a keeper!
Jack
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Marlin takes dandy buck
- Thread starter Jack O'Conner
- Start date
30-30
Probably one the most underrated cartridges of all time, in a fast handling carbine with low recoil, it's just plain deadly on deer, bears, & pigs (yotes too, if close enough).
I once shot a 1/4" steel plate @100 yds, no dents just holes that looked like a drill was used. Awesome!
Probably one the most underrated cartridges of all time, in a fast handling carbine with low recoil, it's just plain deadly on deer, bears, & pigs (yotes too, if close enough).
I once shot a 1/4" steel plate @100 yds, no dents just holes that looked like a drill was used. Awesome!
Backwoodsboy
New member
Nice deer and timeless cartridge congrats to your buddy
Probably one the most underrated cartridges of all time,
It didn't start to get underrated until after 1950. Prior to that it was very highly thought of.
In the 1960's - 1970's it was well thought of by hunters, but gun enthusiasts and those who write magazine articles began to look down their noses at the 30-30. By 1980, it was truly underrated..... which is a real shame. It is a great cartridge.
It didn't start to get underrated until after 1950. Prior to that it was very highly thought of.
In the 1960's - 1970's it was well thought of by hunters, but gun enthusiasts and those who write magazine articles began to look down their noses at the 30-30. By 1980, it was truly underrated..... which is a real shame. It is a great cartridge.
Now that I am older and much more skeptical, I realize that Gunwriters are shills for the industry, sock puppets really, and if they happen to have degree in French or Journalism, they are over educated for their jobs.
Their job is product promotion. Have no doubt that sales are tracked after each printed infomercial and only those which consistently push sales numbers get those all expense paid writer’s symposiums, plant tours, hunting trips, free equipment and future commissions.
If you look at it this way, then it makes sense that they would be pooh-poohing the 30-30 in the Weatherby era of ultra high velocity cartridges and until now. Their job is to push the new, new thing, and 30-30’s are not that at all.
The funny thing is, the “tactical” cartridges now on the market, the 6.8 the guns in 7.62 X39, which they are shilling, they are just at 30-30 performance levels.
Which all goes to prove that the only real qualification for a gun writer is a flexible large colon. One that the industry can stick its arm up, so they can flap the gunwriters jaw.
Within 200 yards the 30-30 is a fine cartridge. I would not attempt to shoot something over that range as that is a long shot for a 150 grain bullet at 2250 fps (out of my Marlin) but within reasonable trajectory distances, it will do the job.
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Art Eatman
Staff in Memoriam
Not so much under-rated as replaced by rifles with much better sights (scope R&D was a big deal in the 1950s) and chamberings for flatter-shooting cartridges.
Many non-rural people got into hunting, and did not grow up with the skills common to those from farming/ranching backgrounds. That shift continues, even today.
How many of y'all have plowed behind a horse or choused cows out of mesquite brush? Whose casual recreation was taking the .22 rifle off to the woods, regularly, and hunting?
Face it: The typical buckhorn sights on most thutty-thuttys are what limit its range, not the ballistics of the cartridge.
Many non-rural people got into hunting, and did not grow up with the skills common to those from farming/ranching backgrounds. That shift continues, even today.
How many of y'all have plowed behind a horse or choused cows out of mesquite brush? Whose casual recreation was taking the .22 rifle off to the woods, regularly, and hunting?
Face it: The typical buckhorn sights on most thutty-thuttys are what limit its range, not the ballistics of the cartridge.
Art Eatman said:How many of y'all have plowed behind a horse or choused cows out of mesquite brush? Whose casual recreation was taking the .22 rifle off to the woods, regularly, and hunting?
Well, not mesquite, but certainly out of a palmetto swamp. On horseback. I raised my boys on a small farm where the primary recreation was going off into the woods. After the kids were grown and gone, I moved away from there, in 2000, so my boys recall those days as they lived them.
You're right, Art, that our primary rifles in that time were the .30-30 levers and the .22 rifles of all stripes. Those two cartridges accounted for everything we shot, along with the shotguns for feathered game.
I think you are right Art. The limitations of the 30-30 has always been the rifles it was chambered in, and the old-school iron sights are the issue with those rifles. I just recently was shooting a Marlin 336 with buckhorn sights, and it was very frustrating after years of shooting scopes, red-dots, and aperature sights.
The majority of the 30-30s I came into contact with as a youth in the 1980s were Marlins, and they almost always had a weaver 4X scope on them... must be a Missouri thing, but I never saw a Winchester back then, probably due to the difficulty of mounting a scope... And I never saw a hunter using iron sights.
The majority of the 30-30s I came into contact with as a youth in the 1980s were Marlins, and they almost always had a weaver 4X scope on them... must be a Missouri thing, but I never saw a Winchester back then, probably due to the difficulty of mounting a scope... And I never saw a hunter using iron sights.
Art Eatman
Staff in Memoriam
The top ejection on a 94 makes a scope rather impractical. The tang-mounted peep sight is a vast improvement over the usual buckhorn.