This Years Favorite Gun/Caliber for deer?

Question to the 30-30 users. I stopped hunting maybe 12 years ago now. When I did hunt it was a 30-06. Now I target shoot. During the last 4 years of collecting brass,during deer season and throughout the year , The one you find very little of and less and less every year is the 30-30. What is the deal with the 30-30?. I mean this as a good question. Is there something special about it,is it a novelty cartridge, is it a fad?. What benefits do you get from-it.
 
The deal with the .30-30 is that more and more people are catching magnum-itis, or other related diseases such as velocititis and new-and-improved-itis.

Symptoms of this disease include but are not limited to:

Nagging pain in the shoulder from unnecessary recoil, bloodshot meat on the subject deer, feeling of impulsive need to buy each new cartridge that comes out every year, and gullible tendencies that lead the patient to believe the cartridge he used successfully last year is no longer sufficient.

If you experience any of these symptoms lasting longer than four hours please seek the attention of an antique lever-action rifle immeadiately.

I'm partial to the .35 rem, but it's close kin to the .30-30. Only slower and much closer to obsolescence.
 
44 AMP Another issue I have with the Winchester, is the collector's market. Not the people who are, and have always been collecting old Winchesters (or even old Marlins), but the speculators, including gun dealers.

When the last iteration of Winchester (in the US) closed down, EVERYTHING with Winchester's name on it jumped in price. Winchester 94s (perhaps the most produced sporting rife on the planet) was suddenly "collectable". The price seemed to jump $200 almost overnight.

What had been 200-250 dollar rifles on the used rack instantly became 400 dollar rifles. While I am a firm believer in capitalism, and I understand the law of supply and demand, I found the virtual instant and comprehensive price jump to be ...distasteful. It was not a case of supply drying up and remaining pieces selling for more (like with milsurp rifles), it was a case of retailers anticipating by a considerable amount the expected collector interest and lack of supply. By a considerable amount, in money and time. To me, that felt like gouging. Not any reflection on the rifle(s), just the people dealing in them.
Today 07:43 AM
 
I dont think "magnumitis" is the driving factor behind the lever guns approaching becoming obsolete. Accuracy is a major issue. As a rule, lever guns are scatterguns compared to bolt actions. I know, some lever actions are accurate out of the box and you can work on them and make them shoot, but as a rule they wont shoot with a $350 bolt action. You also have the factor in play of those wanting a fast follow up shot are now buying auto loaders instead of lever actions. It seems that "magnumitis" was the craze of the 60's through the 90's. Ballistic drop compensating scopes, and standard cartridges seems to be the trend at the present moment.
 
Reynolds357- that's all true but when did the lever-action .30-30 become inadequate for deer hunting? Over the last few years they have become not accurate enough, not enough velocity/energy for 100+ yards, and so on.

Did the deer get harder to hit, did they get tougher to kill? I'm not saying all the cartridges standardized in the last 50 years aren't great, they are, I don't own any magnums but they have their uses, just not for me. What's happened is that we as gun buyers have been convinced that what we have been using just won't cut it any more.
 
I don't think it has a thing to do with "What we used to use doesn't cut it anymore."

It's that we (the younger generations) DIDN'T used to use them. The people who grew up shooting .30-30 (and similar) did so because it was the latest and greatest. I mean, why use the new fangled 30-30? The flint lock we used for years just ain't good enough anymore?

I guarantee arguments like that went on at the time. At the same time, guys saying "to hell with that old junk, we got the 30-30 now!"

The .30-30 and other cartridges lose favor because new and better comes around, just like everything before them.

It doesn't have to be "magnum" either. I hunt deer with a .243. It does everything a .30-30 could ever do and a lot the .30-30 could never do. There's no downside.

Magnumitis isn't thinking that the .30-30 and lever guns aren't ideal and using a more modern cartridge and firearm instead. Magnumitis is the idea that you need something like a .300WSM to kill deer.
 
There is nothing special about the 30-30 or any other round ever chambered in a lever gun....its the lever guns themselves that are special.

No other configuration of rifle is quicker handling and better balanced than a lever gun.

I don't hunt with one anymore because of the places I have to hunt...they just aren't well suited to shooting across 500-600 yards of river bottom...but in the woods, nothing else compares.
 
K31 Swiss with open military sights when at ~100 yds or less. Most favored round is the Hornady/Grafs 150 gr SST, although I have some very stout old Norma 180 gr SPs that I may try.

K98 8mm sporter w/Leupold 3-10x50 for longer ranges. Most favored rounds are Nosler 180 gr BTip and Hornady 195 gr SPs, the later being nicknamed "Hammer of Thor" by me since it still has ~1,800 ft-lbs at 300 yds. :D That's a LOONNGG way from typical American 8mm ammo.
 
Same ole reliable.
Sporterized Swedish Mauser in 6.5x55mm.

I flirt with other rifles, but always seem to go back to the Swede.
 
Sorry, but where I live, I have to hunt with one of these:



I would rather use one of these (it's in 35 Remington):



Jim
 
Stevens 200 in .223 Rem with a Barnes Vortex 55 grain TSX worked for my daughter.

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Stevens 200 in 6X47 Rem and 80 grain Deep Curl hand loads worked for me. Sorry no pictures of my ugly mug and my dink!
 
Same as every year for 40 years. Ruger M77R in 300WM. So far this year, one mule (3x3) and one elk (5x6). White tails are yet to come.
 
I have 2 30-30's but seldom use them during deer season. I think most people down here in Texas pay too much for hunting leases and passing up a nice buck because he's too far out is not an option. When I was a kid my Pop used a little Savage bolt 30-30 carbine, cool little gun. He was never so happy until the day he replaced it with a 810 Mossberg 30-06. He killed allot of deer with that 06.
 
My favorite deer rifle is a .270 Win, Remington Stainless 700 BDL in a used, HS Precision "Sendero". It has a 3-9x Leupold VXII with Fine-Multi-X reticle. It's very deadly, taking about 20 deer and not losing any...and at ranges from 30 to 400 yards.

I did take the Tikka .243 Win out for a walk in the deer woods a couple of times this year, hoping to blood it, but IT failed to see any. Maybe next year?

My favorite round for the last few years is the Hornady GMX, 130 grain bullet, which has taken two deer in two years, but didn't see any bucks at reasonable range this year (no any-deer permit).

I've killed deer with the following cartridges: .22-250 Rem, .30-06, .270 Win and 20 gauge slug.

This was the worst deer season several of us have seen in the last 30 years. If temps weren't too high, if the wind wasn't crazy, if it wasn't pouring rain; if the moon wasn't full and bright...it was Sunday!
 
I just bought a Savage Axis stainless .223 that will get some deer hunting time next season. Most likely will be using a 65 gr SGK or 60 gr partition.
 
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