Practical and accurate range for a 30-30 Winchester
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Practical and accurate range for a 30-30 Winchester
https://www.thehighroad.org/index.p...ltqwywytyjqzns1hywfhywfhywfhyweifq-jpg.834901 I guess it depends on the load and the gun and the shooter.
https://www.thehighroad.org/index.p...ltqwywytyjqzns1hywfhywfhywfhyweifq-jpg.834901 I guess it depends on the load and the gun and the shooter.
Ignition Override
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The 30-30 round from a typical rifle is often said to have very similar energy as the 7.62x39 round, ie max. effective range is about 250-300 yards?
Is this actually the case with average commercial ammunition (and bullet size/grain) of each chambering?
Is this actually the case with average commercial ammunition (and bullet size/grain) of each chambering?
Varminterror
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Only said by people who are both unfamiliar with the 30-30 and also want to pretend their x39 is more than it is.
I've read all the posts, and if you hand load and practice a lot with it, it can be quite the vicious lil round. That being said, there are still ballistic limitations.... 20ish years ago, I took grandpa's 26" '94 out and bagged a muley buck (very nice sized but not a bragging trophy). I'd toted that rifle everywhere, sent hundreds of rounds downrange all year round. It had a tang peep, and I was using silver box 150s, I was in the open Sandhills and with zero cover for a closer shot, I estimated, held, shot, and 20 min later we were dragging him to the truck. I won't say the actual yardage here because the point is not to encourage such silly notions but to say that had I had a shorter barrel, less practice, or less steady aim, I would not have even considered the shot. If I were in such a situation today, I'd much prefer a .22-250 at the minimum. So let's just say for sake* of argument you have a range finder, a dope card on the stock, and practice a LOT, I'd probably grab something like the ballistic tips, ftx, or similar soft type bullets with best for cartridge b.c., and not go past 250 yds. With not as much practice or dope, 200 is fine.
Stupid autocorrect
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I guess it depends on the bullets ballistic coeficient, those pointy 7.62x39's do better down range than the 30/30 round nose.
Hokkmike
Member
From a lot of experience I would say 150 yards....
How accurately you can shoot changes the practical range. 150 yards is a chip shot of you have a 2-7 scope. My wife has a 2.5-10x44. It has a better field of view than my 2-7x32.
On the ammo side. I got 2-3 moa from my wife's micro-groove with factory ammo. After a trigger job and hand loads it runs moa if you shoot slowly to combat barrel heat.
For effectiveness on game you will run out of effective shooting accuracy before it is out of power.
Hugger-4641
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troy fairweather
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I have one of them scopes, it's pretty dang clear for what it is. I have to pickup some batteries some day.
Hugger-4641
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I bought that 94AE when they first came out, around 1983, put the scope on it the next year. Still have people tell me you can't use top mounted scope on them.
WisBorn
Contributing Member
I have shot several with both and the only one that I didn't retrieve was shot with a 30-06 at thirty yards.To many deer shot with a 30-30 , 30 WCF can still do this.View attachment 1005594
Not so with a 30-06.
eastbank
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about a long shot, a friend killed a very large whitetail standing in a tree line about 450 yards away thinking it was hid. he said he held in the center of its chest and hit it with a low heart shot, he said it ran for about 40 yards and piled up, the rifle was a 3006 sighted in at 100 yards i know that for a fact. i think the only reason he hit it was that he jerked the rifle up as he fired, but to hear him tell it he,s the best shot in the east 40 and i don,t have the heart to tell he,s full of crap.
lemaymiami
Member
Reminds me of my anglers... more than one 70lb tarpon turns into a hundred pound fish in the telling - and I just keep silent...
ThomasT
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I found two bowling balls with bags and shoes set at the curb. I don't care to bowl but I do like to shoot stuff other than paper. We sighted in our rifles, mine a Marlin 30-30 and my buds was a Winchester model 70 in 270. My scope was an ancient Bushnell fixed 3x without optical centering. So when adjusted very much you have an egg shape view of the target.
We set the bowling balls at 300 measured yards and sat in the back of my truck with the side of the bed for a rest with one sand bag under the rifle. My bud shot first and danged if he didn't make that 300 yard shot. We drove down and looked and he hit a perfect dead center and blew a big chunk out of the bowling ball. So next I shot. And I was doing some quick calculations on how much drop a 30-30 has at 300 yards. I shot and the BB moved. We drove down and looked and I hit just below center and a little right.
The big surprise was that my 170gr 30-30 bullet blew almost as big a chunk out of the BB as my buds 270 with a 150gr Nosler Partition did. We went back to 300 yards and my bud declined any more shots. Not me. I sat there with a tub of ammo and shot those two BB to giblets. And I never missed a shot. I had the range and knew where to hold. Don't underestimate the striking power of that round. And no, I would never promote hunting deer with the round at more than 150 yards. The deer deserve better. But I'm a hunter first and enjoy seeing how close I can get. I guess its the Injun in me.
Here is probably the very best site you can go to for all things lever action and 30-30 and other lever gun rounds. I have killed 30 deer and two elk. I could have killed everyone of them except one deer at 250 yards (243) with a 30-30 since all were 80 yards or less. Some a lot less.
https://leverguns.com/articles/Default.htm
We set the bowling balls at 300 measured yards and sat in the back of my truck with the side of the bed for a rest with one sand bag under the rifle. My bud shot first and danged if he didn't make that 300 yard shot. We drove down and looked and he hit a perfect dead center and blew a big chunk out of the bowling ball. So next I shot. And I was doing some quick calculations on how much drop a 30-30 has at 300 yards. I shot and the BB moved. We drove down and looked and I hit just below center and a little right.
The big surprise was that my 170gr 30-30 bullet blew almost as big a chunk out of the BB as my buds 270 with a 150gr Nosler Partition did. We went back to 300 yards and my bud declined any more shots. Not me. I sat there with a tub of ammo and shot those two BB to giblets. And I never missed a shot. I had the range and knew where to hold. Don't underestimate the striking power of that round. And no, I would never promote hunting deer with the round at more than 150 yards. The deer deserve better. But I'm a hunter first and enjoy seeing how close I can get. I guess its the Injun in me.
Here is probably the very best site you can go to for all things lever action and 30-30 and other lever gun rounds. I have killed 30 deer and two elk. I could have killed everyone of them except one deer at 250 yards (243) with a 30-30 since all were 80 yards or less. Some a lot less.
https://leverguns.com/articles/Default.htm
cdb1
Member
I feel comfortable to 200 yards with a 30-30 on deer. As stated previously I’ve never shot one at that distance with a 30-30 but would do so.
Read a bunch of Paco Kelly’s articles around eight or nine years ago. I’m not calling him a liar though a number of his claims seem ambitious to me.
Read a bunch of Paco Kelly’s articles around eight or nine years ago. I’m not calling him a liar though a number of his claims seem ambitious to me.
A bud of mine hunts with a 308 Win and lost a number of deer at dusk, with 150 Hornady SST bullets and behind the shoulder shots. The shooting distance was typically 50 yards, maybe 75 at most. The deer would run off and be found the next morning eaten by coyotes.
The problem was, those 30 caliber bullets did not expand in the rib cage. However when Bud went to a between the point of the shoulder and neck, there is a lot more meat and bone there, and the bullets expanded and the animals dropped.
I think their are several reasons 30-30's do well at close range. The bullet does not have to be designed for 3000 to 1800 fps velocity spreads. Thirty thirties are a 2200 fps affair, and hardly faster, so the bullet construction can be consistent, and soft. And, those long, soft 170's will penetrate nicely, and reliability expand.
You know, Col. Louis A. La Garde wrote in his 1914 book Gun Shot Injuries https://archive.org/details/gunshotinjurie00laga that Civil War bullets created worse wounds than the military bullets of the early 1900's. And those bullets were coming out of 30-06's, 303 British, 8mm Mausers! Civil War projectiles were huge, soft, bullets that mushed up when hitting flesh,or bone, and kept on going through at reasonable ranges. Sure a 58 caliber Minie was only going 800 fps or so, but it weighed 460 to 510 grains, and it hit very hard. Hunters who have used Minies have told me similar stories of the reaction of game, especially if a bone was hit. A musket will tumble game with shots that with regular centerfire hunting bullets, the game runs off.
Hugger-4641
Member
Deer are also unpredictably tough, or not. I shot two of my deer this last season with my 300wm. The buck I shot was close to 100yds away and dropped like a hammer. The doe that came almost under my stand went 75yds down a hill before dropping. Her shoulder was hanging on by skin and she literally had nothing in the left side of her chest cavity. Ribs, heart, shoulder blade and half her lungs were blown out on the ground where I shot her. She shouldn't have moved another inch, but she did.
ThomasT
Member
what you are describing is why I would like to own a 308. But instead of the normal spitzer type bullets designed for high speeds I would load 30-30 bullets to around 2400fps and have sort of a Super 30-30. At that speed the bullets would expand and have enough speed for easy 200 yard shots without too much drop. I actually have some 30-06 loads loaded just that way right now and they are just as accurate as my normal full power loads. Too bad they don't offer round nose bullets designed for cartridges like the 308 or 30-06 anymore. I have one box of Speer 105gr RN bullets for 243 that I will use very sparingly.
I got the idea from Finn Aagaard. He loaded his 12 YO son's 30-06 like that and IIRC he killed his first deer at 150 with that load. A 170gr flat point at 2400fps should be a deer killing round. In of my Gun Digest books they tested all the common rounds for penetration up to the 375 H&H. Most rounds were stopped in wet newsprint in about 18". The 375 H&H and the 30-30 gave the deepest penetration of all. The 30-30 went around 28" and the 375 a little over 30". Not bad for an antique round that most never consider anymore.
You're looking for the .307 win
ThomasT
Member
Very possibly. Friend had one of the Winchester Big Bores in 307 and sold it without asking if any of the rest of us wanted a shot at it. His brother really wanted it to go with his 375 Big Bore. I even gave thought to a Ruger Compact in 308 for my little experiment. Or one of the Spanish FR8 bolt action because some say they are not safe with full power 308 rounds.
I can find 308 stuff much easier than 307 brass. I have 250 308 cases on hand now. And 500 Remington 150gr 30-30 bullets. Plus all the powder and primers I would ever need.
Enabler that I am, an 18"(ish) barrel would reduce a lot of how low you'd have to down load, an mvp predator and quite a couple different powders would get there. This would be an interesting topic, if you go for it, please share the results!
I would think that the blackout projectiles would do well with the .30-30 they shot straight enough, we'd give up magazine capacity in the tube feeds, but something like the 120 tac tx might be pretty wowsome, based on velocity window, launching in the ballpark of 2500fps, we'd be looking at at least 300 yds of usable expansion. Of course it would obviously penetrate well, tuning the load and scope to 2 moa or less would be the only real trick....
someguy2800
Member
Yeah they do that. They run until the oxygen in their brain runs out and then they pass out. Its remarkable the distance they can cover in 20 seconds and how difficult it can sometimes be to find them afterwards. Deer have taught me there is no such thing as a guaranteed one shot kill.
someguy2800
Member
My 16" 7.62x39 AR15 shoots a 125 grain nosler at 2600 FPS muzzle with CFE BLK using the max load off the hodgdon website and no pressure signs. I have wondered what it would do loaded with a 150 grain 30/30 bullet and if it would feed. Round nose soft points hit well above their weight class.
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