rodinal220
Member
Not by a longshot. It will be around for a long time.
has the old 30/30 died or dying?
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Sunray
Member
There are people, not all of whom say 'My Grandpa' when speaking of W.W. II vets who think the .30-30 is the beginning and end to all deer cartridges.
Hate the Win 94 myself, but have been crying about not buying the Savage 340, I think it was, eons ago. The .30-03 can drive tacks out of a bolt action.
Hate the Win 94 myself, but have been crying about not buying the Savage 340, I think it was, eons ago. The .30-03 can drive tacks out of a bolt action.
It's past it's peak of popularity but so are dozens of cartridges introduced 2 or 3 years ago. With more than 10 million '94s and 336s in circulation and the 30/30s just right deer killing power I don't see it falling off the map any time soon.
CoalTrain49
Member
I like to shoot just about everything so that wouldn't be a good enough reason for me to keep Henry in business. You make it sound like I don't like lever guns. I didn't say that. I shot my first deer in the 60's with a 95 Win. (not a repro). The 30 US (30-40) was another pretty good cartridge for it's time that has pretty much expired. The reason is no one builds rifles for the cartridge. Most of the Lever guns being sold today are being chambered for cowboy shooters that will work in a SA revolver. Henry is selling into a niche market. When the CAS crowd moves on that's going to leave only a few hunters and guides buying lever guns. Winchester, the company that built more lever guns than anyone, went out of business.
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MinnesotaFats
Member
The 30-30 win. will be around a long time. Will the .35 rem.? I sure hope so...
Yea, but when was the last 30-03 rifle you saw.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.30-03
The 30-30 is one of those rounds that should have never existed and should have died 100 years ago. The 7X57 was introduced 3 years earlier and the 30-30 was a step backwards in rifle development.
It, and all lever guns almost died after the turn of the century, but were saved by Hollywood with the thousands of cowboy movies they turned out.
I don't think it will ever die, but it's use is certainly way down. I don't know anyone who doesn't own at least 1. But in the last 40+ years of hunting I can only recall seeing 2 hunters actually use one to hunt with.
It still works, but there are and always have been better choices.
CoalTrain49
Member
And now it lives because a bunch of old guys want to play cowboys. Just about the time it runs out of time again something comes along and gives it a few more breaths sort of like the Colt SAA and the 1911. Who knows, maybe the AR will fall out of favor and we will be looking at racks full of bolt action rifles again. Wouldn't that be hoot?
BCRider
Member
It's funny but over the last couple of years I've talked with a couple of hunters that have sold or shelved their magnum shooters in favour of slower and lesser energy rifles just so they don't ruin so much of the meat around the bullet track.
One was strongly considering either .30-30 or a 45-70 lever rifle as a better option for the dense wooded area where he consistently hunts. And, more importantly, which would produce less surrounding damage to the meat. Because I have both a Marlin and Winchester we chatted a little over how each was to carry and which would accept a scope more cleanly. I also suggested that Marlin has an in between option in their .444Marlin round and how it uses common .429 bullets and which could be used with hollow point bullets.
.30-30 certainly doesn't need to be limited to draggy round nose bullets either. If shooting from a Savage 99 or a Browning BLR the box magazines in these allows for the suitable length spitzer nosed bullets.
And Stevens 340's do show up from time to time as well.
And, of course, there's always the option of a .30-30 barrel on a H&R Handi rifle or TC Encore.
One was strongly considering either .30-30 or a 45-70 lever rifle as a better option for the dense wooded area where he consistently hunts. And, more importantly, which would produce less surrounding damage to the meat. Because I have both a Marlin and Winchester we chatted a little over how each was to carry and which would accept a scope more cleanly. I also suggested that Marlin has an in between option in their .444Marlin round and how it uses common .429 bullets and which could be used with hollow point bullets.
.30-30 certainly doesn't need to be limited to draggy round nose bullets either. If shooting from a Savage 99 or a Browning BLR the box magazines in these allows for the suitable length spitzer nosed bullets.
And Stevens 340's do show up from time to time as well.
And, of course, there's always the option of a .30-30 barrel on a H&R Handi rifle or TC Encore.
I googled up as much information as I could. Seems the sales as of 2005 were in the top 5 cartridge sales, and Chuck Hawks claims they are still being used actively.
I have 6 of them myself. I'm not a cowboy, but enjoy casting and using the guns for plinking. With the long cartridge neck, its ideal for shooting gas checked bullets out of at regular factory speeds. We have no problem hitting 400 yard dingers and shoot about 3,000 rounds a year just for fun.
The 30-30 is also mild to shoot. Can be shot most of the day in comfort, and is relatively cheap as long as you reload. Its also inexpensive to buy factory and generally will get the job done. I have several fancier guns that are no fun to shoot. They make longer distance shooting too easy.
I'm a bow hunter 90 % of the time, so getting close is the name of the game as far as I'm concerned if I actually hunt with it. I also enjoy the 45-70, 444, 375, 35 Rem., 356 win, and 32 Win. Special.
The lever gun cartridges, and in particular the 30-30 are very popular amongst the casting community.
I have 6 of them myself. I'm not a cowboy, but enjoy casting and using the guns for plinking. With the long cartridge neck, its ideal for shooting gas checked bullets out of at regular factory speeds. We have no problem hitting 400 yard dingers and shoot about 3,000 rounds a year just for fun.
The 30-30 is also mild to shoot. Can be shot most of the day in comfort, and is relatively cheap as long as you reload. Its also inexpensive to buy factory and generally will get the job done. I have several fancier guns that are no fun to shoot. They make longer distance shooting too easy.
I'm a bow hunter 90 % of the time, so getting close is the name of the game as far as I'm concerned if I actually hunt with it. I also enjoy the 45-70, 444, 375, 35 Rem., 356 win, and 32 Win. Special.
The lever gun cartridges, and in particular the 30-30 are very popular amongst the casting community.
W.E.G.
Member
When the confiscations start, the lever guns will be last on the list.
The 30-30 will outlast them all.
The 30-30 will outlast them all.
Badlander
Member
My favorites are 30-30. 45-70, and .45 colt. I think they will all outlast me.
The will be the last ones banned,
The will be the last ones banned,
tubeshooter
Contributing Member
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I'll put it to you this way...
The .30-30 has seen at least part of the 1800's, 1900's and 2000's.
I suspect that we will be in the 2100's before you have trouble getting .30-30 ammo in the USA.
And it will be an amazing claim to be able to make. There are untold millions of these guns out there, they are still being produced brand-new, and the caliber's true popularity is deceptive because it's not particularly sexy or new or talked about. It just works - at least for what it was designed for originally.
The .30-30 has seen at least part of the 1800's, 1900's and 2000's.
I suspect that we will be in the 2100's before you have trouble getting .30-30 ammo in the USA.
And it will be an amazing claim to be able to make. There are untold millions of these guns out there, they are still being produced brand-new, and the caliber's true popularity is deceptive because it's not particularly sexy or new or talked about. It just works - at least for what it was designed for originally.
henschman
Member
I like .30-30... but with .300 blackout, I can build an autoloader that is just as light as a Win 94 and is more accurate and optics-friendly as well as higher capacity (when hunting animals with no mag limit, like hogs).
swampcrawler
Member
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It's awesome in a TC contender with spire pointed bullets.
Maj Dad
Member
Rifle magazine featured the new Remlins in the latest issue, and the author (don't have it handy) opined that quality was indeed improving, and the engineers and top brass were diligently trying to get it back to its original fit and finish. New tooling, better attention to detail, etc., etc. I hope they do, because I wouldn't mind being able to pick up a new M39 (or a 336W in a retro 38-55 cowboy shooter version ) that equaled the old ones...
) that equaled the old ones... Vern Humphrey
Member
If they never sold another .30-30 rifle, there are enough .30-30s out there already to justify production of .30-30 ammunition for another hundred years.
Whenever I look at articles on the 7.62 X 39, or improved battle rounds that feed through the AR15, if you notice, the 30-30 is just a little more powerful. So it can't be all that bad.
I think the thing will be around long after I am gone.
I think the thing will be around long after I am gone.
Ar180shooter
Member
The Lever Action repeater has been around for almost 150 years. When someone says lever action, the first thing anybody thinks is .30-30. It'll be around for decades to come, longer than any of us will be!!!
Ron T.
Member
With so many different rifles chambered for the .30/30 Winchester cartridge and the relatively new Hornady soft-tipped, ballistically superior, "spitzer" style bullet which allows the bullet to be loaded in safety in Model 94 Winchester, Marlin 336's and other under-barrel-cambering rifle designs which gives superior exterior ballistics with superior, longer range ballistics than the older, blunt-nosed bullets of yesteryear, so it seems the old .30/30 will be with us possibly FOREVER!
And, let's face it, the .30/30 is surely an "adequate" deer hunting cartridge in light, lever-action, easy-to-carry, quick-handling rifles like the very popular Model 94 Winchester and other popular rifles.
It's hard-to-beat "what works so well" !~!~!
Strength & Honor...
Ron T.
And, let's face it, the .30/30 is surely an "adequate" deer hunting cartridge in light, lever-action, easy-to-carry, quick-handling rifles like the very popular Model 94 Winchester and other popular rifles.
It's hard-to-beat "what works so well" !~!~!
Strength & Honor...
Ron T.
Rottweiler
Member
Probably safe to say more deer have been killed with a lever action .30-30 than any other combination. I'd even bet the #1 combination is a Winchester 94 in .30-30 and the #2 on that list is a Marlin in .30-30. Gonna be a long time before any other combination tops either of those
kBob
Member
"Thuty-thuty" might be around unto the year 3030 for all we know. I doubt it, but folks have been counting it out for years and it just keeps getting up tapping its gloves together and looking the ref in the eyes.
When I was a youth ,Police Supply Sales offered New Winchester 94s for 74 bucks and it was here in the extreme south east "tristate area" (FL GA AL) the most common rifle in law enforcement. Stuff like M-1 Carbines and rifles were available from the government to Law enforcement agencies at comparable prices, even SMGs were out there, but there was generally a shotgun in the front seat area and a '94 if any rifle in the trunk. Those rifles may not be on duty anymore but they are still out there. Odds were in the 50's, 60's and 70's when rifle racks in the rear window of pick ups were common down here there was a .30-30 in that rack. Those guns have not evaporated either.
Funny thing is that guns that only get a box of ammo put through them every two years tend to last for a LONG time and yet they still need that box of ammo from time to time and some one is going to supply it.
As a long time lower case survivalist (no bunkers and I do not wear camos from day to day) (that was a joke, folks) I recall one of my group of running buddies (not track just the guys I "ran" with to the movies, etc) when we were discussing being prepared for the emminant end of civilization as we knew it since the red Chinese now had the bomb and we might not make it out of high school that a standardized cartridge among us might be a good idea.
Keeping in mind that at the time "8mm Mauser" was cheap as surplus and available from "both" manufacturers as a hunting round and a M98 was less than half the price of ANY new center fire most of us were all for it. Quietly the most experienced hunter among us pointed out that if a Drug store, Hardware store, or grocery or any non dedicated gun store had any rifle ammo for sale it was going to be .30-30 down here.
Guess what? Still is, 45 years later......and some gun mags were counting out the .30-30 then.
-kBob
When I was a youth ,Police Supply Sales offered New Winchester 94s for 74 bucks and it was here in the extreme south east "tristate area" (FL GA AL) the most common rifle in law enforcement. Stuff like M-1 Carbines and rifles were available from the government to Law enforcement agencies at comparable prices, even SMGs were out there, but there was generally a shotgun in the front seat area and a '94 if any rifle in the trunk. Those rifles may not be on duty anymore but they are still out there. Odds were in the 50's, 60's and 70's when rifle racks in the rear window of pick ups were common down here there was a .30-30 in that rack. Those guns have not evaporated either.
Funny thing is that guns that only get a box of ammo put through them every two years tend to last for a LONG time and yet they still need that box of ammo from time to time and some one is going to supply it.
As a long time lower case survivalist (no bunkers and I do not wear camos from day to day) (that was a joke, folks) I recall one of my group of running buddies (not track just the guys I "ran" with to the movies, etc) when we were discussing being prepared for the emminant end of civilization as we knew it since the red Chinese now had the bomb and we might not make it out of high school that a standardized cartridge among us might be a good idea.
Keeping in mind that at the time "8mm Mauser" was cheap as surplus and available from "both" manufacturers as a hunting round and a M98 was less than half the price of ANY new center fire most of us were all for it. Quietly the most experienced hunter among us pointed out that if a Drug store, Hardware store, or grocery or any non dedicated gun store had any rifle ammo for sale it was going to be .30-30 down here.
Guess what? Still is, 45 years later......and some gun mags were counting out the .30-30 then.
-kBob
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