Hello folks
Today I was at a Cabela's store and I started to chat with a couple of guys about...guns of course ;-) and I really struggle to understand the logic in some individual's opinions....
This people were talking down the 30-30 Winchester (I was lookign for a lever gun, I do not own one yet), calling it an "anemic round" and marginally good on deer.
The very same folks go fishing quite often in AK and as "bear medicine" (their own words) they carry Ruger revolvers in .44 magnum...
Hmm that made me think......I know real life is not ballistic tables but we still need to look at some numbers.....
Let's start this discussion saying that we imply the use of high quality bullets... a 460 Weatherby shooting a bullet made of butter won't stop anything, we know that.... ;-)
On average, your commercial load 44 Magnum fired from a pistol develops muzzle energy significantly less than HALF the energy of your average commerical load 30-30 Winchester 170 gr......some distance down the road and the difference is even more drammatic given the poor aerodynamic and inferior sectional density of the 44 bullet compared to the 30-30 (as we know that means less penetration...and you need penetration shooting a big bear).
Even if we invoke the mighty 454 Casull, the muzzle energy of your average comm load (Hornady data) is still less than our poor 30-30 and, like the 44 magnum example before, the farther you go the bigger bullet shed speed and energy more quickly that our rifle bullet....
Still if you listen some guys, seems like a 30-30 bullet will bounce off a grizzly like an air gun pellet.......
With this I do not mean that a 30-30 is a perfectly adequate grizzly round but there is some common ground between feeling yourself well protected with a 44 Mag revolver and feeling "naked' if you have a lever 30-30 in a grizzly situation....
What is your opinion on that??? Is a 30-30 hopeless in dangerous situations??
A little provocation: volume of fire versus power.....if you are facing a charging grizzly would you rather have only 3 slow shot with a typical 338 or 375 bolt action or 6 or 7 lightning fast shots with a lever 30-30???
(indeed an Alaskan guide once told me that he prefers having his pump action Remington 760 30-06 with a 10 rounds aftermarket magazine than a bolt action 375 any time of the day, in case of "hairy" situations...)
Today I was at a Cabela's store and I started to chat with a couple of guys about...guns of course ;-) and I really struggle to understand the logic in some individual's opinions....
This people were talking down the 30-30 Winchester (I was lookign for a lever gun, I do not own one yet), calling it an "anemic round" and marginally good on deer.
The very same folks go fishing quite often in AK and as "bear medicine" (their own words) they carry Ruger revolvers in .44 magnum...
Hmm that made me think......I know real life is not ballistic tables but we still need to look at some numbers.....
Let's start this discussion saying that we imply the use of high quality bullets... a 460 Weatherby shooting a bullet made of butter won't stop anything, we know that.... ;-)
On average, your commercial load 44 Magnum fired from a pistol develops muzzle energy significantly less than HALF the energy of your average commerical load 30-30 Winchester 170 gr......some distance down the road and the difference is even more drammatic given the poor aerodynamic and inferior sectional density of the 44 bullet compared to the 30-30 (as we know that means less penetration...and you need penetration shooting a big bear).
Even if we invoke the mighty 454 Casull, the muzzle energy of your average comm load (Hornady data) is still less than our poor 30-30 and, like the 44 magnum example before, the farther you go the bigger bullet shed speed and energy more quickly that our rifle bullet....
Still if you listen some guys, seems like a 30-30 bullet will bounce off a grizzly like an air gun pellet.......
With this I do not mean that a 30-30 is a perfectly adequate grizzly round but there is some common ground between feeling yourself well protected with a 44 Mag revolver and feeling "naked' if you have a lever 30-30 in a grizzly situation....
What is your opinion on that??? Is a 30-30 hopeless in dangerous situations??
A little provocation: volume of fire versus power.....if you are facing a charging grizzly would you rather have only 3 slow shot with a typical 338 or 375 bolt action or 6 or 7 lightning fast shots with a lever 30-30???
(indeed an Alaskan guide once told me that he prefers having his pump action Remington 760 30-06 with a 10 rounds aftermarket magazine than a bolt action 375 any time of the day, in case of "hairy" situations...)