Please help, noob with Questions.......

[AnthonyC.]

I know that this is a stupid question but, how much recoil does a 30-30 lever action rifle have compared to a 30-06 bolt action rifle? does the 30-06 have less recoil than the 30-30?


I only ask this because I was looking on gunbroker on the good prices of lever action 30-30's and was wondering if this would be a rifle that I could shoot for a while each week without breaking my shoulder....lol


Thanks,

A.C.


P.S. I have only shot a .222 remington, 30-06, And MANY .22's

 

[MarshallDodge]

The 30-30 will have less recoil than a 30-06. Typically the type of gun you are shooting, lever , bolt, or semi, may change the way the recoil is felt.

 

[GarandOwner]

Depends on what your shooting it out of, weight of the rifle has alot to do with felt recoil. The .30-30 case is smaller than .30-06 , My friend has a Marlin 336 in .30-30 and it doesnt kick as much as my Garand does. Never fired a .30-06 bolt action, but if it's lighter than the Garand, it will kick harder

 

[Onmilo]

Recoil is perceived differently by different shooters.

Bullet weight and weapon weight will also factor in.

If you shoot a 6.5 pound bolt action .30/06 with 110 grain light loads and then shoot a 6.5 pound .30/30 with 170 grain deer killers you may well perceive the .30/06 to recoil less.

Shoot 125 grain .30/30s and 180 grain elk killer .30/06 cartridges in the same rifles and you may well decide to never shoot a .30/06 again, for any reason while deciding the .30/30 isn't bad at all.

Doing some checking, the average .30/06 will recoil with a force of about 33 foot pounds and the average .30/30 cartridge will recoil with a force of about 28 foot pounds.

Not enough difference to notice in a hunting rifle, both cartridges recoil with enough force to be noticable, and unpleasant, after 100 rounds on the rifle range without some corrective measures such as a PAST or Limbsaver recoil shield.

 

[Smokey Joe]

Another aspect or 2...

Anthony C.--Couple other thoughts: (1) Recoil is VERY subjective. What I think of as a severe recoil, you might just laugh at. Or t'other way around. (2) Felt recoil depends as much on how the individual firearm fits the individual shooter as on any other factor.

That said, the best way to compare the recoil of 2 different firearms for YOU is for you to borrow an example of those 2 firearms, and shoot them.

Yes, .30-30 generally will have less recoil than .30-'06 generally, however (there is always that darn "however!") how you react to that recoil really depends on your personal reaction to shooting a particular model of firearm, in a particular stock.

So there really isn't a good, one-size-fits-all type of answer to your question.

But now you have a dandy excuse to borrow and shoot as many friends' firearms as you can manage!

 

[AnthonyC.]

too bad i dont know anybody that has many rifles or I would do that.

 

[MAKster]

big difference

A 30-30 with a 150 grain bullet has about 10.5 foot pounds of recoil energy. A 30-06 with a 150 grain bullet has about 17.5 foot pounds of recoil. While a good recoil pad can help a lot, there is a big difference between the two rounds when it comes to recoil and energy.

 

[funfaler]

Hey Andy, maybe if you tossed out your location, you could find some good folks here, that live close and would be willing to loan you a rifle.

If you are near Louisville, KY, I would be happy to let you pull the trigger on a Marlin 30-30, we would just have to find a cat first

If you can find an SKS, the recoil is very similar to a 30-30. Recoil on the 30.06 is going to be a good bit more than the 30-30.

 

[Smokey Joe]

No friends

too bad i dont know anybody that has many rifles or I would do that.

Join a gun club. You get to associate with all sorts of shooters. It'll cost you some membership $$--Possibly the best $$ you ever spent on shooting. It'll also probably cost you some "help the club" time--good for making friends, getting others' opinions, pooling knowledge, learning. Also lots of hob-nobbing with like-minded people. If you make it known that you are shopping, and "trying," you'll probably get to shoot everybody's gun once or 2wice.

I fail to see a downside.

 

[GigaBuist]

Might be worth mentioning that the naming conventions on the two cartridges are different.

30-06 has its name because it's a 30 caliber adopted by the US Army in 1906.

30-30 has its name because it's a 30 caliber that (originally) was propelled by 30 grains of black powder.

All other things being equal the 30-06 will have more felt recoil.