Home Forums Lever Action Central Marlin 336 Lever Actions The old 30-30

My son doesn't get a lot of days to hunt due to his job this time of year, so he doesn't get too picky what he puts in the freezer. He grew up a meat hunter anyway despite his second ever deer being a VERY nice 8 point I put him on for youth day when he was only 8 years old.

This morning he grabbed a 30-30 out of my stable of Marlins and made it do what Marlin 30-30's were made for doing.

170 grain Speer Hotcore flat point powered by Varget.

Obsolete levergun still getting it done. Awesome!

Nice work!

Just the sound of the term 30-30 never gets old. Congrats.

30-30 still one of the greatest

Your boy did great!

You've raised the boy right! My Mod 64 30-30 & 160gr ftx dropped another deer in his tracks few days ago! But Speer HC's are hard to beat, even my pick in my 30-06, and really in a 30-30 also if I had to settle on one bullet!

Think you've got enough scope on that thing Butch ? LOL. Congrats to your son ! Been thinkin I aught to give those Hot Cors a try myself. I've killed deer with about every other .30-30 bullet on the market already. Last few seasons been runnin 170 Sierra's over CFE .223. Getting 2240 FPS out of my 20" Marlin and 3/4" 100 yard groups. Can't complain about the on game performance one bit but Sierra has gotten pretty proud of those bullets.

I think your boy needs a better job so he can hunt more , just messing with ya'll congrats the deer killing

Awesome!

That can't be right
Everybody knows that you can no longer kill
wt deer with a 30/30.
The bullets stop moving at a hundred yards and plow
into the ground. I've read that in a magazine, so
I know that it's true.



Congratulations

It's just right Sundance....




Running dangerously low here on the 170 Sierras, and Speer doesn't appear to have forgotten about us lowly deer hunters like Sierra has. Got a good supply in direct from the Speer web store that'll hold us over for a good while. Adjusted my load with Varget .2 grains up for the HotCores from the Sierra load, but probably really didn't need to. Good bullet, slam dunked that six point just like it was supposed to. That's all I needed to see with 'em.

I have an old Marlin 336 that loves the Speer 170 gr. flatpoint. My handload pushes it to 2174 fps from the 20" barrel and it does yeoman work on deer and hogs.

The Hornady 150 RN and 170 FP are great deer bullets and very consistent.

Yep, got a few boxes of those Hornady 170s in reserve if I ever need em.

I like your style , Feral
Speer 170's are my go to for 30-30

Nice looking rifle 👍 I love those old Weavers, I have a 50s vintage K6 on my 250 Savage. Got a K4, too, but it went blurry on me several years ago and I haven't gotten around to having it restored.

Those FNHC are good stuff; I'm very partial to the 130 grainers myself. They're cheap enough for plinking, but still effective on critters.

Yeah I like vintage scopes on these old JM rifles. Mounted in weaver strap rings too. That stuff just fits together like it was meant to be.

It just looks big on there to me. For decades my Marlins have worn Weaver K-2.5's or 1-4X20 Leupold vari-x II's so I'm used to them wearing much smaller scopes. I personally don't like Weaver rings so have mine mounted in super low Burris Zee's, which are no longer made unfortunately.

Yeah, it's a little long. It was on my 444T in a tip over mount when that came to me. The 444 now has an old Leupold 3x9 that suits it better. Stuck this 6x on this 30-30 to do some load work and just left it. Kinda hard to find those old scopes that I trust buying.

Was my turn today with that ol' 30-30. No pics but there's a doe hanging in the shop. Rifle and load did as expected. Was a busy evening for us. My doe drug up out of the brush, and my son and daughter-in-law put another doe and an 8 point in the shop too. Wasn't the first time we brought a truck load of dead deer out the gate.

Very COOL !

It's just right Sundance....



Can't beat the old Weaver's. I have a 3x Weaver on my 336. Makes a great woods rifle.

When Herters was closing down my family went to the Mitchell, SD store and bought all the Weavers they had. We used those scopes for years and never had an issue with them. I have a K4 on my 788 Rem 30-30, my wife has a K4 on her Mossberg 30-30. I don’t have a scope on my waffle top.

If you can hunt and limited your shots to +/- 200 yards a lot of old cartridges like the 30-30, 32 WS, and 35 REM will do the job, but you've got to be able to hunt, not just shoot.

^^^^ This ^^^^

Hunt, that's right! The 30-30 is a hunters rifle, and the hunter who knows his rifle, sights, and shot placement with it, and I prefer iron sights for myself, I've yet to shoot a deer past 75yds. And I've only failed to recover one deer with a 30-30, it being my fault no doubt!
I have couple 30-06, 270, a 7.62x54, and I'd thought I'd committed to my 30-06 this fall. But again I went with my 30-30. Right Choice!

My M94 Winchester is "average" in accuracy with a typical .30-30 bullet, either 150 or 170 grain, but the Hornady 170 FP with 3031, accuracy moves into the "damn good" level. I have used that particular load to kill numerous deer.

back in the day, H322 left me with my mouth wide open. i used 150gr and 170gr Hornady, Speer or Seirra.

my m94 was sent to JES Reboring and he did an awesome job of making it the 35/30-30. a 200gr RCBS FN GC with 2400/tuft of Dacron that goes 1726fps will kill deer too.

That would be an interesting round.

Using a 45-70 a lot lately led me to finding out warp velocities are not needed. Granted, there are range trade-offs, but it's hard to deny a softer shooting gun can be nice.

I'm tempted by the 45-70 w/ unique and a 300 grain cast, recoils about like my .30-30, but trajectory is more pronounced.

Seems to me a single cavity mold for the 400 grain .45 would do for about everything as would a 170 hard cast in the .30 caliber. That's me. I'm old.

Fine work and a perfect high shoulder hit. I'll bet that deer didn't go a full stride after the shot.