Many of you know, I really like the .30-30 Winchester. It is an iconic cartridge, the very first factory cartridge to be laded with smokeless powder back in 1895. The .30-30 shines with the factory 170 grain round nose bullet. The factory loads are all about the same. A good 170 coming out of the muzzle at about 2200 fps. Very standard, very boring.
Lever guns and the .30-30 seem to have fallen out of favor at the deer camps around the country. It's not a new cartridge, it's not a precision rifle, but it was never meant to be. It was designed as a hunting cartridge, smiting light and handy with enough power to put down medium game at 100 yards. Winchester has built over 7 million Model 94 rifles, many of them in .30-30d. Marlin added several million more in their 336 rifle. There are millions of these guns in safes, closets and racks all over the United States.
They are not precision rifles. But each of them are capable of 3-minute accuracy which is sufficient to put meat on the table. Recently, I upgraded my old Winchester to include a red dot sight.. That sight has a 3MOA dot and the rifle is a 3-minute rifle, so the question becomes the proper sight in distance?
That's where the internet helps. I found an online ballistics calculator and started feeding in data. What I found was pretty interesting.
If I do a good zero at 25 yards, that big 170 will stay i that 3MOA dot all the way out to 150 yards and fall out of the dot at 175 yards. That is well within the yardage that the vast majority of deer are killed around here. This is just math, and field data will tell the tale, but I believe I'll sight in at 25 yards and see what happens.
Somebody will want to talk about Hornady's LeverEvolution bullet. It's great technology, but to my way of thinning, it tries to answer a question that no one ever asked. If you want to shoot pointy bullets (and I love them) go get a .30-06. I have one of each.
Now, if you will excuse me, I have the season's first gumbo on the stove and need to stir it.
I'd bet that half of all deer shot and brought to camp are within a football field of the muzzle. Maybe in the western state mountains and praries do you miss a flatter shooting cartridge. My own favorite is the .308 Winchester, but Dad's 94 30-30 is not out of place around here either.
ReplyDeleteThe Weaver 25 yard zero has been around for quite some time. I hope you get the results you are looking for.
The Hornady's LeverEvolution was made for the Marlin 336, NOT the Winchester 94. I tried it along with a friend in his 94, and we were getting 6 MOA at best. He also has a 336, and it was hitting 2-3 MOA all day long. I 'think' it's the difference in rifling between the two. I like Remington 170 Grain Core-Lock ammo.
ReplyDeleteThe 30-30 lever gun isn’t the best at anything. It is however good enough for a whole bunch of things.
ReplyDeleteIf I had one as my only rifle for anything short of a legit war or The Walking Dead it would be fine.
Thanks for the advice on LeverEvolution - Win. 94. I was considering a couple of boxes of it and own both the 336 and 94. I've been partial to Remington green - yellow box for quite a while. Premium ammunition price is pretty high now and its the Indian, not the arrow that brings home the meat.
ReplyDelete