.30-30 lever action, who still hunts with one?

[Guy Miner]

I honestly don't remember the last time I took a deer with a .30-30 lever action rifle. 1980's maybe? It's not a rifle I hunted with a lot, though I've always enjoyed hunting with them, and shooting them at the range. Have owned three over the years:

Win 94 - which I never really warmed up to. Set it up with a Williams peep.

Marlin 336 - also set up with a Williams peep. Good gun, just wasn't lovin' it, so off it went.

Glenfield (by Marlin) set up with factory sights and a little 2.5x Leupold - now this one, to me, is perfection. Balance is right. Accuracy is good. And I've almost gotten used to the silly pressed-in design in the stocks.


So last November, after some range sessions, I took the little Glenfield out for a late mule deer hunt. Dang. Thoroughly enjoyed carrying it again. Mindset was wrong...


I was recently back from Wyoming, and still thinking "must get big antlers." So while carrying the .30-30 in an "any buck" area, I passed up several really nice, fat, young mule deer bucks! Any of them would have been an easy shot for the .30-30, and doggone it, I didn't realize until later that I would have been tickled to use the ol' lever action to fill the freezer with some tender backstraps. Phooey. Needed to have recalibrated my brain housing group!


Same spot, within minutes. Would have been a simple 10-20 yard shot at this young buck:


Anyone here routinely hunt with a .30-30, or other modest powered lever action rifle anymore? I find them refreshingly simple. "Honest" if you will. No worry about cranking up high pressure/high velocity loads. No worry about making them into something they're not. Factory loads, or equivalent handloads are fine. I tend to use the 170 gr soft points, but the 150's work fine. Accuracy? They're fine, just fine. Mine is certainly not the fabled "tack driver" but it's plenty good enough.

Hoping to get another opportunity to hunt deer with it again, next season!

Guy

 

[salmonchaser]

We back up to Handcock timberland. Sometimes when we walk back there I carry my 1916 vintage model 94. I haven't shot a deer however with a 30-30 since the earl 70s.
Guess it's been a while since I was serious about hunting with it.

 

[FOTIS]

I do! Mule deer so far no luck though.

 

[Guy Miner]

Yeah, I'm thinking that I was carrying that classic ol' .30-30 lever action, and I should have just used it to fill the freezer, instead of holding out for another set of antlers...

Sure do like those .30-30 (and similar) lever actions. Mild recoil. Deadly. Reasonably accurate. Fast into action. Easy to carry. Really ought to hunt with mine more often. Perhaps this year...

Guy

 

[SJB358]

I love to hunt with the lever rifles, I don't really have much opportunity to really break them out since I usually hunt in the west for elk, and being pretty open country, it isn't the best place for them. I do have home, in NY to hunt with them, but I rarely get up there during the hunting season. Around home it's a shotgun zone, so that dictates what I get to carry there.

I have a little M94 30-30 I love to hunt with along with a M71 348 Winchester.. The 45-70 and 444 Marlins are big players too.. Heck, my 358 Win hasn't seen much field time in awhile and it's a danged hammer..

One of these days.....

 

[DrMike]

Funny, I've never owned a thuty-thuty. I do own (and have owned) quite a few Model 94s chambered in 375, 356 and 307. At least one of the 356s get carried afield almost every fall. They just carry easily and jump to my shoulder when they are needed. Maybe I should look into getting a 30-30, just 'cause.

 

[257 Ackley]

The one I have is a safe queen at this point. Pops bought it when he came home from Europe in 1945. It was my biggest thrill as a 7 year old to carry it while my dad drug the first deer I ever saw shot. One of my brothers used it for a while after my dad bought a 7X57 Mauser in the late 60's. I got it when he passed away in 1998 and hunted with it that fall as a tribute to one of the great joys he passed on to me.

It was completely dismantled, cleaned and oiled after that season and hasn't been shot since.

 

[Guy Miner]

Funny, I've never owned a thuty-thuty. I do own (and have owned) quite a few Model 94s chambered in 375, 356 and 307. At least one of the 356s get carried afield almost every fall. They just carry easily and jump to my shoulder when they are needed. Maybe I should look into getting a 30-30, just 'cause.

One thing nice about the .30-30 Mike, is that they kick so little... I just about grin and start laughing when I shoot mine after I haven't shot it in a while. Particularly with the 150 gr ammo, I find the recoil is almost nothing.

Yet once in a while over on Marlin Owners I see some guy griping about how "hard" his .30-30 Marlin kicks... I don't get it... :roll: More pushups was my suggestion to one fellow... :twisted:

Guy

 

[DrMike]

Yet once in a while over on Marlin Owners I see some guy griping about how "hard" his .30-30 Marlin kicks... I don't get it... :roll: More pushups was my suggestion to one fellow... :twisted:

Guy

Delightful answer! They are mild-mannered, to be sure.

 

[truck driver]

My first center fire rifle was a Marlin 336 in 30-30. Dad bought it used for me and only paid $50 for it. It didn't like Winchester ammo and it would key hole at 50yds with the stuff but would shoot Federal and Remington ammo with no problems. Never killed a deer with it but carried it till I got my first 30-06 kept the 30-30 for a while until some guy wanted more than I did and paid the price of a new one for it. It really never flipped my switch so it wasn't hard to send it down the road.

 

[Stillhunter]

There is something to be said for a quick to the shoulder carbine. One can glass a lot of deer at 5-600 yards, but when you put down the glass, there are often deer within 200 and then a 30-30 shines. For me, nothing comes up and fires faster than a short, light lever gun.

 

[Wis65x55]

Thuty-thuty: Never
M94 32 special: 6 deer
Keith

 

[Guy Miner]

I'd say that's plenty close enough for this thread Keith !

Congrats!

 

[Thebear_78]

I got a nice older marlin for my left handed son. Hopefully we can get a black bear in front of him this spring and give those 170 partitions a go!


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[PJGunner]

These days I consider the 30-30 a fun gun. Lots of fun shooting cast bullets and have hunted deer using the 30-30 and cast. I do have more than a few, am 94 made in 1911 that was my Great-grandfather's, same model early 50's in .32WS and another 30-30 made in 1981. Then I have two M64s both 30-30s with one made in 1938 and the other in 1951, I haven't figured out when the M54 was made other than sometime after 1925 but it's a tight grouper with a cast Lyman #311291 bullet. Won a few burrito matches with that one. There were four of us, cast bullet shooters all and we' have what we called a burrito match. Loser bought lunch at Taco Bell after the match. Don't guess I was cheating fair using a peep sighted bolt action against plain old M94's and Marlin 336s. Match consisted of 10 shots at 100 yards offhand on a standard NRA bull. One guy moved from the area, another passed away and the last guy just quit coming to the range. Never did hear from him again. Fun while it lasted.
Paul B.

 

[preacher]

I still have one around. Great trunk gun in the city...great wet weather/snowy rifle...just about perfect for over 75% of deer hunting, with scope or peep! I like it!!

 

[JD338]

Not a 30-30 but lever actions. I hunt with a Marlin 1895G 45-70 and a 1894 44 Rem Mag.

Here is the 1895G

The Marlin 1894 44 Rem Mag

Love those lever actions for deer hunting.

JD338

 

[Guy Miner]

JD - that top buck appears to have a huge body!

Congrats. Nice photos of leverguns & game.

Guy

 

[Oldtrader3]

This is my .32 Special Model 94 (1947) which I hunted with for more than 50 years as camp rifle when I was out doing chores. My son has it now.

 

[Blkram]

Guy, glad to hear that you enjoyed carrying that old Marlin afield as much as you did.
And although you didn't collect a mule deer for the freezer with it, this gives you the opportunity to continue enjoy carrying it afield for your next adventure and series of memories.

Shot my first big game animal with my grandfather's Marlin 30-30...a whitetail doe.
Used my uncle's Model 94 30-30 for my first black bear.
Shot my next whitetail doe with the same rifle.
My next whitetail doe and first whitetail buck were harvested with my friend's Dad's BLR in 308 Win.
Collected a cow moose with another friend's Model 94 Big Bore in 375 Win.
Collected my first caribou with my Marlin 375 Win, as well as several other moose, black bears and moose...call the rifle "Thumper", as everything it hits, "thumps" the ground immediately afterwards! Such a fun rifle to hunt with!
Collected several elk, moose and bears with my BLR in 358 Win...and carry it as my guiding back up rifle, horseback and camp rifle, and archery back up rifle. Effective and fun to carry and shoot!
Have a Model 94 Big Bore in 356 Win that I've carried some, but have not yet harvested any game with. Will correct that someday soon.
Finally got around to buying my first Marlin 30-30, have shot it, but plan on using it as a donor for my forthcoming 414 SuperMag Project.
Will probably find myself a decent Model 94 in 30-30 just have one to keep and use from time to time.
Something addicting about packing and using a levergun...or is it the romance of all those Louis L'Amour novels I grew upon?!?!