.30-30 Winchester
The .30-30 Winchester, also known as the .30 WCF, has long been associated with the Winchester Model 94 carbine and has probably killed more deer in America than any other round. Cartridges of the World, 12th Edition lists the .30-30 Winchester as “the first American small-bore, smokeless-powder sporting cartridge” and it provided a quantum leap in performance to hunters accustomed to rifles using black powder cartridges firing large, lead bullets at moderate velocities. The .30-30 has been chambered by a variety of companies, among which are Marlin, Browning, Mossberg, Savage, Remington and probably a dozen others I have never heard of. Although most of the rifles chambered in .30-30 Win. in the U.S. are lever actions, they have also been offered as single shots, bolt actions and combination guns. Winchester chambered their Model 54 bolt action rifle in .30 WCF for a short time and in the process, created a rare collector’s item. Remington’s Model 788 bolt action rifle was once chambered in .30-30 Winchester and is a good, reasonably priced choice for bolt gun fans in the market for a used rifle. Hailed as powerful and flat shooting in the 1890’s, the .30-30 Win. has been derided in more recent times as a short range deer cartridge that is marginal for anything larger. Elmer Keith wrote in Keith’s Rifles for Large Game that while he preferred a round with more power, the .30-30 with 170 grain soft points “will easily kill deer at close range, if placed properly.” Otherwise, he had very little praise for the .30-30 Win. and referred to it as the “Dirty-Dirty.” Keith was of the firm opinion that the .30-30 cartridge was too small for large game such as elk, even though some of his contemporaries thought nothing of hunting the huge brown bears of Alaska with it, most of which would put an elk to shame in terms of size and tenacity of life.
Dr. Frank Hibben wrote in Hunting American Bears of a photo expedition he went on in Alaska with Thirty-Thirty Jack, a well known local hunter. The slightly eccentric Jack lived alone in a little cabin located on Humpback Bay, Alaska and got to know the great bears of the North in intimate detail, although a close reading of Hibben’s book shows that Jack probably saw more black bears than grizzlies. The rifle Jack used according to Hibben was a .30-30 and he used it to good effect on a grizzly bear during Hibben’s visit. Although many hunters of the era may have felt the .30-30 Win. was a good choice for Alaskan brown bear, I personally cannot condone it, both from the standpoint of safety to the hunter and respect for the animal being hunted. It is the responsibility of the hunter to ensure a humane kill and to do it in a sporting manner so if you have a hankering to hunt Alaska’s brown/grizzly bears, use a bigger gun. Still, love it or revile it, the .30-30 Winchester is one of the world’s great cartridges and I am very fond of it. It can also be surprisingly accurate given a good rifle and well prepared handloads. I once had a Marlin 336 chambered in .30-30 Win. that could hit clay birds at 100 yards all day long which regrettably, I sold in a moment of weakness almost 20 years ago. Needless to say, I don’t sell good guns anymore for any reason.
The .30-30 Winchester cartridge was introduced to the shooting public by Winchester Repeating Arms Co. in 1895 in their Model 1894 rifle and became, in very short order, the perfect saddle gun for those living in or venturing to the western United States. The Model 94’s trim lines and flat sided receiver made it very easy to pack on a horse and its light weight endeared it to many who lived, worked and hunted on the frontier. Many people think of the gun and cartridge combo as the “gun that won the West” although strictly speaking, by the time the Model 94 was produced, the Old West was largely a memory. That didn’t stop Winchester from selling every one they could make and by the time regular production of the Model 94 was ended a few years ago, it was conservatively estimated that over 7 million of the handy little rifles had been made. The cartridge is so popular with American shooters that Mossberg recently began production of their Model 464, a rifle that bears an uncanny resemblance to the Model 94. Just recently, Winchester decided to bring back the Model 94 as a limited edition, high grade rifle and I am sure they will sell every one. Millions of .30-30 Winchester cartridges are produced every year and no matter how small the hamlet, it is a good bet that factory ammo can be found for sale, notwithstanding the recent (hopefully temporary) shortage.
As much as I like the .30-30 Winchester round, it does have its limitations. Compared to many big game cartridges such as the .30-06 Springfield or .300 Winchester Magnum, it is woefully underpowered and doesn’t have anywhere near the range of either. A quick look at the ballistics tables offered by the big ammunition manufacturers shows that most any other modern, centerfire cartridge of recent vintage designed for big game hunting will leave the .30-30 Winchester in the dust. According to the 2009 Gun Digest, the .30-30 Winchester cartridge fires a 170 grain bullet at 2,200 fps and has a muzzle energy of 1,827 ft/lbs. The .30-06 Springfield fires a 165 grain bullet at 2,800 fps and has a muzzle energy of 2,872 ft/lbs while the .300 Winchester Magnum fires a 180 grain bullet at 2,960 fps with a muzzle energy of 3,501 ft/lbs. It gets even worse when comparing the downrange velocity and energy figures for the trio. At 100 yards, the .30-30 has 1,355 ft/lbs of energy remaining while the .30-06 is still carrying 2,352 ft/lbs and the .300 Win. Mag. has 3,011 ft/lbs left at impact. When all three are sighted in to strike 2.5” high at 100 yards, the .30-30 Win. will drop -5.8” at 200 yards, while the .30-06 Springfield and .300 Win. Mag. will be +0.4” high and +1.2” high respectively at the same range. Please keep in mind that the .30-06 and .300 Win. Mag. deliver their superior ballistics at the price of more recoil and muzzle blast, not to mention the greater quantity of powder burned in relation to the .30-30. If you need the kind of performance that mandates shooting a more powerful cartridge than the .30-30 Win., then by all means go for it. Just be prepared to spend more for your ammo and set aside enough time to practice so you will be proficient with your chosen weapon.
At this point, many will think the .30-30 Winchester cartridge is a pitiful choice for big game hunting, at least on paper, but in the field it is another story. It is still a bona fide big game cartridge if the proper bullets are used and if shots are kept within its limits, usually 150 yards or so. My good friend Dick has bagged three black bears with a Browning Model 1885 Traditional Hunter chambered in .30-30 Win. and it did the job in all three cases in a humane, efficient manner. The cartridge will reach out a bit farther given a good marksman but the one commonality and limiting factor of lever action .30-30 rifles are the crude iron sights most of them come with from the factory. They are generally the cheapest sights that can be found, often just being a piece of sheet metal that is inserted into the rear barrel dovetail. Another piece of sheet metal with steps cut into it that slides back and forth in a slot cut into the rear sight is normally provided for elevation changes. The front sight is usually a plain bead, sometimes with a hood over it.
The factory sights will get the job done but they are not the ideal choice for anyone that wants to maximize the performance of a typical, lever action, .30-30 rifle. A good peep sight or scope makes a world of difference, assuming that mounting a scope is possible, making for easier and more accurate shooting. Marlin 336s with their flat receiver tops and side ejection are perfect candidates for scopes. Winchester Model 94s eject from the top of the receiver and mounting a scope on one can be a bit impractical so a peep sight would probably be the best bet there, although it would be possible to mount a long eye relief scope on the barrel to create a scout rifle. The later, Angle Eject Model 94s don’t have this problem so mounting a scope on one of them is a cinch. My Winchester Model 94 has a Redfield peep sight on it that has the original sight disc removed and it makes for an especially fast, ghost ring sight. I haven’t tried them yet but XS Sight Systems makes a peep sight for Marlin 336s that is made of steel that looks quite sturdy. What little I’ve seen of them in pictures though makes me speculate that they are a bit tall and may require a taller front sight to maintain the proper point of impact. Williams and Lyman both make good peep sights but their aluminum construction makes me hesitant to use them on a rifle that may see hard use. Tang sights from Marble’s and Lyman are also available if one is so inclined. Vintage peep sights made by Lyman and Redfield were once quite plentiful and are still an excellent choice but it is getting tougher to find them nowadays and as a result, they are getting a bit expensive.
The .30-30 Winchester is not especially difficult to handload for and anyone with a modicum of skill and effort can do it. Handloaders have a large selection of components to choose from with brass made by Winchester, Remington, Federal and quite a few other companies, both foreign and domestic. Bullets are offered by all the major makers with my favorite being the Sierra 170 grain Pro-Hunter flatpoint. Nosler also makes their excellent Partition bullet in a 170 grain round nose version which is designed specifically for use in rifles with tubular magazines. A more recent offering from Nosler is their 150 grain, roundnose, Combined Technology Ballistic Silvertip. I haven’t tried either of them yet but if they perform as well as their other bullets, they should both be sweet performers in the field. Barnes Bullets offers a lead free, 150 grain, flat nose, Triple-Shock X Bullet for those hunters that are prohibited from using lead bullets and should be an excellent choice for lever action rifles under those conditions. Loading data is readily available and die sets are very reasonably priced, a benefit of being one of America’s most popular cartridges. Most reloading of metallic cartridges is done today with full size presses such as the Redding Ultramag with 7/8” x 14 dies but Lyman still makes .30-30 Win. dies for their 310 tong-type loading tool, a device that reminds me of some of the reloading tools made by Ideal in the late 1800s. Tong-type tools were once known as “nutcrackers” and have been around in one form or another since the 1870’s. “Nutcrackers” made by Ideal sometimes had an integral bullet mould and are prized collector’s items among today’s shooters so if you are lucky enough to have one, take good care of it. Lee Precision, Inc. makes the Lee Loader for the .30-30 Winchester and this handy little tool is probably the most inexpensive way to get into reloading. Because of their small size and portability, both tools allow the shooter or hunter to reload ammunition in the field or at the range.
The only problem I ever really had with the .30-30 Win. is the brass cartridge case and its relatively weak neck area. It is very easy to crumple a case neck by seating a bullet slightly askew or by trying to apply too much crimp with a conventional seating die. The first problem can be solved by making sure everything is lined up properly when seating bullets while the second problem can be taken care of by using a Lee Factory Crimp die. I tried one out shortly after they were introduced and it is, in my opinion, one of the best ways to crimp a bullet in a case I have ever seen. I don’t use it for every cartridge I load for but it is ideal for the .30-30 Winchester. Conventional seating dies as offered by Redding, RCBS and Lyman can be used to crimp .30-30 cases and I did it for many years without a problem but all it takes is a bit too much crimp to ruin the case. The other concern I have with the .30-30 Winchester isn’t a problem per se but its inability to safely use anything but flat nosed or blunt tipped bullets specifically designed for the .30-30 Win., at least in guns that have a tubular magazine, limiting the choice of bullets and the .30-30’s ballistic potential and terminal performance. There’s not much that can be done about it since most of the guns that chamber the .30-30 Win. cartridge are lever action rifles with tubular magazines and the only bullets that can safely be used in such rifles have flat or blunt nosed tips that are specifically designed to prevent detonation of the primers of the cartridges in the magazine. Because of the danger of magazine tube detonation, I cannot emphasize strongly enough that if you plan to handload for the .30-30 Winchester, and will use the ammo in a gun with a tubular magazine, that you stick to data that is published by the major bullet and powder manufacturers and use flat point or blunt nose bullets designed for the .30-30 Winchester as listed.
The one exception to the rule is Hornady’s LeverEvolution® ammo as it uses bullets with flexible synthetic tips that won’t detonate cartridges in a tubular magazine and promise to radically improve the .30-30’s performance. I haven’t tried any yet but Hornady’s 2010 catalog lists a .308” 150 grain GMX® FTX® bullet for the .30-30 that is a lead free, plastic tipped, boat tail spitzer that should give handloaders much better ballistic performance than the traditional flat nosed, cup and core bullets. Hornady also offers a 30 caliber 160 grain FTX® spitzer bullet with a lead core that is suitable for .30-30 Win. rifles but unfortunately, it is not legal for use in parts of California that are designated as California Condor habitat. Both are listed as safe to use by Hornady in rifles with tubular magazines. Naturally, if you own a rifle in .30-30 Winchester that does not have a tubular magazine (i.e. a single shot rifle) you can pretty much load any .308” bullet available, although the heavier bullets are meant for more powerful cartridges and will probably not expand at the moderate velocities the .30-30 generates. Just don’t mix it up with the ammo you will use in any tube magazine fed rifle unless you don’t mind having the tubular magazine explode and lose a few fingers in the process. A quick check of my loading manual collection shows there are a number of suitable powders available for the .30-30 Win. from every major manufacturer allowing the handloader to fine tune loads for best performance.
Although many have predicted the demise of the .30-30 Winchester, it still manages to find its way into the game fields of America and it is still an excellent choice for anyone that chooses to hunt anything in North America that doesn’t bite back. Wayne Van Zwoll wrote an article titled “30-30:Short Magnum for the Frontier” in the 2009 Gun Digest that chronicles his use of a stainless steel, Marlin 336 in .30-30 Winchester for all of his big game hunting for one year. He managed to bag a black bear in Alaska, an elk in Utah, an elk and a deer in Montana and a pronghorn in Wyoming. The Alaskan bear was taken with Hornady ammunition loaded with conventional, 170 grain, flat nose bullets while the rest of his big game was taken with some of the first examples of Hornady’s LeverEvolution® ammo. A recurring theme in his article is the way the Marlin neatly dispatched all of the big game Van Zwoll decided to chase and the mild recoil of the rifle, in contrast to many of the magnums so popular with today’s hunters. Van Zwoll’s Marlin 336 even managed to survive being accidentally run over by a Suburban, only to be duct taped and glued back together to soldier on for the rest of his year’s hunting adventures. How many of today’s tactical rifles made of aluminum and plastic can boast of that? Another key point that Van Zwoll brings up is the ease with which his Marlin 336 can be carried in the field yet still be brought into nearly instantaneous action, a feature which is common to practically all lever action rifles. The qualities that so endeared the .30-30 Win. cartridge and the Winchester Model 1894 rifle to so many hunters for over 100 years are still there and it is unlikely that the .30-30’s popularity will ever fade away, like so many other cartridges have. I hope that Winchester brings back the Model 94 as a regular production, U.S. made gun but for the moment, it looks like it will be a high grade, limited production item made by Miroku in Japan.
As always, I encourage anyone that owns a gun or is thinking of buying one to join the NRA and other gun rights organizations such as The Firearms Coalition. If you see a gun you like and can afford it, you may want to buy it today instead of putting it off for another day. It’s hard to know what sort of restrictions will be coming down the road but it’s a good bet that they are coming. Whatever you decide to do, vote in the upcoming election for candidates that are friendly to our cause and if possible, get involved in the election at a deeper level. The tea party movement is still going strong, notwithstanding the recent charges of racism being bandied about. I personally think that such allegations are baseless and it tells me that the enemies of freedom are truly terrified at the growing power of the tea party activists, especially since the tea party attendees have done it without the slightest hint of violence or sedition. If all your opponents can do is vilify you and resort to lies and deception, then it is a good bet that they know they are trying to push a communist philosophy and way of life that is not supported by the American people and has been an abject failure in every part of the world it has been tried in. Never forget that the people who espouse the ideas of Karl Marx and his ilk always talk about how good their intentions are even as they bring misery to those who have to live under their rule. If we as gunowners do not oppose them at every turn, we will have only ourselves to blame when our cherished 2nd Amendment rights are just a memory. -- John Swikart (July 1, 2010)
Copyright June 2010 ALL ABOUT GUNS
