Levergun loads .30-30 Winchester: Taffin shares a host of good loads for one of our most-used, but least-praised rifle cartridges

Guns Magazine, Jan, 2003 by John Taffin

I was recently taken to task by an individual on my Website (www.sixguns.com). He accused me of being intolerant, and further suggested there is a whole new world out there I need to see. I freely admit to being intolerant. One of the major problems with our world today is we are overloaded with tolerance. I'll stay intolerant, thank you.

I've also seen the "new world" and I don't like it all that much. Daytime television is part of this new world, and I have found if I want a break in the middle of the day, the only way to enjoy television is to plug in a videotape -- preferably a classic western movie.

I learned this lesson when I surveyed the current content of daytime television programming, which seems to consist mainly of two types of shows. The first are the infamous infomercials (does anybody really watch these things?), and the second, which are loosely referred to as "talk" shows (how can anybody watch these things?).

When I was a kid in a galaxy long ago and far, far away, I actually had parents who felt it was their duty to teach me certain things. One of those had to do with talk. There were certain things that were not discussed in polite company, and other things that were never discussed at all.

All such barriers are down on daytime TV. No subject is taboo, and there is no subject so gross, so obnoxious, so embarrassing, it cannot be paraded in front of everyone. It seems to me that most of us would want to hide these things if they occurred in our family. Perhaps, the participants are a different species.

Taboo Subject?

Certainly, shooters like to talk. We love to talk about our guns, about hunting, about shooting, just about anything and everything connected with firearms. Except one. In polite company it seems that the .30-30 Winchester cartridge is a taboo subject.

It's rare to find anyone who will admit they shoot one, let alone own a rifle chambered in .30-30, and even harder to find is someone who will admit they actually reload for the .30-30. After all, for years we've been told by several different experts that the .30-30 is a difficult cartridge for the reloader.

What are the facts? Both Marlin and Winchester have been producing .30-30 leverguns for more than 100 years, millions of them in fact. This means either one person has stockpiled all these leverguns in a huge warehouse, or a lot of people have purchased and continue to purchase .30-30s without talking about it.

If they do talk, it's usually to point out they really bought the .30-30 levergun as their kid's first hunting rifle. A task it fills admirably, with excellent performance combined with mild recoil.

Perhaps it is taken home in a plain brown wrapper and only shot when no one is around. As to reloading, the .30-30 is the 13th most popular set of rifle reloading dies sold by RCBS, outselling the 7mm Remington Ultra Mag, 7-08, .22 Hornet, .338 Winchester, .300 Weatherby, 8x57, 6.5x55, .280 Remington, .222 Remington, .260 Remington, .338 Remington Ultra Mag, and .220 Swift.

No one is reluctant to talk about any of these cartridges, so what's the problem with the .30-30?

It's time for all the .30-30 users to come out of the closet and let the world know they shoot this grand old cartridge, and they do it with great enjoyment and success.

Personal History

The .30-30 occupies both a soft and a sad spot in my heart. A Winchester Model 94 chambered in .30-30 was one of my first rifles in the 1950s. Then in 1963, I was faced with the prospect of being able to pay my college tuition that quarter or feed my three little kids, but no way to do both.

That, of course, was no contest, so to be able to stay in school I had to sell three very special firearms, a second generation, 7 1/2 inch barreled .45 Colt SAA, a S&W 1950 Target .44 Special, and a pre-64 Model 94. I had no choice, but it still hurt.

That's the down side, but the upside is all of these guns have been replaced many times over. Currently, I have at my disposal for testing and shooting enjoyment five .30-30s, all lever guns, as well as a T/C Contender with both 10- and 14-inch barrels.

The leverguns consist of three Winchesters: one of the current trapper models, a pre-'64 Model 64, and a pre-World War I Saddle Ring Carbine; from Marlin comes one of the current 336 Cowboy leverguns and it is mated up with a "homemade" trapper.

By the way, "trapper" refers to lever-actions with shorter barrels than the traditional 20-inch carbine length. Winchester built a fair number of these, with barrels as short as 12 inches. These extra-short, fast handling guns were popular for many uses, as well as for use along the trap-line.

The Maruader Lives Again

Several years ago, a fellow traveler gave me a barrel and magazine tube from the old Marlin Marauder, a short-barreled .30-30 that I drooled over as a kid. For the past several years I have been looking for an older Marlin that was neither drilled and tapped for a scope mount nor had a hammer block safety.

My original search was for a straight grip stock, however as my wrist has given me more and more trouble, I've found the pistol grip stock is much more comfortable to use. A few months back, I stopped in Shapels and found just what I was looking for.