HUNTING With The .30-30 Today

Guns Magazine, August, 2001 by Holt Bodinson

Advances in bullet design and loading technique have kept this grand old cartridge on the forefront of ballistic performance.

After kicking around for 106 years, the Winchester .30-30 should be clawing for life in the face of ballistic advances throughout the ensuing decades. Yet, this historic big-game cartridge continues to breeze along, placing among the top five best-selling centerfire rifle cartridges year after year after year. Perhaps this venerable old cartridge deserves a second -- or even third -- look.

Introduced in 1895 in the Model 94 Winchester rifle, the .30 Winchester Center Fire was America's first smokeless-powder sporting cartridge. Loaded with a 160 gr. bullet at 1,970 fps and chambered in a rifle that had the slim lines of a Model 92 Winchester, the .30 WCF virtually buried the big-bore, blackpowder cartridges and the ponderous rifles chambered for them.

Chambered in Winchesters, Marlins, Savages, and dozens of other domestic and foreign brands -- literally millions of firearms -- the .30-30 emerged as the supreme "deer" chambering. In this, the era of super magnums, the little .30-30 still has a lot to offer savvy shooters.

First and foremost, it is a balanced cartridge. It has been around so long that the soft point bullets loaded by the factories are highly refined. They expand well and hold together perfectly at .30-30 velocities. If you've ever wanted to see a picture-perfect mushroomed soft point, just recover a .30-30 bullet from any big game animal. Moreover, the excellent factory ammunition is cheap.

It's an accurate cartridge. Maybe lever action designs don't deliver the best a cartridge has to offer, but we've owned many .30-30 rifles and carbines that would easily do 2" at 100 yards with factory ammunition -- some even better. When chambered in bolt actions like the Winchester 54, Savage 340 and Remington 788 or in single shots like the Browning 1885, Savage 219 and 24 or the current T/C Contenders, the handloaded .30-30 can deliver sub-MOA groups.

The .30-30 is an effective 200-yard, light big-game cartridge when used in a scope-sighted rifle. It's an often-repeated fact, but more big game is shot under 200 yards than over. We've known the .30-30 to perform well on deer, black bear, antelope, elk and moose, and you can't ask for much more than that from any cartridge.

What More Could Anyone Ask?

The .30-30 is very mild in the recoil department when chambered in light and handy firearms. In fact, the modest recoil dished out by the .30-30 is one of its most endearing qualities. We would place the .30-30 at the head of the list as an ideal big-game caliber for many women and youths or other shooters who are recoil sensitive and who find a 61/2 lb. rifle just about all they want to carry afield.

It's a handloader's dream. Headspace is fixed by the case's rim, so the .30-30 doesn't require any critical resizing die adjustments. The long, forgiving neck just seems to align any bullet -- cast or jacketed -- a bit better than modern stubby-neck designs.

Its modest case capacity of around 30 grs. of powder provides high loading densities when loaded to the max, and yet not excessive air space when stoked with mild, reduced loads. Often overlooked is the fact that inexpensive 170 gr. gas-checked cast bullets can be driven as fast in the .30-30 as jacketed bullets of the same weight--both around 2,150 fps.

If you don't handload, the factories offer every conceivable loading from Remington's 55 gr., .224 sabot Accelerator revving up at 3,400 fps to Federal's 170 gr. Nosler Partition at 2,200 fps. The most popular loadings are the 150 gr. offerings. Every manufacturer offers one or two, and the hotshot of the group is Winchester's new 150 gr. Power-Point Plus at 2,480 fps.

No, this is not your grandpappy's .30-30 pushing a 160 gr. soft point at 1,970 fps. When zeroed at 100 yards, the new Winchester load is down only 3.5" at 200 yards. Then there's PMC's wicked-looking 150 gr. monolithic Starfire with a hollowpoint cavity so large it actually encircles the primer ahead of it in a tubular magazine.

The Unconventional .30-30

While factory loads are tailored for safe loading in tubular magazines and feature round or flat nose soft points or cavernous hollowpoints, spitzer bullets can be loaded in lever guns as long as utmost care and safety precautions are observed to assure that such ammo is not mixed with traditional loads, or improperly loaded. Simply load one in the chamber and one in the magazine, making the rifle a two-shot. The Remington factory 55 gr. .224 spitzer Accelerator is the only exception. Because the load does not develop any meaningful recoil, it is considered entirely safe for tubular magazine use.

We've experimented with a lot of two-shot spitzer loads for lever guns. Frankly, they're difficult to assemble properly because the maximum overall length of the .30-30 cartridge, set at 2.55", is critical if the second cartridge is to cycle from the magazine through the action.

The other problem is that spitzer bullets either do not feature a cannelure or carry a cannelure at the wrong point for a proper crimp in the .30-30 case. When all is said and done, it's a waste of time. A 200-yard rifle doesn't need a spitzer bullet - the actual improvement in downrange ballistics is inconsequential.