I was an LGS the other day looking at the few lever guns they had, and one of the employees said that about 9 out of 10 people inquiring about lever guns are looking for 30-30. Given the lack of 357s on the shelf and the high price some are charging I thought maybe those were the ones in demand. Just a fluke or is 30-30 having a resurgence? I mean, I know it's always had a following, but probably not 90%.

Been having trouble finding ammo for awhile now.

Yeah it's kind of what comes to mind for a lever gun....probably sells better then any other

I suppose that's true. Anyone coming to lever guns for the first time might be most familiar with the 30-30. I think I'd have much more use for 357 or 44 and was just surprised that 30-30 is what people were asking for. Of course, lever action aficionados already have a 30-30 and are branching out into other calibers. I just don't use my 30-30 much mainly because I find it pain to reload.

As for ammo, it was OOS everyone a year or two ago, but I'm seeing it pretty regularly now. It's just $25+ a box when it was like $15-$18 at big box stores. At least it's not $40 for the cheap Win or Rem stuff.

Lever gun cartridges seem to be all over the place. 44mag and 45-70 have been produced for a long time just like 30-30. When we stopped seeing new Winchester model 94’s the cartridge took a big hit because not many bolt action guns chamber the rimmed 30-30.  Now we see Henry pushing 360 Buckhammer but why is nobody building the 38-55 or 40-65 .375 Win etc and poof where did 450 Marlin go. It’s not confined to lever guns Winchester stopped making 300WSM brass. Everything is a good idea until it isn’t. Want a lever gun -  buy a 45-70 would be my suggestion.

I saw 10 boxes of 30-30 at the Walmart right at the start of hunting season/fall like when archery seasons starts. I don't have a 30-30 but I thought about getting the ammo just in case.

Everyone of my uncles on both sides of the family (except one) owned and killed many deer with a 30-30 lever gun.
Most of them had an SKS too.

I'd take a 30-30, but I don't think I'd ever buy one.

Yellowstone
Demand since that show came out has skyrocketed.

30-30 was the goto until Jurassic Park and Wind River happend. Now 45-70 is it. Even though 30-30 is a thing for lever guns, I think 45-70 and pistol calibers are what people want in a new gun. It's like 308...it's great, people buy ammo for their older guns but 6.5 cm is what people want in a new gun.

I think the only 30/30 I have is a single shot that I bought because it also had a 20ga barrel. Never really had much use for one.

I bet that's it. Never seen it, but people are sheep so if it's on TV then it's suddenly popular.

I like 30-30, chose it over 357 and 44 for a lever gun.  

It’s always in stock at Wal-Mart and Academy around here.

The only lever gun I own is a .32 Win. Spl.

Find ammo near anywhere for a 30-30.

I have levers in 30-30, 308win and 45/70.

If i buy anymore levers they'll be an 06' 1895win, a 356win marlin 336 and of course 358win savage 99

30-30 is always popular.  I'm curious as to your comment about it being a pain to reload.  It's often recommended as a beginning reloader's first  rifle caliber.

Wind River, Jurassic Park and Yellowstone have certainly increased the popularity of lever action rifles but 30-30 has been popular for a very long time.

It was the quintessential American rifle for over a century before the AR-15 took over in the last couple decades.

Most people buying centerfire lever actions are buying them to hunt with and the .30-30, being an actual rifle round, is better at killing things than handgun rounds.

It’s also easier to find ammo than all the other popular lever gun cartridges. 45/70 and the cowboy cartridges are rare around here, .357 and .44 are hit or miss, even at gun shops. I can buy .30-30 at every gun shop, Walmart, hardware store around and even some of the rural gas stations carry it.

The brass seems kind of thin in 30-30 and when seating bullets (I only loaded jacketed) the cases would sometimes get crushed a little. I also had a hard time getting enough crimp using the Lee crimp die to keep bullets from setting back some in the tube magazine. Never had any other case crush like that.

I know 30-30 has always been popular, but the guy at the shop made it sound like it was out of the norm for so many to be looking for 30-30. I thought maybe there was a reason it was more popular than say normal. Maybe the TV shows and movies are pushing it back into the mainstream.

It may also have to do with many hunters lugging around bolt rifles with 10x scopes to tree stand hunt at 50-100 yards.   At the bench the bolt actions rule. In the thicker woods that most of is hunt  a compact lever with red dot or 4x scope is really handy. Especially shooting unsupported at a slow yet still moving target.
  I have a very nice custom BA with Swarvorski scope etc that I barely hunt with these days.  . Now I hunt with a 16in barreled Marlin 1894 44mag with a RMR mounted on it.

I have a 1968 Marlin in 35 rem with a modern 4x weaver, very light and fast

The .30 Winchester Center Fire (W.C.F) was introduced as the first smokeless cartridge in the US in 1896 in the Model 1894 Winchester.

Marlin quickly introduced the same round in their 1893 as the “.30-30” as they didn’t want anything “”Winchester” on their rifle. They continued the trend on their Model 93, Model 36 and Model 336 rifles making upwards of 6 million of them.

Winchester continued to make the Model 94 rifles and carbines as well as the follow on Model 55 and Model 64 rifles. There are upwards of 7 million Model 94/55/64 rifles and carbines made with well over half of them chambered in in .30-30.

That’s a number of Winchester and Marlin lever actions in .30-30 or .32 WS only exceeded by the number of AR-15s in the US and owners tend to hang on to them.  

Then there are all the other firearms chambered in .30-30 over the years including several single shot rifles and numerous bolt action rifle models.

It doesn’t get much credit or mention in gun rags or on the internet but it is still one of the most prolifically used deer cartridges in the US.

I haven’t seen data since 2015, but as of 2015 it still ranked 4th in center fire rifle cartridge sales, behind the .223 Rem, .308 Win and .30-06 in that order.  The .270 Win, .243 Win and 7mm Rem Mag follow the .30-30 in 5th, 6th and 7th place. Looking at hunting only there’s a strong argument that .30-30 is really in second or third place, not fourth.

Fan boy rounds like the 6.5 Creedmoor, the various short magnum failures, and all the other hot new Madison Avenue marketing rounds come and go but they don’t displace those long standing hunting rounds.  


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A Model 94 20” carbine is and always has been very well balanced, light weight, easy to carry, snag free in brush, easy to reload on the move, and very effective on deer sized game out to 200 or so yards. But I suspect the last few generations have had to rediscover it for themselves.

When I was young and dumb, I hated the antiquated “thutty-thutty” and the equally antiquated lever action rifle with a passion.  It was old.  I silkier the .30-06 for the same (dumb) reason.  

That changed when I moved to the black hills and discovered my long range high plains suitable 500-600 yard shot rifles just were not optimum for hunting in mountains with pine and brush where shots were short and terrain was steep.  Older, wiser hunters got deer. I got tired.

I figured nearly a century of deer hunters before me might be on to something and found a pre 64 Model 94 carbine in 30-30 for $275.  I discovered it would shoot 1.5 MOA 5 shot groups at 100 yards, was a delight to carry, and had superb balance and handling.  I haven’t looked back. It’s equally at home here in NC.   I will from time to time use a Model 94 rifle or carbine in .38-55 or .375 Win, or a Model 92 in .357 Mag for specialized purposes, but the .30-30 is an impressive all round cartridge in a lever gun.

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For the last couple years .30-30 ammo and components were hard to find, in part due to pandemic related shortages but in part due to increased focus on producing .350 Legend ammo that in my neck of the woods just sat on shelves, at the apparent detriment of .30-30 production.

But that seems to have changed this year as it’s in regular supply, even if the prices are still high.

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It’s not a hard round to handload.  As noted above the neck is thinner, but the bigger is are the flat based bullets.  Between the two, you have to take slightly more care in the bullet seating process to center the flat based bullet in the neck before running it into the seating die.

A Lee factory crimp die works well at a fourth station.

RL-7, BLC-2, 748 are all good powders with 150 gr RN bullets.

This is my go to favorite.
Attached File

I was at the range yesterday with my Marlin Texan.  I heard through the miracle of electonic hearing protection, a couple guys talking and one said:  "holy shit, he just blasted through $60 worth of ammo.

If they only knew.......



I am still blasting through these free ones!!!! Very few people with a .30-30 have ever gotten their barrel hot enough to burn their hands.

Good. More for me.



FYI:  Longmire kicked off the levergun craze. There is no problem that could not be solved, once Sheriff Longmire broke out the lever gun.  Prior to that, it was John Wayne movies.

Ahh, I solve that problem by chamfering the case mouth with an RCBS case tool

I do that too, but somehow I manage to crush the occasional case. Along with setback it just never seemed problem free. Maybe I'll try a M-die and add a little bit of bell to help with the flat base bullets. Or maybe something like the Hornady dies that help to keep the bullet straight. Since I got the 45-70 I've been shooting that a lot more and haven't shot the 30-30 in maybe 5-6 years.

I have never crushed one reloading.  I use 165 and 175 projectiles, flat lead tip jacketed, Lee dies, Dillon case lube.  With that, assume that a little gets inside the case mouth.  

I wanted a house gun lever action but not in a pistol caliber. I wanted to be able to plow through a front windshield or car door, if needed. So 30-30 it became.

Recoil is much, much lighter than I thought it would be. I ended up with a Rossi R95, 16" bbl. I just installed a Skinner peep sight but haven't sighted it in yet.

Nicely accurate too.

I agree, .30-30 recoil seems more mild than a .44 Mag.  

I'm not sure if 30-30 is in high demand, but I don't see much ammo on the shelves around my area.  This could mean the opposite is true.  30-30 isn't as popular as it was  before people started deer hunting with AR type rifles and therefore stores don't carry much ammo.  I'm sure ammo companies aren't focused on producing it in the same quantities as the "big three" 223 Rem, 308 Win, and 30-06 Sprfd.

Lever actions are neat, and I wouldn't say no to a free one in 357  Mag, 44 Mag, 30-30 Win or 45-70 but they're never on my list of things I'm searching for.  Ironically my first store bought rifle was a Marlin 336 (30-30Win) back around 1990.  All of the guns I bought before came from family or gun shows.

The Springfield Model 1892 Krag–Jørgensen rifle in.30 US/.30 Army/.30-40 Krag entered US service in 1894.  
The Winchester 1895 in the same chambering followed the next year for the civilian sporting market.

Right before the Covid shut down I had some tables at a gun show. I was amazed at how many new firearm owners were walking out with 30-30 lever actions. I think almost every 30-30 on a tables was sold at that show. They are cheaper than an AR and many non-gun people know what they are.

To many, .30-30 = lever gun, and lever gun = .30-30.  It's been a minute since many cowboy movies specifically pointed out that some lever guns can use revolver cartridges.

And the ammo might not be in huge demand, it's just been in low supply so manufacturers can make the stuff that's in high demand.

It sounds like your neck sizing mandrel or AKA decapping pin/neck sizer is not the right dimension.  You should make sure that it is 0.002 smaller than the bullet diameter.

This right here. I’m amazed at how many think every lever gun is a Winchester Model 94 in 30-30.

I have 2 boxes of the same Remington 150gr load. One I bought in 1992 and one I bought in 2022.

They both had price tags on them and were priced within 20 cents of each other.

Yeah. The 2022 box was $18.79, 20 cent more than the 1992 box.

its very popular in pa because we still cant hunt deer with semis

It's always been popular around here.
The Fudd Brigade is quite large but there are many new lever nerds today.
Winchester 1894's bring good money these days. Post 64 or pre it doesn't matter.
I can remember back in the 1980's seeing 94 Win's all over the place for less than $200. Now? pfffft!
The caliber seems to be resurgent.
Ammo is spotty but shows up. Sells fast.
IMO, folks are buying them up thinking the gun-grabbers won't go after them like the assualt rifles. The anti's will go after Bubba's turdy-turdy too.

Yellowstone, and westerns in general brought on a resurgence for lever guns and Colt 1873 SAA’s. Hell even Longmire sported a lever gun in modern law enforcement.

Not deer legal in Iowa which makes it virtually useless.  A lot of people buy them then realize there's really not much they can use them for.  Went down that path several years ago.  I found the accuracy less than stellar and frankly not a pleasant gun to shoot.  Sent it down the road and never looked back.

30-30 hard to find?  Not anymore.

348 is getting a little more scarce.

Not legal for deer in 1? out of 50.  WGAS.  They are very popular in the South.

Yes, it is that high of demand. I was talking to the sporting goods manager at Walmart one day and asked him why there wasn’t any boxes of .30-30 amongst their 5 varieties. He explained that it sells out within a week every time they get any in and that I’m just missing my window. He also said they were the #2 Walmart in the nation for ammunition sales.

ETA: I was in Walmart today and dropped back to the sporting goods department. I haven’t been back there since hunting season. They sell 8 different flavors of .30-30. Each had several boxes in their respective spot. Prices range from $24-32. I noticed that Federal blue box, which I paid $12 for during Covid, is now up to the aforementioned $24. Crazy!

I remember being able to find .348 in small gun stores back in the late 90s.  Those days are long gone.

348 ammo was always a rare thing down here in south Texas.
I’ve never seen a 348caliber rifle being used in the wild. A few in personal collections is it.
30-30 was/is one of THE most popular. Everybody has one.
After the great 30-30 drought of the covid years I drug out the old reloading gear and now load my own.

Just be thankful you don't have something chambered in .32-40 Winchester (32 Ballard).  I have all of one box of the old John Wayne commemorative .32-40 from Winchester.  Have not seen any more in years.