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Considering most of the deer killed across the country are probably killed within 150 yards, the 30/30 would be perfectly adequate for most hunters. The rifles and ammo are cheap, cup and core bullets at moderate velocities drop deer like a hammer. I do laugh at all the assclowns who think they need a 7 Mag or 300 Win Mag for deer though. Especially in area where their shots will rarely exceed a hundred yards. Most of the time he practically blows the shoulder near the exit wound right to pieces, it's entirely too much gun for hunting around here. I've got to shoot one a few times, we were hitting steel at 300 yards without a problem, cool guns, but definitely overkill. Though, I have taken everything from coyotes to elk with my .338 and have not lost any more meat than I would have with, say, my .280. I like to use all my hunting rifles on varmints. that way I know I can swing, follow through, and hit what I am aiming at with all of them. |
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I prefer 30 WCF .................... https://www.AR15.Com/media/mediaFiles/91/pix067082442_zpsbgkmxr0m-450782.jpg View Quote |
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C Products Defense makes really good 5 round mags for less than $20.00. Hornady Black is a brass cased SST. They also make VMax (I think) in steel case. Classic case of YMMV. I have had zero feeding issues with CPD mags in my PSA. Its perfect for me for deer/hogs/coyotes out to about 250 yards. View Quote |
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I've had an eye out for a JM/ Pre Remington Marlin 336/ Glenfield 30A.
Everyone wants $$$ for early Marlins now, and the new ones are garbage. Local pawn shop has a Glenfield for I think $379 in decent shape. I'm thinking about FO'ing. I have some really nice Walnut to put on one and the crappy wood is the only negative on the Glenfield vs the Marlin. |
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One small anecdote.
When SKS's became popular, you could always tell when one of the neighbor's was hunting with one. BOOM!! BOOMBOOMBOOMBOOM!!!!!!-----------------------------BOOM!. Sounded like a wedding in Beiruit. Good friend of mine hunts hogs with a 7.62x39 AR using plain old Tula FMJ. I typically hunt with a 32-20 or .357 levergun with cast bullets. We kill the same amount of hogs regardless. |
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One small anecdote. When SKS's became popular, you could always tell when one of the neighbor's was hunting with one. BOOM!! BOOMBOOMBOOMBOOM!!!!!!-----------------------------BOOM!. Sounded like a wedding in Beiruit. Good friend of mine hunts hogs with a 7.62x39 AR using plain old Tula FMJ. I typically hunt with a 32-20 or .357 levergun with cast bullets. We kill the same amount of hogs regardless. View Quote That being said my Winchester 94 30-30 is my favorite. |
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Interesting. I learned something today! View Quote That's what its all about. I learned that same stuff in the "AR Variants" forum. I was wanting to ditch my AK but I had this ammo fort..so I did some research, signed up for PSAs email alerts and kept watching. Add a P series mount and a Nikon P300 (ballistics are close enough out to 300 yards or so) and 5 CPD 30 rounders and I have about $700.00 in the rig total. It works for me. Still have my Norinco Para though. |
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Dont sell a ton of 30/30 rifles at work , but always sell a shit load of 30-30 ammo every fall
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Almost 1k for a new winchester 3030. Thats the only new one i would buy new, and thats a lot of money for a outdated design.
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Love mine.. Got 'em in .44 mag, .30-30, 35 Rem and a couple in .22. I've taken a boat load of game with them. I also have a couple of old Winchesters.. They are pretty popular around here and are getting hard to find. (at least the older ones)
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There was a time when your lever action was not just a primary hunting rifle but a primary defensive carbine as well.
Yeah, they are losing market share. |
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Quoted: When the hech was that grandpa? View Quote |
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Much like Matthew Quigley , I ain’t got much use for one.
And Henry uses a tube vs. a side loading gate, which makes it even more useless. Hollywood makes them look cool. I will pass. |
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I'm not sure about popularity but my Marlin 336 is my favorite deer hunting rifle.
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My last two lever actions were 45LC's. For Elk and Deer I use an AR-10.
I have been trying to get my friend to sell me his Dad's 1894 25-35, but no luck so far. More than one hundred years old and still accurate with a hair trigger. |
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This may sound stupid - but having never owned a lever action, how safe are they? The idea of storing ammo with the bullet touching the primer of the round in front of it makes me not want to stumble around in the woods with one.
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This may sound stupid - but having never owned a lever action, how safe are they? The idea of storing ammo with the bullet touching the primer of the round in front of it makes me not want to stumble around in the woods with one. View Quote |
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The first gun I ever shot was my grandpa's pre 64 Model 94.
He drilled safety into my brain. Safety safety safety. Especially with an exposed hammer rifle. He handed that rifle down to me a few years back so I decided to take it deer hunting. Loaded up with Core-Lokt and hit the woods. 1st evening sit, big doe walks out about 70 yards down the lane. Gave her a little "merp" and she stopped, put 1 round right in the boiler room. She dropped right there, never even flinched. I saw a little movement in the woods coming towards the doe. Her fawn from that year came and started sniffing the doe's body. Well, he ended up taking a round too. Dropped right where he stood. 2 for 2 with the ol 30-30. Iron sights for the win! |
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My first gun was a Marlin lever action in 22lr I got when I was 8.
I shot my first deer with a Marin 30 30. They are rarely shot nowadays but I will never part with them. I prefer bolt guns for hunting and ARs for fun. Plus many fudds are dying off and the EBR is the new king. |
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With modern ammo like Hornady's Leverevolution I think it's brought the 30-30 back out of the gun safe once again.
I can't think of a context where I would ever sell my old 30-30. I bought mine when I was 13 with $150 I earned by moving yards. It still has the original Tasco scope on it....that is still zeroed after all these years. |
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This may sound stupid - but having never owned a lever action, how safe are they? The idea of storing ammo with the bullet touching the primer of the round in front of it makes me not want to stumble around in the woods with one. View Quote |
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I've had an eye out for a JM/ Pre Remington Marlin 336/ Glenfield 30A. Everyone wants $$$ for early Marlins now, and the new ones are garbage. Local pawn shop has a Glenfield for I think $379 in decent shape. I'm thinking about FO'ing. I have some really nice Walnut to put on one and the crappy wood is the only negative on the Glenfield vs the Marlin. View Quote Ended up getting one elsewhere for $320 |
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There’s a reason lever actions use flat tip or soft polymer tip ammo. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted:
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This may sound stupid - but having never owned a lever action, how safe are they? The idea of storing ammo with the bullet touching the primer of the round in front of it makes me not want to stumble around in the woods with one. |
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In all my years as a guide I have only seen on 30-30 and the guy wanted to kill a turkey with it. I love 30-30’s good brush guns, but most want.300 Win Mags.m My 30-30 was bought new in 1978 by my FIL, I killed a few hogs with it. View Quote 30-30 might suffice for squirrels. Maybe. |
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Quoted: If you load spitzer or FMJ rounds into a mag tube....you're gonna have a bad time. View Quote |
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Gun rags have told us we need uber ultimate nuclear deer blaster cannons to shoot whitetails with. When the 30/30 came out it is said a lot of hunters thought it was a bit much for deer more of an elk cartridge. The number of guys using magnums is something. When they lose a deer to poor shot placement the cure is to move up the power. I have a friend that used a 270 for years and decided he needed more power. Weatherby 270 mag I believe. Afew years later he went back to 270 win. I asked why. He said all that magnum did for his was help develope a nice flinch.
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Pretty much this. When 7.62x39 and others give similar performance in a much more useful package, the days of the .30-30 are numbered. Same thing with lever actions. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted:
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Never was all that interested in them. No real interesting history (family stories excluded), and there are better guns for hunting today. |
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Like others have posted, I think the good old 30-30 is on borrowed time. I'm sure they will always be with us, for those hunters with a sense of nostalgia and tradition. And they do perform very well for what they do.
But while lever actions have gone up in price, there are now an awful lot of decent quality bolt actions in the $300 to $400 range with a level of accuracy that would have been considered a target rifle 25 years ago. I do like my lever guns, and can work an action pretty quick on my Marlin 357. It surprises guys at the range when I am easily ringing the 100 yard steel. But bolt guns and ARs have become less expensive, and they will definitely put a dent in 30-30 levers popularity. You can still get single action revolvers today, they just are not as prolific as the polymer 9mms , for example. |
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Old ones are appreciating in value, new ones generally aren’t very good, and those budget bolt guns you talk about offer better bang for buck for the people that are looking for tool for a job. Most standard short action rifle cartridges outperform .30-30, and you get a rifle that’s easy to mount a scope to. View Quote The market is changing. The old guard of Fudds is slowly dying off, as is the guy who only has one rifle and one shotgun in the house for hunting. Today’s gun owner is a lot more comfortable using his AR or AK to drop a doe, so why limit yourself to fewer rounds or slower follow-up shots unless there is something to be gained...which would be accuracy...which is where the newer generation affordable but accurate bolt guns come in. So the lever gun is slowly getting crushed between the hammer and anvil of semi-auto sporters and bolt guns. Lever guns are the El Camino of the gun world. |
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Still one of the top sellers of ammo components and reloading equipment. New ones by marlin are crap, new japchesters are overpriced, and there's a hell of a lot of older serviceable ones circulation on the used market. They might not be as popular as they once were pre ww2, but overall and overwhelmingly in certain areas there are still a lot of them. I have scads of boltguns, semi, etc. Still carry my old levers in the brush more often than not. CHoice between a scoped HV bolt gun and an open sighted straight grip lever in the brush <100 yards I usually end up taking the lever because it has seemed to work better for me. I never had a deer complain about getting hit with the .30-30, they just end up dying right there.
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They get a lot of hate for some reason. They are one of the best deer rifles you can buy though if you are shooting under 200 yards. View Quote Magazine capacity? Accuracy? Speed of follow-up shots? Terminal performance? External ballistics? Rifle weight? Ammo weight? Ease of optics mounting? Ammo selection? Trigger pull? There’s nothing wrong with using one. But if I were starting from scratch and wanted to acquire a deer-capable rifle, there’s no way I would limit myself to a lever-gun. There are too many other more versatile designs out there that out class the lever gun in most of those qualities. In this day and age, I think lever guns are clearly relegated to the fun gun niche. I’ll snatch one up if the deal is right just to expand my collection, but it isn’t like i’m ever looking through the gun safe and find myself saying “I really need a lever gun for this application”. It’s been rendered obsolete. |
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I love my Marlin 336. It's my main deer gun. It's light and powerful enough to do the job.
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Yep. Follow the ammo sales. Guns are durable goods, so gun sales do not reliably approximate the fielded population. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted:
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Dont sell a ton of 30/30 rifles at work , but always sell a shit load of 30-30 ammo every fall Guns are durable goods, so gun sales do not reliably approximate the fielded population. Look at .30 Carbine |
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Eventually the ammo companies suspend production of ammo for guns that haven't been made in a while. Look at .30 Carbine View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted:
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Dont sell a ton of 30/30 rifles at work , but always sell a shit load of 30-30 ammo every fall Guns are durable goods, so gun sales do not reliably approximate the fielded population. Look at .30 Carbine Ammo sales should reflect high usage. |
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