Tag: rifle action

HOW ABOUT A .30-30? By Craig Boddington

It’s often said that the .30-30 Winchester has “taken more deer than any other cartridge.” Axioms like this are hard to prove and I can’t prove this one. Over the years, I’ve taken deer with numerous different cartridges…but only a handful with a .30-30.

Even so, I think it’s probably true. Introduced in 1895, the .30-30’s original 160-grain load barely hit 2000 feet per second, slow by today’s standards…but faster than any black powder cartridge. Compared to the large-cased cartridges of the day, the .30-30 was a tiny little thing. Early users quickly learned that its new smokeless propellant harnessed a lot of power and flattened trajectory. The .30-30’s also-new jacketed bullet penetrated well and offered a new dimension to bullet performance: Expansion.

In the euphoria over this newfound velocity the .30-30 was often used for large game, elk, moose, and even big bear. Undoubtedly, it still is, and with perfect shot placement (and, in its traditional lever-action platform, with fast repeat shots) it will get the job done. However, in 1895 and today, deer are America’s most widespread and popular big game. The .30-30 was quickly found extremely effective on deer-sized game…and remains so today. No one can estimate how many millions of deer have fallen to .30-30s. Winchester has made 7.5 million Model 94s, most of them in .30-30, and millions still in use. Add in hundreds of thousands of lever-action .30-30s from Marlin, Mossberg, and Savage; a few slide-actions, and a major sprinkling of single-shots. The .30-30’s rimmed case is probably best-suited to traditional tubular-magazine lever actions, but it was chambered to a surprising number of early bolt-actions!

Bruce Duncan with a big Idaho tom mountain lion and his battered Model 94 .30-30 carbine, short, light, easy to carry, for generations the odds-on choice for houndsmen.

Despite the many cartridges that are faster, shoot flatter, and harness more power, the .30-30 remains among our best-selling cartridges. Perhaps more surprising, it remains among the top cartridges in reloading die sales. Admittedly, this is partly because there are so many .30-30 rifles out there. However, I think it’s also partly because the .30-30 remains a useful hunting cartridge, with relatively light recoil and deer-killing efficiency.

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Which is the Best Rifle Action for You?

Our beloved tradition of campfire arguments often centers around which cartridge we should choose. That’s always fun, but maybe by now you’ve gotten my oft-repeated message that, within broad parameters, it’s kind of silly. We all know that the 6.5mm Creedmoor is the hottest-selling cartridge right now, but is any deer or steel target likely to feel the difference (or lodge a formal complaint) if struck by a Creedmoor, a .270 Winchester, a 7mm-08, or any of dozens of cartridges we can think of?

I think not. Actually, so long as the projectile strikes the desired point, the launching platform also doesn’t make much difference. Although each has significant variations, there are essentially five rifle actions: semiautomatic, slide-action, lever-action, bolt-action, and single-shot. For completeness, I suppose one could add the double rifle. I like doubles in certain applications, but it’s fair to say that the double is mostly a break-open single-shot with a second barrel and firing mechanism.

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