30-30 is it still being used today or am I the only one still using it?

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midland man

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I still take my Winchester 94 out deer and hog hunting every year without fail and I reload my ammo with the sierra 170gr prohunter bullets! it still takes deer and hogs no problem! I also last year bought a marlin model 336y youth model in 30-30 and it and my Winchester likes the same reloads and both perform well, I use the youth 30-30 as a truck gun or pack rifle but my dad bought me the win 94 when I was 12 years old and I still use it alot! so is I the only one still using this grand old cartridge?? ;)
 
I use my marlin 336 every year pig hunting in hawaii. Perfect rifle to climb a tree with, and doesn’t blow your eardrums out.The local shop there carries federal premium 170 grain Nosler Partition Rn.
 
Still doing what it’s done for a long time. Have not used mine yet. But I just bought it last month. That and a 35 Rem. However, it will be used this year. And I have no doubts of its ability. If you needed the latest and greatest to put game down, I don’t think I would have ever harvested any deer or pigs with my rifles.
 
Fantastic on hogs and, back east where shots are frequently under 100 yards, fantastic on deer and black bear. My beater rifle is a Savage 340 in 30-30 and while I haven't hit a coyote of opportunity with it, that's down to poor shooting and insufficient skill with iron sights, not the cartridge. That great long neck loves a cast bullet.

And the latest whiz-bang, must have, change your life cartridge, the 350 Legend, is, at best, an attempt to deliver 30-30 performance in an AR15. Since the AR 15 is the modern day levergun, I applaud the effort, even if Winchester's snake-oil falls short. Maybe the 300 Hammr will?
 
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I don't hunt but I shoot my Marlin and Rossi 30-30s on a regular basis. A 30-30 will take care of most things. I have a lead bullet load I use for plinking that is softer than factory ammo and good to introduce people to the 30-30.
 
I've got a couple that I use on occasion. One of those is a never fired NIB Winchester '94 Centennial Edition in High Grade that I'm keeping around as an investment. It's worth about twice what I paid for it in 1995.

.40
 
I am sure that there are mucho 30-30’s out there being used for all kinds of good 30-30 stuff. I also have a youth 30-30 that I purchased for my son’s first youth deer hunt - he is now Navy owned and has been gone for many years. No matter his location in the world today, we can text each other. There were no iPhones at the end of Vietnam - I remember back and wish that there were.
In a not too distant time, a future thread might read “Does anyone still own a gun or am I the only one left”.
Nostalgia is a warming thing, it helps people deal with inevitable (and sometimes) unwanted change.
 
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I bought a secondhand 94 last year, but have to admit I have not yet shot it. I don't have any rifles in any of the "latest-greatest" cartridges, only in 5.56 and 7.62 (x39 and x54.) I don't hunt, but the Winchester was purchased to be a shooter, and I intend to make it such.
 
My father-in-law was a farmer in Maryland and I can remember as far back as 1967 he carried a 30-30 Winchester 94 with him every day and I'm sure he was carrying it long before then. I guess he trusted it to provide meat for his family. I don't remember if I ever saw him without it. It seemed part of him.
 
I still use .30-30, in fact most of my hunting for many years has been done with a .30-30. I started hunting with one back in the dark ages (1974) and still use one to this day.

I currently own 3 - a Western Field (Marlin) that I have owned for many years, along with a Winchester Centennial 66 and a Mossberg 464.

So no, you are not alone.......
 
I have two 30-30's, a Springfield 840 bolt action, clip magazine fed, and a JB Marlin 30-AS lever action. Both will shoot 11/2 inch at 100 yards from the bench with my loads. Great woods guns. hdbiker
 
I just inherited an old (pre-safety and pre-Microgroove) Marlin 336 from my Grandpa. I replaced the riser in the rear sight, which had long since disappeared, and cleaned it. A friend and I have casted and powder coated some 170 gr FN and got them loaded up, and I am planning on sighting it in this weekend. As the story goes my grandpa bought the rifle from a local hardware store on credit at age eleven, in Seattle, and stored it at the school when he was going out with friends after school. I am looking forward to keeping it productive and putting meat on the table with it this hunting season.
 
I don't really hunt with mine because the range is too limited in my neck of the woods, but I still shoot it quite a bit and it's generally in our bedroom loaded with 125 grain hollow points. It's the original self defense carbine and pretty well suited to that role, at least with the way our home and neighborhood are laid out.
 
I shoot my 30-30’s more than hunt with them. I grew up on 44mag leverguns rather than 30-30’s; which I remain to believe the 44mag is superior for the typical application for which 30-30’s are commonly used. Same effective range, higher momentum for faster anchoring of game, and less powder to do the job (or lower factory ammo cost). So if I hunt with a levergun, I would grab a 44mag 1894 before I grab a 336 out of the safe (and have been finding the last 10yrs or so, I grab a 45-70 ahead of a 44mag).

A lot can happen between now and fall which might change my mind, but I’ll likely use a 336 my father-in-law handed down to my wife for meat doe this winter. I’ll be adding a tang ladder and receiver peep, replacing the front post, and upgrading to a Happy Trigger to make it more usable for me, otherwise, it’s just a plain Jane 1975 336 with a speckled barrel from being stored in a soft case for 30+ years. Absolutely no objective reason to do so, purely a nostalgic pursuit to make my FIL beam with pride to see his old rifle still in action.
 
My wife uses one for close range deer hunting.
I don't dislike them, but I don't like them. The 336 is heavy, but accurate. If I'm hunting close, my 357 lever gun is good enough. If I'm hunting far, I have better guns.
It is a fun range gun though.
 
I don't really hunt with mine because the range is too limited in my neck of the woods,
Yeah, it's the same where we hunt. However, I have always stuck my old Model 94 behind the seat in my pickup-truck before we head out on a hunting trip a long ways from home. I think of it as kind of a "spare" in case somebody's rifle or scope gets messed up - kinda like one of those "donut" spare tires they put in automobiles nowadays...it's not the best, but it will get you home if you're aware of it's limitations.;)
I'm half-joking of course, but I do have my Model 94 along as a "spare" when we're on hunting trips far from home. And back in the days when there were lots of deer in this part of Idaho, and we could shoot 2 of them, I'd use my 30-06 to put the first one in the freezer. But then I'd switch to my 30-30 just for the fun or it. It worked okay, and back then I killed several of my "second" deer with it.
Besides that, our daughter (at age 14, I think) killed her first deer with my Model 94. It was a doe, at a little over a hundred yards away. I actually sat down, stuck my fingers in my ears, closed my eyes, and let our daughter rest her rifle on my shoulder. She shot the deer right in her lungs, she stumbled forward a few steps before collapsing, and we never found the bullet (a 170gr CoreLokt) because it went clear through.:)
 
I did borrow a 30-30 for some hog hunting most recently. Still as effective as ever;but, I sold off my personal 30-30's years ago and replaced them lever actions in 454, 44, 357 and 327 mag. Simply found reloading the pistol calibers a little easier and the guns a little lighter to handle.
 
Growing up in N/E Wisconsin the only two calibers that were mostly used for deer was the 06 and the 30-30, incidentally I used a much older 30-30 Marlin until about 1973-74, when a good buddy talked me into getting the .270 for a Mule deer hunt in northern AZ where the average shot was 250-300 yards, needless to say I took a trophy 6 pointer at 75 yards on a dead run with the .270, so what can I say.
 
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