hornady ammo

[bluefishjim]

Greatings,
Has anyone been shooting the hornady lever-evolution ammo in 30-30, is this ammo worth the price and how much more distance are you getting.

Thanks

 

[Eb1]

I'll give you my opinion. For some it works good. For myself it doesn't shoot good out of any of my Marlin 30-30s.

I hand load a 125 grain HPFN to 2500 fps which does as good if not better for what I need the 30-30 to do. If hunting hogs with my 30-30 I'll stick to the old Winchester 150 or 170 grain soft nose ammo.
The 150 and 170 grain ammo is still a good deer killer out to 225 yards give or take. The Hornady ammo if it shoots good for you is a good round, but I have found that the rubber tips in all of Hornady ammo i.e. Critical Defense, etc alters the groups in a negative. Either that or none of my guns like it.

In the 30-30 I'd shoot the cheapest ammo that I could find because it has worked forever. I just happened to find a load with the 125 grain FNHP that really does a job on deer and coyote.

 

[jmr40]

Generally speaking it isn't much, if any more expensive than standard ammo. If it shoots good in your gun there isn't any real downside to using it.

On the other hand it doesn't add much either. Hornady uses some creative number juggling in their advertising. Every other ammo maker shows 30-30 ammo zeroed at 100 yards with corresponding bullet drops at 200 and 300 yards.

Hornady does not tell us what range their ammo is zeroed. They do tell us it is still .2" high at 200 yards and 12" low at 300 yards. 12" low at 300 yards looks good at first glance, but if you zero conventional round nose 30-30 ammo so it is still hitting high at 200 yards it will only be about 13" low at 300.

 

[tdoyka]

i haven't had my 30-30 out in years. i found a load for it with 125gr sierra fnhp with a charge of h322 that flat out knocks the pxxx out of them. deer that is. a 150gr hornady rn with a charge of h322 take a deer out too.

 

[bluefishjim]

Thanks

Well first thanks for the replies, I don't have many shots over 100 yards and fewer out to 150. I've been using remingtons core-lokt in 150 gr and it's been knocking down the deer just fine, from what I read here I'li stay with that.

 

[Cee Zee]

I have found that the rubber tips in all of Hornady ammo i.e. Critical Defense, etc alters the groups in a negative

Wow that's sure different from my experience. I use the Critical Duty in my .40, Critical Defense in my wife's .380, and Leverevolution in my .44 mag S&W. All of it is accurate for me. Very accurate in fact. For example I can knock a gallon jug around at 175 yards with my 629 Smith. The 8 3/8" barrel doesn't hurt I guess. But more than that I get very good expansion out of the Duty and Defense cartridges. I have both for my SA XDm and both work very well and they group better than any ammo I've run through that pistol. I don't get great groups in my wife's LCP but it isn't the ammo's fault. It still seems to shoot better than other brands and the expansion is excellent.

BTW I use Hornady cartridges in my .223 bolt action too. I've shot a few different varieties and they've all done well. They aren't the best rounds for that rifle but they do well.

I wouldn't think of switching to a different defense round for my .40 unless I see something really impressive. I basically plink with the .44 mag. ammo. I need to keep in practice and that round gives me consistent performance. It isn't what I use for bear defense, which is the primary use for that revolver, but it works well for target practice. I would guess it would be a good hunting round too but I haven't tried it.