Lever action .30-30: will they be produced in 2100?

[AStone]

This continues to be an interesting and fun thread.

Busy day, so for now, just this: Thor, The 336 "Club" is an open thread like any other on THR subject to the same rules. Anyone can post anytime; ownership of a 336 (or even a gun) is not a requirement, just an interest in 336. Hell we've even had a few members with Winchesters.

For a while, there were a number of "club" threads, but it was just a name, never meant to be serious. It's like Cheers tavern, where everyone knows your name. There are a few long timers there, but mostly people come and go as they have questions and interests.

So, come on in anytime.

Nem

 

[YJake]

My first rifle was a M94 in 30-30 when I was a kid and now my favorite handguns to shoot are 1911s and revolvers. Hell, I get excited just thinking about shooting my Colt Dragoons...

I guess you'll find me on the "Novelty Aisle" for the rest of my life, and being in my 20's I have a lot of time to spend there in the future.

-Jake

 

[Kevin5098]

Gott's principle says that the longer something has been around, the longer it is likely to be around in the future. For example, all else being equal, there is a 60% chance that the lever action 30-30 is in the middle 60% of it's lifetime. From this it can be calcuated that there is a 60% chance that the rifle will be made for between 29.25 and 468 more years. Google Gott's Principle for a thorough explanation.

 

[MachIVshooter]

The future.......what an interesting concept.

The hollyweird projections basically go one of two ways. It's either a very sterile environment with everyone driving brand new, space-ship like cars and having just a few possessions that are all state-of-the-art, OR it's doom and gloom, TEOTWAWKI situations with everybody in rags and scrounging for functional 20th century relics.

Reality is quite different. We look around today in 2012, and we still see implements of 50, 100 and more years in the past in common use. Cars, guns, blenders, coffee grinders, lawn mowers, the list goes on. Even I, as a 30 year, use (and mostly drive) things made well before I was born. Why would the future be so vastly different?

It is possible that citizens may be unarmed 90 years from now, but if we can still own firearms, I'll bet that the lever action rifle will remain in many American homes even when personal conveyance machines hover and internet is used via implants in the brain

 

[jim243]

People buy them today because they think they are using a gun of historical significance. Most of which is based on Hollywood fantasy instead of fact.

This is singularly your point of view. And has no basis in fact, more like fiction. I purchase firearms for fuction and their ability to do a job. A short barreled brush gun in the northern woods will more likely take a game animal than a long barreled hunting rifle.

I am not a fan of the lever action rifle, but yes I do own a Marlin 336C (not in 30-30 but in 35 remington). I also own a Remington 7600 in 30-06, these are hunting rifles (carbines) not of historical value, but of game getting value.

If you are a collector then you are purchasing for the historical value and will most likely buy a caliber other than 30-30. So you can take your Hollywood garbage and put it where it belongs, in the trash.

I respect historical collectors and while I do not share their likes and tastes, I can see their point of view and more important RESPECT their choices.

Jim

 

[Arkansas Paul]

For the first time I am not really that excited about the new "future" guns or the direction the industry as a whole seems to be going in. I'm already sick of "black and camo plastic." While I think that many of them are good guns from a performance stand point, they somehow still leave me "cold". Try as I might, I can't help but look at many new "black guns” as being not much more than simply "tools." I guess in the future I'll be shopping in the "novelty gun" isle.

I'll see you on that novelty isle bro.
I would like to have an AR but like you, I view it only as a tool. If you want stone cold sexy, you've got to have wood and blue, prefferably in a lever or bolt rifle, or side by side shotty.

 

[T.R.]

When my Dad was born in 1922, only 3 leverguns were offered in 30-30:
- Winchester
- Marlin
- Savage

In 2012, there are even more choices:
- Henry
- Mossberg
- Rossi
- Marlin
- Winchester

The marketplace has proven that 30-30 rifles are still popular. Yes, I'm certain that 2100 will come and go but 30-30 will live on. I tend to be a cheerful and optimistic person.

But I'm not buying into the myth that cowboy movies help sell 30-30's. The cartridge kills far better than paper charts would suggest. This is widely known by hunters who choose this cartridge for hunting within forests and foothills.

TR

 

[GambJoe]

No we will be living in a utopian socialist Islamic society where walnut wood is reserved only for the most pious and all wild animals will be on birth contol. Except Amerian Bisons.

30-30 lever guns will be diplayed at only at historical museums to show how misrable life was in the former USA before Obama's 50 year reign.

But seriousely, with new Winchesters going for over a thousand today they might still be around but rare.

 

[336A]

The 30-30 and Winchester 94 had been obsolete for 3 years before the 1st box of ammo was ever sold. Neither were ever actually used in the old west. Had it not been for the Hollywood Westerns they would have died out by the end of the 1920's because as a hunting round far better options were available as early as 1892.

You clearly don't have all your facts together. Though not the 1880's Wyoming was pretty wild well into the early 1900's. Tom Horn was a notorious stock detective for WSGA and his weapon of choice was the Win 1894 in 30/30. He used that rifle with very good effect until his arrest in 1901. The good ol' 30/30 will be around for a long time to come, it still ranks in the top 10 rifle cartridges being sold annually.

 

[Tomcat47]

^^ Yep ^^

But I'm not buying into the myth that cowboy movies help sell 30-30's.

........................

after 118 years..............88 more!.............No Problem!

 

[AStone]

Behind ... reading now ...
will update ...
____

Caught up reading.

I have just this to say for now:

Da'um, this is an interesting thread ...

Running high tide, like Fundy.

What say you?

 

[NoirFan]

The hollyweird projections basically go one of two ways. It's either a very sterile environment with everyone driving brand new, space-ship like cars and having just a few possessions that are all state-of-the-art, OR it's doom and gloom, TEOTWAWKI situations with everybody in rags and scrounging for functional 20th century relics.

No no, these days the post-apocalypse fashion zeitgeist is swinging back towards the Old West. See "Book of Eli" or "Priest" if you don't believe me. If civilization collapses it won't be fifteen minutes before everyone throws away their modern guns and starts dressing up like cowboys and schoolmarms. I forsee a healthy future for the lever 30-30

 

[AStone]

^ Or, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

 

[AStone]

Of course, one of the benefits of levers is,
like in the days of points and carburetors,
before the days of electronic ignition and fuel injection,
with a screwdriver and emery paper,
one can fix a lever gun.

Can't do that as easily with newer designs.

 

[JustsayMo]

I'll put on my swami hat and look into the imaginary bowl of water and foretell the future...

Leverguns are no longer produced, nor are any others. The "Long Emergency" began 85 years earlier - Fiat money collapsed, fossil fuels became scarce due to international conflicts, demand drove the prices out of reach, the great famine resulted, governments and nations became irrelevant, small remote farming communities adapt to the "New Normal" using more primitive labor intensive techniques (and draft animals) due to the inability to get fuel for the equipment. The food grown there is consumed locally as transport is next to impossible not only due to fuel shortages but the lack of refrigeration and dangers of travel through areas without the "rule of law."

During this interval of disorder and subsequent reorganization to a much more localized existence much technological expertise will have been lost. Even those with the experience and knowledge that have survived will not have the communications beyond the local. Books were lost in the great fires that burned out of control across the nation and in the stoves that heated and cooked meals in the small shanty homes of those with the fortitude and will to live.

My Marlin 30-30 will have passed two or three hands beyond me. The stores of loaded ammunition and components- powder, primers and bullets - long gone, its owner now salvages the powder from other ammo scrounged or traded for, carefully presses out the primers and recasts the bullets. They are used only in an emergency or when a game animal of significant size cannot be trapped or snared which are then dispatched with a club or spear in order to save the precious ammunition. It most likely sits at the ready, much like it does now, capable and reliable, it's stocks and bluing bearing scars of "experience."

About 2800 societies will again reach a technological level where steel can be made and machines are once again used to produce tools. Someone will find my old Marlin, marvel at its genius and replicate it.

But don't take my word for it... I'm just guessing.

 

[Sheepdog1968]

I don't see a technology replacing firearms any time soon. Even if lasers become possible I suspect government won't let civilians own them. Thus firearms will likely be around. A good classical design is timeless. We will have lever actions and 1911s etc. the calibers that have been around for 50 to 150 years will still be there. Sadly I likely will be worm food by then.

 

[Kush]

Lasers will never replace firearms, no one would use a weapon that would cauterize the wound that you just made. You think people complain about the lack of stopping power of some rounds now, just wait until they get to complain about a weapon where shot placement is even more important as there would be no expansion of the projectile nor the person bleeding, not to mention problems with overpenetration. However electrolasers and particle beams that stop the target by electrocuting them may be accepted.

 

[Comedian]

People buy them today because they think they are using a gun of historical significance. Most of which is based on Hollywood fantasy instead of fact.

Non-replica swords, bows, crossbows, and muzzle loaders are still manufactured and sold today despite having no implied historical significance. Provided there is still a firearms industry and it's still legal for civilians to purchase them I see no reason they'd suddenly die out.

 

[henschman]

They still make Brown Besses and Charleville Muskets nowadays... it seems that reproductions of the best weapons from any era have always been made. I fully expect that reproduction lever actions will still be made in 2100.

I will tell you that if my future great-great-grandkids ever get rid of the Winchester 94 that I will be passing down to them, whether by sale or by surrendering it to some armed tax-eaters, I will come back and b!tch slap them from the grave.

That is, if I can't do it in person with my cybernetic arm... here's hoping someone figures out how to digitize human consciousness in the next 55 years or so!

 

[BoltActionPrepper]

possibly i think....but more for nostalgias sake than anything else....they still produce flint-locks for that very reason.

 

[Jason_W]

Barring a worst case scenario meltdown of civilization, I'm sure leverguns will still be produced in 2100. The design is practical and affordable for a variety of uses.

It's possible that there will be improvements made to the design, though. Maybe they will be made from stronger, more corrosion resistant materials. Perhaps advances in propellent technology will ramp up the performance potential of existing cartridges.

I won't live to verify this, but I have a feeling that if humanity ever colonizes other worlds, the settlers - in a manner similar to their 19th century American counterparts - will be sporting wood and steel leverguns.

 

[AStone]

... I have a feeling that if humanity ever colonizes other worlds, the settlers
- in a manner similar to their 19th century American counterparts
- will be sporting wood and steel leverguns.

What a cool image: Luc Piccard sporting a .30-30 lever.

They will be assimilated!

 

[BCRider]

More like the fringe worlds in the Firefly universe.

 

[tarosean]

Yes... Sooner or later these shtf knuckleheads will realize that is not going to happen, so they will need a real gun thats proven itself for hundreds of years.

 

[mustanger98]

I know the .30-30 cartridge and various leverguns chambered for it do the job. My first deer joined his ancestors pretty rapidly. My Daddy once opined that he doesn't know why I shoot anything else. My old '94 just fits and works for me.

"Firefly" got mentioned... I was noticing that too.

Whether leverguns will still be produced in 2100 I couldn't say. Browning discontinued the A5 several years back. FN closed the New Haven Winchester plant. I was rather disgusted with both actions, but they didn't ask any of us. I can say I HOPE they'll be produced and affordable.

By this account, I shop the "novelty" and antique aisles too. Older designs are just a lot more enjoyable to some of us.