sometimes you have to stop and smell the...thudy thud

[stagpanther]

Lots of "which guns have soul" posts lately--inspired me to take a break from pursuing laser-beam hole shooting AR's and grab my plain Jane 336 30 30 which I nabbed at Walmart last year for $375--along with some off-the-shelf Winchester 170 powerpoint. I think it cycles reasonably smoothly and the trigger is perfect for hunting IMO. I did add a rail with a peep--but here in Maine even 50yds is a rare shot in the woods.

Considering my bad eyes and how challenging irons are--this helped inspire confidence in that I could "just say no to scopes."

What fun!

[COSteve]

I agree. My Mossberg 464 is bone stock and just a lot of fun to shoot.

[taylorce1]

I love the .30-30 as well! Have an old M94 top eject about 1971 vintage and a Remington M788 bolt action from the same era. I've yet to kill any game with either, but I do like to shoot them. The M788 is quite a bit more accurate!

[stagpanther]

Arguably--the top American classic.

[Pathfinder45]

What fool would hunt with one? Hopelessly obsolete, why, it's little better than a spear! If you would have any chance at success, you simply must have the latest 6.5mm Manbun!

[stagpanther]

you simply must have the latest 6.5mm Manbun!

You're WAY behind the times--I just built a 6mm shemullet.

[Wag]

Yer makin' me want to take the 94 out for a spin. :-)

--Wag--

[stagpanther]

Yer makin' me want to take the 94 out for a spin. :-)

Go do it--and take pics

[Wag]

Originally Posted by stagpanther

Go do it--and take pics

Definitely. Gotta find my brass and load up some ammo and get it goin' on!

--Wag--

[stagpanther]

Definitely. Gotta find my brass and load up some ammo and get it goin' on!

Just loaded up some 160 ftx's driven by leverlution myself last night.

[COSteve]

Besides hunting ammo, I've found that X-Treme's .308, 150grn plated flat tip bullets made for levelguns, launched at about 2,000fps, are decently accurate out to about 200yds and are pretty inexpensive bullets at about 10¢ each compared to most of the other bullets out there being over 20¢ each. With an inexpensive load, I can take my 30-30 out more and enjoy it. Besides, leverguns make me smile.

[Pathfinder45]

I reload for it so I can afford to shoot it more. There are some aspects about reloading for it that are more important to pay attention to than for a bolt-action cartridge; it has to do with case length and crimping. But otherwise, it's a lot like reloading for many other calibers. Its relatively long neck makes it ideal for cast bullets, too. It's just a great caliber no matter what anybody says.

[Paul B.]

The 30-30 is my fun gun. I'm feeding six of them. Two 94's, two 64's, a Winchester 54 bolt action and a Marlin 336 Texan.

I only shoot cast bullets in them, mostly on paper these days. I did hunt with them using cast but now that I'm handicapped, just paper. Favorite bullet is the Ly,am #311291, a roughly 170 gr. round nose bullet that is very accurate not only in the 30-30 but in the .308 and 30-06 as well. Cast at around 11 to 12 on the BHN scale, it proved quite deadly on deer when I hunted them.
Paul B.

[std7mag]

Laser beam shooting AR.....

OMG STOP... Your kill'n me!!

[stagpanther]

Laser beam shooting AR.....

I said "pursuing"

[Model12Win]

I’ve heard the 464s are trash. Guess you like yours?

[COSteve]

Originally Posted by Model12Win

I’ve heard the 464s are trash. Guess you like yours?

The first ones had an extractor issue but that was fixed before I got mine new in April, 2012. It's been solid and is built as well as any modern rifle. Well worth the $$.

Way back before the kids (now 33 and 31) I had a 1960 Winchester '94 and while it's a classic and sat at the shoulder perfectly, it had the most floppy action I could imagine and a terrible trigger. It should have been fun to shoot but I wasn't a fan. So, I tried a Marlin 336 and it was like holding a 4x4 post. I let both sit until I needed some cash for bills and sold them off.

I was at our range in early 2012 and a friend let me shoot his new straight stocked 464 as he knew I like leverguns. I was really impressed with the action and the great trigger. It came from Mossberg with Marbles sights, sat at the shoulder well, was a pleasure to shoot, and darned accurate out to 200yds as well. I was hooked.

Don't be a snob, go down and look at one. Really look at it and compare it to the Winchester's action and trigger and Marlin's trigger and blocky feel. You might just walk out with one.

[TRX]

> Winchester 170 powerpoint

Though they've been out of production for years, you can still find boxes of Remington Accelerators for sale. Those pushed a saboted 55 grain .22 bullet along at 3400fps.

For those who roll their own, EABCO sells the plastic sabots at a reasonable price if you want to experiment.

[Rifletom]

taylorce1, those 788's were one of the most underrated rifle's ever built. Things were accurate as heck. I finally had to scope[4x] my M94, aging eyes.

[stagpanther]

While at the wally world today I saw some of the fed 170 powershoks--so I bought a box in addition to another box of Winnie 170 powerpoints. The interesting part is that the powerpoints and powershoks leave the muzzle with the same velocity and energy--but the powershocks have a rounded lead nose which enables them to perform slightly better once you get to 100 yds or beyond.



I had to re-zero my irons at 50 and once again the powerpoints did better than the coreloks. Then I tried the federal powershoks and here are the first 3 shots





The federal ammo clearly blew away the coreloks and powerpoints IMO--so I have to eat crow (again) and apologize for my former remark dissing the fed ammo--this is good stuff.

I then shifted the target to 100--but alas there is where my bad eyesight (and or bad technique) caught up with me and my group spread out to around 3.5 inches. The front sight covers the entire target--so I tried aligning the target on top of the front sight. That worked better than covering the entire target--but it took about a dozen shots and adjustments to the rear sight to get back in the ballpark of the POA.

[Jack O'Conner]

I've hunted with 30-30 carbines since 1971 and have slain dozens of deer with this effective cartridge. My longest shot was approx 225 yards during an antelope hunt in western South Dakota. I was shooting a hand-loaded 125 grain Sierra spitzer bullet that has a flatter trajectory than flat nosed bullets. But for my deer hunts I typically reach for a box of Winchester Power Points.

30-30 is a keeper!

TR

[stagpanther]

My question to those of you shooting irons only--how do you sight your target when transitioning from short (50 yds) to long (100 yds or more) range? I found that my groups opened significantly when covering the POA with the front bead--as opposed to centering it on top of it.