Winchester 30-30

Hi all,

I picked up a Winchester 30-30 (top eject) and a side mounted scope for my first deer season. I've been told that for deer you want to use hollow-point bullets (170 gr)for the stopping power, and I'm wondering if anyone concurs.

Brian, I'm not sure any manufacturer makes a 150 or 170 load that is not suited to deer hunting. Use whatever shoots most accurately in your rifle. Good hunting! Michael

I don't think a 170 grain hollow point exists...so no, I don't concure. Soft point expanding is what you need. Either the 150 or 170 grain will work

Brian,

Good choice for deer at ranges < 150 yards. I always had good luck with Winchester Silvertips in 150 or 180 grain. The noses don't get boogered up taking them in and out of the magazine, and they do a good job on deer-sized game.

Mike F.

I have used hollow points in my 30-30, and they are O.K. at short range. If you stretch out much over a hundred yards they seem to be a bit lax on penetration. I have seen flat nosed hollow point bullets specifically for tube magazines. I think it was in Midway USA catalog. I think the regular flat nose is the way to go for the 30-30. I have killed a few deer, and one elk with mine, and within it's range it is a great gun. For factory loads it is hard to beat the Winchester Silvertips. They dont get mangled up on the tips like the exposed points do. By the way, I have been known to hand load some Nosler partitions to hand feed as the first round in the barrel. That way you get a premium quality round to start with, and don't have to worry about the pointy end setting off the tube feed. ( Which I doubt would happen, but we all err on the safe side.) Anyhow, the first shot is usually the only shot anyway.

Buzz, Remington offered 170 grain hollowpoint 30/30 ammunition as recently as the early 1990's and Winchester sold a 150 grain hollowpoint load at least as recently. Greg Morrison, then Operations Manager at Gunsite, recommended them to those who used the 30/30 levergun for non-sporting purposes as the full jackets better withstood repeated trips through the loading port. These days PMC makes a 150 flatnose X-bullet load, but at just over 2000 fps it seems needlessly slow. I agree with you though a plain vanilla 150 or 170 soft will do nicely, and will be easier to find. Good hunting! Michael

Brian I have two 30-30 rifles one lever action Marlin and another is a Savage bolt action (which my son uses). I use 150 grain bullets. For the bolt action I use Winchester Power Point Plus and for the lever action I use PMC Starfire 30-30's. The Starfire is a solid copper extreme hollowpoint whereas the Winchester PPP is a lead round point. Neither gun has had to fire a second shot in my deer for the past 7 years. Both have been quite sufficient on well placed shots. Why do I use two different types? The cartirdges seem to group better with the respective guns so I don't try to fit a square peg in a round hole. Try out the various cartridges in the gun for accuracy and I am certain that anything shy of FMJ bullets will be fine for hunting.

Good Luck

All good advice, above. When I was a whole lot younger, I hunted for about 10 years with a ..30-'30 Marlin 336. I used Winchester Silvertips, 170 grain, becase I hunted in thick woods, and we ate a lot of venison. If you have more open country, consider the 150 grain for a flatter trajectory, but the ..30-'30 is not a long range rifle.

The .30-'30 has probably killed more game in the US than any other caliber, but it (by todays' standards) doesn't have much 'stopping power'. It remains a good whitetail gun, though.

As with any load, a carefully placed shot is more important than fps.

Good luck,

Thanks for the info!

Hello I would like to also point out that with a tube feed, I wouldn't use any pointed bullets of any kind.