30 30 Ammo

Rex Mahan

What do ya'll think is the best 30 30 ammo for hunting White Tail Deer. Ive used the inexpensive Federal, the Black box Winchester and Hornaday Leverevolution. The Hornady is very accurate but not so good at knock down.
Any thoughts?

toad67

How far do you plan on shooting, and are you using open sights or a scoped rifle?

charliemeyer007

I tend to favor accuracy, a clean miss doesn't bag much game. Lots more bullet choices if you reload. The Lyman 311041 173 grain cast on the soft side works good. Lots more trigger time for the same $. The old Winchester Silvertips were effective, but took a lot of good meat with them IMHO.

Added Strange things happen sometimes, one less than desirable terminal performance incident could just be a freak accident.

Ray B

My preference is Winchester 170 gr Flat nose, but I don't know that they are necessarily better than Remington Flat nose or one of the other component bullets of similar weight and construction.

tsr1965

Rex,

The old addage, "The Deadliest Mushroom in the Woods", came from the Remington Roundnose Core-Lokt's, way back when. That is my favorate factory round in the 30-30. I like the 150 grain load, if they still make it. If not, then the 170 grain load. There is not an aweful lot of difference between them and the old Silver-Tip's, from Winchester, in ON GAME performance.

As far as wrecking meat, any bullet has that potential, especially if preaking heavy bone is included. Add poor marksmanship, and it gets worse. However, as my late father would say, it might mess up a few ounces of meat, but I will be eating the rest.

Best

Rex Mahan

the shots are normally 100+/-. What got me on this topic was that I shot a deer this weekend- he went down and stayed down for a bit and before I got to him, he ran. It should have been a dead on hit. I was using open sights at 70 yards, but had reaonable light and clear. My gun is right on. The Ammo I was using was Hornady, which I really like for accuracy.

bull300wsm

My son took a frontal shot on a Mule Deer here in Colorado at about 100 yards. He was using the LEVERevolutions and one shot and a few yards and he had his deer. I tend to like them and have used them on coyotes and deer with good results...I also like the Core-Lokts...Bull

Okie743

Bullet placement was not correct! Probably hit high in the back or neck grazed. Won't leave very much blood trail either.
Animal was hit wrong.
Witnessed such several times even with larger caliber guns!

Riomouse911

My grandpa killed dozens of whitetails with 150 gr Win silvertips and a Win 1894.
My 1894s like those rounds, but also shoot the Rem 150 and Federal 150 loads just as well. I am not a 170 gr shooter, but that is just from being raised on the 150's.

Winston Bode

Personally I prefer the federal 125 grain loads. Plenty of knockdown with mild recoil.
They are good loads for a kid or female shooter that are sensitive to recoil.

savage170

Been using the Remington core-lockts for years no complaints from the deer yet