Social use of the .30-30

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Griff
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Re: Social use of the .30-30

Post by Griff »

As a Deputy in SoCal, I never carried anything but an 870 in the squad car, and although I would be assigned some semi-rural areas, it wasn't un-inhabited... and I never felt the ability to be ambushed in such locales. So, I never asked to have anything else authorized to carry in the car... most of our calls were to your basic suburbia type neighborhood. The sg was more than adequate. However, with my taking a job in Dallas then signing on as a Reserve in this county, the properties back in the nineties were much more rural... and being the sole deputy on duty in the entire county, was a little more daunting... back up only from a semi-regular state trooper or one of the city officers was basically the only options. I asked and was granted permission to use a mdl 94 as my long gun... as long as I qualified with it... easy-peasy, as the qualification course I was given was designed around the shotgun.

I carried a standard post-64 mdl 94 in .30-30 loaded with Federal 150 grain FPs. The same cartridge I used for 90% of my hunting. I like the slightly flatter trajectory and their performance on both deer and coyotes and never seemed at any disadvantage to the 170 grain loadings in either accuracy or effectiveness. I also handload Sierra FP in this weight, Sierra 125HPs and Speer 130s. The 125HPs are especially effective on coyotes as long as the range doesn't exceed 150 yards. (I don't often have shots over that range, so anything farther is immaterial).

After killing a couple of the coyotes with the .223, I feel the .30-30 is much more effective.
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Bob Hatfield
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Re: Social use of the .30-30

Post by Bob Hatfield »

A friend of mine I grew up with had a daddy who lost his arm in a coal mine we called "One Arm Cook"
My friend once found a man in bed with his wife. My friend had a 22 revolver. The woman's lover had a 30-30 beside the bed. My friend shot at him several times with the 22 until the guy blew my friends arm off with the 30-30 at the elbow and then blasted one into his pelvic area. He looked a mess but survived with one arm and a limp. Later when he was trying to get his disabled social security they told him he could still drive a cab with one arm and wasn't disabled. He replied "how the hell am I supposed to drive cab and light a cigarette at the same time". He ended up on his check. His daddy had already died by then and now my friend was called "One Arm Cook"

Bob
Last edited by Bob Hatfield on Mon Nov 29, 2021 10:46 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Scott Tschirhart
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Re: Social use of the .30-30

Post by Scott Tschirhart »

I cannot say that my choice of 170 grain bullets is based on any research, its just what I started with many years ago.
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Rexster
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Re: Social use of the .30-30

Post by Rexster »

My wife and I started our relationship, because of a pre-owned Winchester 94 .30-30 rifle. I was working a security gig at a pawn shop that actually specialized in jewelry, but had an FFL, and would deal in a few firearms. Two sisters walk into the place, with their dad. One of them saw the 94, and wanted to see it. The regular employees were busy with customers, so I showed her the rifle. She bought the rifle, as soon as a refular employee was available, to be a Father’s Day gift, and she gave me her phone number. This was in June, 1997. Her father is no longer with us, but the Winchester 94 is still in the family.

I have only owned one Winchester 94 chambered in .30-30, a Trapper Carbine, post-‘64. I bought it pre-owned, in the mid-Nineties, but soon learned that it was not one of USRAC’s better rifles, with a very rough action. I already had a Browning BLR, which was far smoother, and somewhere along the way, the Trapper went away. Years later, when I bought another Winchester 94 Trapper, which I still have, it was an Angle Eject, in .45 Colt.

I worked for Houston PD, in Texas, 1984-2018. The only rifles that I was allowed to carry, on patrol, were the AR15 and Mini-14, and that did not happen until 2002, when a patrol rifle program was re-started, due to the September 11th attacks. (In 1983, rifles had been banned, for patrol usage. That was shortly before I was hired.) I would rather have used a lever rifle, on patrol, had it been permissible. If nothing else, the height-over-bore situation, with the AR15 iron sights, was new to me, and, IMHO, not a good thing, for extreme short-range situations typical of urban policing incidents. I also did not care for the safety levers on the AR15 or Mini-14, as neither was similar to weapons to which I was accustomed.
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wvfarrier
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Re: Social use of the .30-30

Post by wvfarrier »

This is from a handloaded Barnes 150 FSX-FN in 30-30. I was using a medium charge of 3031 at about 65 yards. It completely obliterated the heart and lungs. It was a slightly quartering down slope angle. The side meat was obviously wrecked but all the important parts: shoulders, hind legs, backstrap, etc were completely unharmed. Deer was DRT.
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Scott Tschirhart
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Re: Social use of the .30-30

Post by Scott Tschirhart »

Rexster wrote: Sun Dec 05, 2021 4:18 pm I worked for Houston PD, in Texas, 1984-2018. The only rifles that I was allowed to carry, on patrol, were the AR15 and Mini-14, and that did not happen until 2002, when a patrol rifle program was re-started, due to the September 11th attacks. (In 1983, rifles had been banned, for patrol usage. That was shortly before I was hired.) I would rather have used a lever rifle, on patrol, had it been permissible. If nothing else, the height-over-bore situation, with the AR15 iron sights, was new to me, and, IMHO, not a good thing, for extreme short-range situations typical of urban policing incidents. I also did not care for the safety levers on the AR15 or Mini-14, as neither was similar to weapons to which I was accustomed.
Lee P. Brown was our Chief of Police at the time. I remember well when they took away our ability to carry rifles and I had to put my .30-30 away.

I thought it was a mistake. Of course, I was not in a place where anyone cared what I thought. But I was going to go forward carying a pump shotgun with slugs which would do as well as any patrol carbine. Then they took that option away as well.

911 changed everything.
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