Pennsylvania Game News - December 2017 - 53

countless other game.
But, as is the way, when a cartridge is
introduced by the military, it tends to steal
the limelight from older cartridges.
Faster and flatter-shooting, the .30-06
Springfield was put to use in World War I,
then was transformed through wildcatting
into many of today's popular cartridges,
such as the .270 Winchester, .280 Remington and .25-06 Remington.
And by the 1950s, most cartridges
considered high-velocity at the turn of the
century had fallen by the wayside. The
only ones being factory-chambered were
the .30-30 Winchester, .32 Winchester
Special, .35 Remington and, to a limited
extent, the .38-55 Winchester.
Rifles in these cartridges, including
the Winchester 94, Marlin 336, and Remington Model 760 pump, and Model 788
and Model 600 bolt guns, continued to be
manufactured.
Winchester also had a small run of .35
Remington in its Model 70 bolt-action.
Savage had the Model 170 pump, as well
as the Models 325 and 340 bolt guns in
the .30-30 Winchester.
By the 1970s, however, the .308 Winchester and .243 Winchester had become
more popular. And by 1980, only the
.30-30 Winchester and .35 Remington
were chambered in the popular Marlin
336 and Winchester 94 rifles and Thompson Center Contender pistol.
As I look back on my deer hunting in
Pennsylvania farm country with relatives
and friends, 90 percent of the deer we took
were within 100 yards and most were at
about 50 yards.
The Winchester Model 94, Model 64,
Marlin 366 and Remington 141 rifles
DECEMBER 2017

in .30 and .35 calibers were more than
effective for the way we hunted, and nice
to carry all day.
I often hear that the lever-actions and
.30-30 Winchester-velocity class of cartridges don't have the accuracy or power
beyond 150 yards.
That notion is plain incorrect, and I
wonder if it wasn't perpetuated by shooters who used the standard-V open sights,
and didn't practice a whole lot.
I've used scoped rifles in .30-30 and .35
Remington that would cut 1-inch groups
at 100 yards and 3-inch groups at 200
yards off a bench.
With a 100-yard zero, trajectory for
2,000 to 2,300 fps bullets (round-nose or
flat-nose) has a drop of about 10 inches
at 200 yards.
With a loss of about 200 fps per 100
yards, those bullets are still lethal at 200
yards.
Today, Hornady with its Leverevolution ammunition has ramped up velocities
for the .30-30 Winchester, .32, Winchester,
.35 Remington, and the .45-70 Springfield
by a couple hundred feet a second, using
flex-tipped spire-point bullets, which are
safe to use in tubular magazines.
This cuts the standard trajectory in half
and adds up to 40 percent more energy,
making these cartridges effective beyond
250 yards.
While medium-velocity, light-recoiling
cartridges might have waned in popularity, there's still a strong demand for them.
The .30-30 Winchester and .35 Remington still are among the top 10 centerfire
deer rifle cartridges sold.
We still have the Winchester Model 94
and the Marlin Model 336, as well as the
newer Mossberg Model 454 and Henry
.30-30, to meet the demand for those
hunters and shooters who ask, rhetorically,
"Who says they're obsolete?"
53
Pennsylvania Game News - December 2017

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