3030

3030

The .30-30 Winchester (officially named the .30 Winchester Center Fire or .30 WCF) cartridge was first marketed for the Winchester Model 1894 lever-action rifle in 1895. The .30-30 (pronounced "thirty-thirty"), as it is most commonly known, along with the .25-35 Winchester were offered that year as the United States' first small-bore sporting rifle cartridges designed for smokeless powder. Since its introduction, it has been surpassed by many cartridges in the long-range shooting attributes of speed, energy, and trajectory, yet remains in widespread use because of its practical effectiveness in forested hunting situations.The .30-30 is by far the most common cartridge shot from lever action rifles. The .30-30 is substantially more powerful than the Magnum handgun cartridges (e.g., .357, .41, .44, etc.) also often paired with lever actions, and produces that energy with about 14% less recoil than .44 Magnum. While its old rival .35 Remington produces more muzzle energy and recoil, the .30-30 will often retain more terminal energy. The .30-30 is not commonly used for extreme long-range shooting across wide-open spaces, but modern innovations in ballistic tipped bullets for leverguns have moved the long-range capabilities of the .30-30 somewhat closer to parity with higher-velocity cartridges. In any case, a hunting-specific advantage of the .30-30 over those cartridges is that it leaves lower volumes of spoiled (destroyed or bloodshot) venison after a kill, leading to less waste.

Update this biography »
Complete biography of 3030 »