100 Yard Bush gun Shoot Out: 44mag vs 30-30

I would say stick with the 30-30 cal. for those shots over 100 yards. I own a Ruger .44mag semi, great firearm out to 75 yards only. Even with hot reloads with the perfect bullet, it falls short in the "knock down" power in long range situations. .44's are light weight and easy to move around while dogging in thick bush. Each rifle/cal. have its own specific use, each firearm owner needs to know that use.
My opinion, don't sell any of your firearms in today's world. Will be hard to replace on day.
 
Robert Nicholson said:
I like what I am reading here^^ VERSATILE! I had not thought of carrying three different loads for handling whatever comes your way with the .44!:wave:
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It's about the best compromise I've been able to find, cast bullets do a great job of cleanly taking small game with headshots, whereas the shot loads work if the grouse or squirrel are sitting in a tree close by, range is pretty limited with the shot loads though, maybe 5-7 yards max.
 
^I was thinking today that in the future people will reflect on our use of it for deer like we do on the .44/40
 
What is with these threads? The OP posts a thread asking whether people find the .30/30 or .44 magnum is superior on deer in the woods. He gets a few sensible replies and a great number suggesting the .300 Savage, .32 Special, .308 Winchester, .45/70, .25/06, 7.62x39, .45 long colt, .454 Casull, .35 Remington etc. What is wrong with answering the guy's question? He owns rifles in both chamberings, is not interested in buying more rifles, just wants to know which CGNer's think is best.
 
7.62x39 would be fine for deer, black bear and even close range moose, with the right bullet and shot placement. It's pretty close to a .30-30, but you can use pointed bullets, Hornady even loads the SST for 7.62x39. The disadvantages are that there isn't alot of appropriately sized hunting bullets as the bore size is usually larger than .308" and if we are talking SKS, it can vary quite a bit, also the bullets are generally in the 110-130 grain range unless you are shooting subsonic loads with extra heavy bullets, compare that to the .30-30 with 150-180 grain bullets, the .30-30 simply has more energy and retains it better at distance. I think it's a great cartridge, I've hunted with an sks and been very comfortable with it. That said, in the woods where I hunt the shots are almost always 40 yards and under, so accuracy and power are sufficient with almost any centrefire cartridge.
 
skokie said:
It's about the best compromise I've been able to find, cast bullets do a great job of cleanly taking small game with headshots, whereas the shot loads work if the grouse or squirrel are sitting in a tree close by, range is pretty limited with the shot loads though, maybe 5-7 yards max.
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I do the same with my 30-30s if I see a grouse or rabbit while hunting deer I slip in a light reload with a 100 gr Hornady half jacket bullet and 5 gr of trailboss in. It's like 22 lr but with more awesome sauce :) no reason a guy couldn't do the same with a 44 or 30-06 etc.

As a 30-30 super fan I'm not at all disappointed to see all the votes for the old dirty thirty I am still somewhat tempted to try some heavy hard cast loads in the 44 mag. Just for giggles...
 
Mike Webb said:
What is with these threads? The OP posts a thread asking whether people find the .30/30 or .44 magnum is superior on deer in the woods. He gets a few sensible replies and a great number suggesting the .300 Savage, .32 Special, .308 Winchester, .45/70, .25/06, 7.62x39, .45 long colt, .454 Casull, .35 Remington etc. What is wrong with answering the guy's question? He owns rifles in both chamberings, is not interested in buying more rifles, just wants to know which CGNer's think is best.
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I wouldn't worry too much about it Mike it's the Internet. I'm surprised this thread hasn't evolved into a bear/bison/sasquach defense thread yet... it's still ripe for the pickings tho...
 
6MT said:
Anyone thought about the venerable 7.62x39 cartridge?
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Rimless 30-30. Would do just fine and is available in several nice bolt rifles.

I'd go 30-30 as well. The 44 would be fun but in the end there isn't really anything to recommend it over the 30-30. That doesn't mean that I wouldn't use one though...
 
Based on a cool factor a 44mag lever would be awesome for deer inside 100yrds or from a stand.
But if you want to poke a moose within a reasonable distance 30-30 would be my choice.
 
BigUglyMan said:
Rimless 30-30. Would do just fine and is available in several nice bolt rifles.

I'd go 30-30 as well. The 44 would be fun but in the end there isn't really anything to recommend it over the 30-30. That doesn't mean that I wouldn't use one though...
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Food for thought, a .30-30 bullet starts at .30 cal and may mushroom up to .50 maybe even .60 cal causing trauma and likely passing through a deer. A .44 starts at .43 cal, and some bullets can mushroom to .80 or .90 cal causing a much larger temporary and permanent wound cavity and likely expending all or most of its energy in the deer. The other thing is that if your going to hit a bone, a 240 grain bullet is more likely to break that bone and keep going than a 150-170 grain bullet. It simply has more momentum. Not to say one is better than the other in practical use. Simply stating my thoughts on the comparison.
 
Yer nawt skippy stones here skokie.
If a terdy-terdie will bust through a steel plate and a 44 won't,
at the same distance, I don't see the comparison?
 
kamlooky said:
Yer nawt skippy stones here skokie.
If a terdy-terdie will bust through a steel plate and a 44 won't,
at the same distance, I don't see the comparison?
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Yes, but is that not like comparing driving a nail vs a railway spike? At 100m it hit just as hard but the 3030 being faster and having the smaller metplat would not have as much area to expend energy thus punching through?
 
If I were you (OP), i would build a treestand in close woods where the shots are 50 yards or so, then keep the 44 as my "treestand" gun. The 30-30 could be for when you feel like hiking.
 
30-30 in terms of power, cost, availability, scalability. It has the power to take the game mentioned. 30-30 is everywhere ammo is sold. You can do great things reloading 30-30, especially if you have a bokt gun chambered for it.
 
kamlooky said:
Yer nawt skippy stones here skokie.
If a terdy-terdie will bust through a steel plate and a 44 won't,
at the same distance, I don't see the comparison?
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But we don't hunt steel plates, we are hunting flesh and blood animals. In terms of hunting we want to cause the most trauma to the animal in order to cleanly kill it. Besides I'm not saying the .30-30 is worse in any way, it's a different animal being a bottle-necked rifle cartridge. My personal thinking leads me to prefer the .44 mag. It's very cheap to reload, fun to shoot and it's a gun I can compete with, plink with and Hunt with. Frankly I'm more comfortable with my 92 rossi in .44 mag than any of my other firearms. The fact that alot of people carry a .44 mag revolver as a wilderness sidearm shows me it's tested and proven, in a rifle the performance is even better. Just my two cents, which nowadays gets rounded to nothing anyways.
 
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