30-30 hornady leverevolution

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moose1987

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Just looking for some input. I have been using these for about 2 1/2 years (never taken and animal). I have gotten great accuracy distance and everything. In the recent weeks I have been hearing a lot of bad news about about bad weight retention and the bullet (not doing it's job). So what I am after at all possible is stories and even pictures of harvests with the 160gr 30-30 hornady leverevolution

Moose
 
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I believe these factory rounds use the 160gr FTX bullet... I am hoping that they retain their weight trough expansion as this is the bullet I have reloaded for my deer hunt next week. Tagged for interest!
 
Hopefully i can comment about how they work on deer within a few weeks. I have heard nothing but good things about them vs the standard round or flat point 30-30 ammo out there.
 
Haven't heard too much bad about these....the old man shot at least one deer with them in the 30-30. It left a hole, that's what it's supposed to do I guess. Trajectory was mildly improved at 200 yards.
 
Hopefully I can do the same in a couple of weeks. It's only within the last week I have been hearing the bad stuff. I don't believe it. I am also sorry about the mid spelling. I can not believe the distance and accuracy I am getting out of this bullet. Hopefully we have some stories within the next month or so.

Moose
 
I read a lot of reviews on them online. Of course witg a grain of salt. So far there are some stories of performance not being desireable in some cases, but most of the time people are more then happy with them. I personally havent taken a deer with any ammo yet, but I might go with the hornady.

I did perform an expansion test on these and found that they expand really fast and I would think that jacket separation is pretty quick if you hit something hard like bone - which should still produce a kill. However I suspect shooting flesh can still produce a pass through on deer sized game. One fellow on marlinowners said he had harvested deer from roughly 30 yards to 150 yards with them and commented that they were mostly DRT and one ended up 30 yards away from where it fot shot. These guys tend to be pretty good at posting pictures about their harvests and stuff. If I can find that post I can link some of his harvest threads.

In the end, accuracy is key. Any 30-30 round will do what its designed to do. If the leverevolution shoots best in there, I personally think it will take a deer just as good as any other ammo as long as you do your part. I will take these rounds to my next deer hunt, still undecided between corelokt and hornady at this point.
 
I too thought that you were reevaluating your need for a lever gun.

On to the main topic. I've taken whitetail and black bear with Leverevolution 30-30 rounds. I haven't had any issues. On one we actually came out with something like 90%+ bullet retention.

It's just my occasional backup rifle or something I take out randomly but it gets the job done when you aim in the right spot.
 
moose1987 said:
Actually I don't EL34. If it's not an inconvenience could you run me threw it
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At 12 yards shot through the onside shoulder a 120lb doe the bullet broke the shoulder, but broke apart destroying her lungs and damaging some major blood vessels, failed to exit, largest intact piece was found against the opposite shoulder blade retained weight 40 grains, she took a short run 25 yards (aprox) and stopped, probably would have bled out and dropped there had I not put a second round through her heart resulting in an exit and a 10 yard sprint before she expired. Happened in matter of 5-10 seconds.
I don't know if that is a failure or not, but it seems successful for me. Hard to ask a cup and core bullet designed to reliably expand at 300 yards and less then 1700 fps to hold together on a deer's shoulder at 12 yards and 2400 fps (going by factory specs)unless its a monometal like a TSX or GMX
 
I used them 3 years ago, shot a deer perfect broadside at 60 yards or so, hit a rib on the way in but exited the backside, chunks of lung laying on the snow so I knew it was good. Deer ran 40 yards before piling up, should mention that was 40 yards down a 60 degree slope covered in snow, down away from where I had to drag it.......anyway upon skinning out the deer I found lots of pieces of copper jacket and lead balls in the front shoulder and rib cage. From day one I thought the bullet looked like a Vmax and was skeptical, after seeing that it exploded like a Vmax bullet I made up my mind............never again........
I am lucky that the rifle was a combo gun and I can run anything for bullets in it, but I had to know, and now I do............I had bad results, lots of meat damage but maximum carnage to kill the deer, so both good and bad results, good clean kill, bad weight retention, maximum meat loss
 
Irrelevant to the thread, possibly, but I shot a deer through the heart at about 60 yards with the 45-70 lever evolution ammo, and found that entry and exit holes were .45 caliber. Never did find the slug. A couple of fractured ribs, and the south end of the heart was mush.
 
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