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Another vote for the good old .30-30 cartridge, shot from a Marlin my dad gave me when I turned 9. I pretty much only hunt white-tail deer in wooded or brushy terrain (rural Mississippi), so the cartridge has plenty of power and range. I experimented with scopes, but I went back to iron sights many years ago; as long as I can hit a gallon milk jug at 200 yards I see no reason to complicate things with expensive and sensitive optics. It's relatively short and light, easy to transport, and very rugged. I've hunted off horseback and on long hikes. I can cycle the action and get a second shot off almost as fast as with an semi-autor (faster if it's an semi-auto with a high recoil round).
My brother has a collection of everything ranging from .243 to .300 Mag (and .300 WSM). I've shot one of his mini-cannons before. I'll leave that to him.
If you can hit a gallon milk jug at 200 yards with a 30-30 and iron sights, that's good shooting. If you are doing this with the carbine model, yours shoots better than most.
The 1965 Gun Digest has a good article on how to tune M94s for accuracy. BTW.
.300 Whisper on a suppressed rifle - yes, it's legal in my state. Most of the areas I hunt are right on the urban/suburban edge, and what the folks who just moved into the subdivisions don't hear, they don't complain about.
If you can hit a gallon milk jug at 200 yards with a 30-30 and iron sights, that's good shooting. If you are doing this with the carbine model, yours shoots better than most.
The 1965 Gun Digest has a good article on how to tune M94s for accuracy. BTW.
I second that, you must have some pretty good iron sights if you can even see a milk jug at 200 yards with them. The front post on any open sight I have ever seen has covered up a milk jug at 100 yards, let alone 200. But then again, I know people who hit things well beyond 100 yards with open sights. My dad shoots an open-sighted Remington 7400 in '06 and his last shot was 145 paces, nailing a fat doe right in the chest and dropping her with one shot. He is also one of those guys who has shot as many shots through his rifle in 20 years of owning it as I have in 20 days of owning mine. He recently lamented having to buy a couple new boxes of cartridges after shooting the two boxes of ~1990 ammunition he got with the rifle, including the original 150-grain aluminum-tipped and much-maligned Winchester PowerPoints. Maybe the OP has a peep sight (much underrated, in my opinion, and well suited to a lever gun such as the Winchester '94). But maybe he is one who can just shoot very well as is the OP.
Speaking of shooting a couple hundred yards, that's a long shot from hunting positions. The deer I have shot have averaged around 30 yards and I recall from Game, Fish, and Parks that even in flat as hell South Dakota that most deer are still shot at 100 yards or less. Shooting 2" groups from a benchrest at 100 yards of 4" from 200 yards is pretty mediocre. Most any modern rifle will keep them in half of that, and there are some (Tikka, Weatherby) that will even take back the rifle if it does worse than an inch group at 100 yards. But pick that rifle off that benchrest and shoot it with both hands from a seated position like you shoot from a deer stand and watch your groups open to be twice that or maybe more. Maybe I am a mediocre shot, but keeping all of my shots in a pie plate at 200 yards is about as much as I can do. It's not surprising that the top 10 deer cartridges contains only three 400+ yard magnums (7mm Rem Mag, .300 Win Mag, .300 WSM) and the top 5 contains ONLY standard cartridges (.30-30, .30-06, .270, .308, .243), with two 100+ year old cartridges being #1, .30-30 or .30-06, according to which source you look at. It just is too hard to accurately shoot beyond what those cartridges can do unless you happen to do something like shoot prone off of a bipod. Some people do that particularly out West, but most people don't.
Location: Approximately 50 miles from Missoula MT/38 yrs full time after 4 yrs part time
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.......I enjoyed the practical aspec of your posts..............................if I may I'd like to add a few comments.........................
Quote:
Originally Posted by Flyover_Country
.......................I second that, you must have some pretty good iron sights if you can even see a milk jug at 200 yards with them. The front post on any open sight I have ever seen has covered up a milk jug at 100 yards, let alone 200.............................I agree, however I do realize that there are among us.............some gifted marksmen .......though they be 'few and far between"..
Maybe I am a mediocre shot, but keeping all of my shots in a pie plate at 200 yards is about as much as I can do.
..I'd say the statement (immediately above) most likely applies to about 75% of all the hunters you might run into who are shooting a Mdl 94 in .30-30 (with iron sights)..........just my humble opinion
.338 Win Mag and .375 H&H Mag.
.................Let me add two other calibers (cartridges) and then make a couple more statements. Again what I have to say are strictly my opinions from handloading, huntin' and shootin' for 64 of my 81 years.
..
Statement: I like to think that the many "rifle cartridges" available today are very much like "Fishing Lures".................."80% of them are (were) developed to "catch fisherman & hunters" and 20% are really all that's needed to catch fish and harvest various type of Big Game.".......However, I do realize that "all those boys at Rem, Win, Hornaday, Ruger, etc,etc,etc,etc have to keep busy and justify their existance in the "company".
Out of your list and the two that I added,.......IMHO the following are all that are needed to harvest everything from Coyotes on up through and including Kodiak Brown Bears.................at least that applys in my case.
.243 Winchester..............bullet weights available: 60gr on up through 105gr
7mm Rem Mag............................................... ...120gr>>>>>>>>>>>175gr
.30/06................................................ .............100gr>>>>>>>>>> 220gr
.338 Win Mag............................................... .....210gr>>>>>>>>>>250gr
.375 H&H Mag............................................... ... 250gr>>>>>>>>>>300gr
The various bullet weights & types available "between the numbers shown above" can provide "any number of combinations" that will satisfy the requirements for any animal in north American and some in Africa.
(NOTE:>>>>I would be less than honest if I didn't mention that "yes", I have owned and used several other calibers not listed in my "list-of-five-above",....but if "I knew 60 years ago", "what I know today about ballistics, bullet design and the "practical aspect" of cartridge selection, I would have saved one hellava lot of money
Wow both my Great Grandfather and Grandfather were issued those in both WW1 and WW2 when they served in the Canadian Forces... I guess my family has alot of history with that Rifle too bad I can't find the one my Grandfater used in WW2 since it would be more than a Hunting Rifle in fact it would be one of those priceless items.
It will drop a full grown moose. A whitetail doesn't stand a chance. Amish use those and 8mm Mausers to take deer with special farm permits granted for crop and land damage. They never seem to starve. Bambi never suffers or runs off either. Humane and quick.
Very good post Montana Griz, I can tell that info come from experience.
I've owned a Marlin 336C in .30-30 since back in the late 70's. It has been an outstanding rifle, for what I purchased it for. I needed a good saddle gun. Something I could throw in the scabbard and not worry about banging it around. It had a hooded front site that has kept it from getting bent or knocked out of whack. I've killed deer, coyote, skunks, porcupine, cows, horses, dogs, and antelope with it. All were under 100 yards and most, I had the element of surprise while out in the timber, or checking cattle on the prairie. It is an outstanding gun, for what it was designed for, and for what I used it for.
I'd never put my Sako .270, with a Leupold, in my scabbard and start cutting cattle or brush popping.
Last edited by ElkHunter; 06-23-2012 at 08:14 PM..
I have a Browning A-bolt II chambered in .270 w/a tuned in B.O.S.S. and a Burris Signature Series 1.5x7 variable scope zeroed in at 250 yds. I am comfortable taking shots out to 600 yds, if the wind isn't acting up. I have gotten excellent results out of 130 grain ballistic tip on top of my reloads. They bees just a tad warm @ a little over 3000 fps.
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