LeverEvolution Field Report -- .30-30

[DavOh]

Finally got out to the family hunting grounds with my Glenfield model .30(Marlin .30-30). 

Shot a very small Hog, about 15 lbs.  It was dancing around, like piglets do, and my broadside shot turned into a severe quartering-towards shot, exactly as I pulled the trigger.  Blew the poor little guy nearly in half.  In retrospect, perhaps I should have gone for the ear shot.  I was plenty close enough (30 yds) to ensure proper placement, presuming he'd held still long enough.  There wasn't enough left to bring home for meat

That evening, I shot a small spike for the freezer.   My wife had tried to shoot him, but couldn't get situated in the blind to get comfortable for the shot.  So I decided to let the .30-30 be heard.   Try as I might, I couldn't get the spike to stop walking angling away from me.   At first he was about 75 yds, but angled quartering away, and wouldn't stop.  Not running.... just walking in that direction.  I led him a good bit off the shoulder to the front and remembering what little shotgunning I'd done, forced myself to follow through.  Right before he ducked into a thicket, at about 130 yds(as paced off) I fired and he hustled over to the brush, with his off side leg flopping around. 

SWEET, ITS BACKSTRAP TIME 

so, i thought... but not quite

We gave him 30 minutes or so, thinking he was hit good but just in case since he didn't drop in his tracks.  Walked to the far end of the meadow, and looked for blood for a long while.  Found exactly where he was standing when I shot, from the tracks and kicked over rocks, and searched out from there for blood.   NOT A SINGLE DROP, anywhere. Stepped into the thicket where he ran into thinking for sure there would be some splatter on the taller brush in there.  Nope.   Just so happens he was laying up under a big cedar tree staring at me.  Barely breathing hard.     

"Holy crap I missed, and he's bedded down right there." I thought to myself.

From 15 yds away, I put a round through the back of his head when he looked away.  Expecting quite a mess, I told my wife to look away(she's sensitive to such messiness, new hunter and all).  No splatter, but he flopped over and expired in short order.  Exit hole was just below his left eye socket and was little more than a half inch.  To this day I've yet to find the entrance hole in the back of his head.  It shattered his skull and did the job, but without the explosive damage I'm used to from such shots.  I used to use the head shot exclusively on does with my old .308 to save the meat.

Field Dressing revealed that I had in fact hit him with the first shot, but several inches back of where I'd though(from a 2-D, aimpoint POV).  The Bullet went in at the front edge of the right ham, and out the left rib cage, just clipping the back of the left(offside) lung. puncturing the Liver and Stomach.  This is my fault for shooting at a moving deer, when I'm unfamiliar with such matters.   I though since he was only walking that I could pull it off.  Any one of a dozen things could have gone wrong.

I couldn't find the entrance hole in the hide for the first shot until I skinned him.  The Exit hole was barely .30 caliber, as measured by comparing to a spare unspent cartridge I had with me when skinning him. 

All in all, this is quite disappointing considering all I had heard and seen from this ammunition.  No bullet or caliber will make up for a bad shot, I know that.  But I at least expect a fair exit wound and at least SOME blood on the ground.

I've witnessed the killing of and recovered dozens if not hundreds of deer dispatched with the venerable .30-30 Winchester.  Nearly all with the 150 gr. Remington CorLokt, and most at similar ranches to this incident, some up to 200 + yds.  The few that did not flop at the bang, left easily followed blood trails, even the ones with poor shot placement such as this one was. 

I'm going back out the last weekend of December, and will hopefully have a better experience.  I don't want to give up on the "wunderammo" just yet, but we'll see.  What do you guys think?   

I'll probably let my dad use the old .30-30 and I'll try my hand at some up close stuff with my grandfathers m1 carbine.

[Coyote Hunter]

Sounds to me like you got good penetration after a poorly placed shot.  I wouldn't be in a hurry to blame the ammo...

[DavOh]

Penetration, yes, but there should have been blood.   And like I said, I know for a fact that a 150 gr corelokt would have left blood.

I'm not "blaming" the ammo.  I know I made a poor shot, but there should have been something on the ground.

[imkevdog]

my wife shot a  7 point with her 30 30 with lever evolution ammo , double lung shot with a heavy blood trail ,excellent ammo

[30-30man]

I've debated buying the new wonder bullets but I can't see any benefit either for the extra cost involved.  I know they have better ballistics on paper but I can buy the $8 a box Federal and hunt all year long.  The only place I can get the wonder bullets locally is Academy and they are $20 a box. I buy two boxes when I change bullet types or grains so that I can practice/sight in then have a box to hunt with.  That is $40+ plus  vs $16 for two boxes of Federal.  Do they have twice the performance for twice the price?  I'm still trying to answer that one.

Sometimes there's just no better bullet than the Remington Corelokt and the Federal Powershok for the 30-30.   I hunted for several years with the Winchester hollow points until one day, I took a shot much like yours. It was a large buck just this year and was walking away from me as I shot. The bullet seemed to have massive expansion but no penetration as the deer ran and ran and ran.  The deer was so close-30 yards, I swear I saw the bullet hit him in the front shoulder.  I never found it but it left a blood trail 400+ yards.  I've never seen a deer bleed like that one and not fall.  I think it died eventually and was picked up by another hunter....Long Story.....  I will never hunt with them again.  I like my deer to drop on the spot.

[NYH1]

Sometimes there's just no better bullet than the Remington Corelokt and the Federal Powershok for the 30-30. 

I'll say the same thing about the 35 Rem. and Remington's 200 gr. Core Lokt.  I've never used the Federal Powershok, but the Core Lokts work awesome. 

[markc]

This morning, with the new leverrevelution (sp) ammo in my 35rem, I shot a whitetail buck that was facing me at just over 40 yds.  He was working his way through a swampy area and was coming right to me.  I waited for him to stop and slightly quarter.  The round hit his right shoulder, and I found it under the hide a couple of inches in front of the left hind quarter.   Nice penetration without and exit.  The right shoulder was shattered with quite alot of damage.   I will weigh the bullet when I get a chance.   No exit, no blood trail, but he didn't go far, about 60 yds. 

Now I've used the same ammo in the 35Rem on four feral hogs, the largest going about 250# and one bobcat.   So far the ammo has been fine.  I have no idea how the Rem Core Lokt ammo would have done, fine I'm sure.  It's what I shoot in my 30-06 and my wifes .243.   

[.308 Win.]

  I just got back to my roots with a .30/30 a couple of weeks ago and have not yet tried the new stuff from Hornady but I do have considerable expereince  with Winchester 150 grain hollow points. I always shoot for high shoulder shots and only had one deer take many steps afterward.  I loved those bullets because they worked so well but usually a high shoulder shot is going to put the smackdown on deer, whatever caliber you use.  That's been my exxperience, anyway.  Surely there are many stories to the contrary but, again, this has been my experience. 
  The articles I've read on the LeverEvolution ammo. says that the 160 gr. Hornady stuff has nearly the same energy at 300 yards as does its' next closest competitor, the Federal Premiuim using Nosler Partition bullets, does at 200.  300 yards with a levergun is a long poke to be sure and I don't think I'd shoot that far with the new stuff anyway but, theoretically, it should do the job at that distance if the article was accurately portrayed.
  I just think it's cool that we have some pointed ammunition for these fine guns.  It's about time.   

[highwayman]

i killed 2 deer since my xlr came home with me. first one was a broken horn spike at 73 yards.the deer was facing me and the shot hit right behind the shoulder blood at first then none. ran about 50 yards. next was a doe at about 40yards quarter away shot behind the left shoulder. a blind man could have followed the blood trail found her after about 30yards. so i have mixed results, i guess i need to shot some more deer to decide

[handirandy]

I know this is an old topic but I thought I would reply from experience.  Hunted for years with a Marlin 444.  Had a lot of trouble finding a bullet that would expand appropriately at ranges from 5-175 yds.  That was a challenge.  To get on topic, I shot two deer that were as the original post describes but with more lung contact.  The holes were plugged with stomach contents mixed with blood that in effect plugged the exit hole.  Entrance holes in that area of body have very few blood vessels. Graphic I know but necessary to explain what happened.  Both left very, very little to no blood but piled up within 50 yds.  If I remember correctly one was shot with the 265 gr. Hornady the other with a pre-XTP Hornady 240HP, both at near max loads.  I wouldn't put too much thought into non-expansion based on one incident.