My first firearm was a Marlin 336 in .30-30 that my parents bought for me when I was 11. I've killed deer, feral pigs, feral goats, a couple of elk, and even a couple of pronghorns with it over the 35 years that I've owned it. I had the magazine tube bobbed to a 1/2 length "button" style on mine, with the tube now attached as they are on Marlin's XLR and MX series guns. I also had the buttstock glass bedded to the action, and the remaining reward carbine band relieved for clearance around the barrel. I also mounted a 3 X 9 Leupold Vari-X IIc to it in Weaver mounts. It is a solid minute of angle grouper with Hornady FTX or MonoFlex bullets.
Those bullets are an answer to a prayer for me. I always liked the 336 and thought that if it just had another 50 to 100 yards of effective range, it would serve well for all of the big game hunting that I do. After shooting the FTX's and taking a few animals with them, I am convinced they do what Hornady claim and make my rifle what I always wanted to be. I've recently sold off my other centerfire rifles, as this slightly hot-rodded old 336 of mine, coupled with those Hornady FTX and MonoFlex bullets, does everything I need a centerfire rifle to do in the field and it is accurate enough to be fun to play with at the range.
As fall is fast approaching, I am planning on hunting elk in New Mexico, deer locally here in Oklahoma, pigs in California, and pronghorns in Wyoming. I'll be using the .30-30 on all of these hunts. Yeah, the cartridge seems wimpy on paper, but in the real world, its modest velocity, decent bullet sectional density and mass add up to deep-digging penetration that kills game clean without fuss, drama, or a bunch of bloodshot meat. It might not be cool to be a "one gun hunter" with a .30-30 these days, but it works for me.
JP
