Greetings,
Started deer hunting in 1974 with a 336A I bought from Western Auto for $114.00. Carried it open sighted for three hunting seasons, never shooting at a deer. We lived in a one deer, buck only county, and I never saw a buck. I put a Weaver K-4 on it the last summer I owned it and shot 16 groundhogs that summer. I was a poor college kid and wanted a bolt .270. I sold the 336 and moved on to bigger and better.
Two weeks ago, a friend at church asked me if he needed to register his 30-30. He said he bought it after he got out of the Air Force, and had stuck it in a closet and forgot about it. I told him he was good to go. He called me aside after church and asked if I wanted the gun. I asked him how much, and he said come get it, that he wanted it out of the house (two teen boys and anti-gun wife). I drove over and picked up a 336C that needed some TLC. It has received some, and will get some more. I cleaned and lapped the bore a bit, remounted the Tasco 3-9x32 in the same see-thrus, and took some factory loads to the bench. Winchester 150 grain PP stopped the clock at over 2300 fps and 8 shots went into 2.8 inches at 100 yards. Set two inches high, and 30 years later, I go to the woods with another Marlin 30-30.
This past Saturday dawned a cold, calm, frosty 20 degrees. I was in the Ameristep Outhouse sitting on the edge of a field looking at the side of a hardwood ridge. Just after light, I lazered a large deer 250 yards to my left, in the field. AT 7:10 am two does came into my left field of view out the front window, trotting along the far edge of the field. The lead doe went into the woods. The rear doe was smaller. The large doe stopped in an opening, next to a large tree I had checked at exactly 149 yards. She passed behind it and stopped, quartering away. The trigger broke with the scope set a 6x, with the forearm resting in my homemade shooting sticks. She bucked, and ran awkwardly out of view to the left. I exited my hide, and walked to the spot she was standing. There was no hair or blood. Scuffed leaves led me 10 yards to the left where I looked ahead 20 yards to see her piled up. That lowly 30-30 bullet had struck just rear of the last rib on the right side, traversed her chest, and was cut from the hide in front of her left front shoulder. The lungs and aorta were destroyed. The bullet is perfectly mushroomed to the cannelure.
This hunt was a "step back in time" to the day a 17 year old stepped in the woods with his 30-30, and created a day to remember for a 50 year old that has taken home well over 150 deer.
I have pictures and have a photobucket account, but am puzzled by the how tos. I would gladly email the photos for someone to post for me and perhaps someone could email me some 1,2,3 idiot proof instructions on how to get the pictures from photobucket to my posts.
I can't wait to try some LeverEvolutions in this little gun after season is over.
Thanks,
