We were taught as kids that the 30-30 was a hopeless hunting rifle suited only to very limited range bush hunting and pig hunting. The cartridge was considered very low powered, barely up to the task. When some unfortunate person turned up at the range with a Winchester you could sense the disdain for this type of rifle by the cognoscenti who had flash bolt guns with scopes, a far superior hunting rifle. Burt Howlet had a Marlin 30-30 which everyone was informed had the rifling worn out in a hundred rounds and had to be rebarreled. He shot it at the rare novelty event.
As a result of this teaching I had no experience with this rifle and cartridge for years. That lasted till I started in a new block, the Waikare. On my first night at the Otanatea hut where I met the three other hunters on the block for the first time, we’d just finished tea when Wayne said have you seen my 30-30. With that he climbed up into the high locked cupboard and produced a Winchester which we all admired. Glen said have you seen my 30-30. He disappeared into the same cupboard and produced his 30-30. We admired that one as well. The other bloke said he’d left his 30-30 at home. These hunters used the rifle as a spare in case anything went wrong with their main work rifle but I never saw any of their main rifles have any issues. I felt very left out.
This was rectified when I competed in the Winchester shoot at our local range in Westport. In due course I reported to the airport freight office to pick up my new Winchester. Next morning I had a job up the Buller Gorge so I put the rifle behind the seat of the ute. Just into the gorge and one shot across the road in front of me. Too good an opportunity to miss. Hunted it down and got it. Hadn’t even sighted the rifle in yet. Off to a good start. I used that rifle regularly while working in Westport. Most of the time I carried it as a convenient, light, unobtrusive rifle which was no burden when I was doing my proper work. I found that up to a hundred yards it was very effective. At a pinch it would go a bit further. Took off one morning to climb above Hawks Crag then drop down into the Ohikanui. In a narrow gutter just as I hit the river saw a roaring stag on a little beach at about what I thought was the limit of its effective range, about 150 more or less. Got the stag. Then a horrible carry down the river. Barely made it to the bridge before collapsing in exhaustion. Staggered onto the road. The first car to come past was our rifle team coming back from Blenheim. They took me to my Ute. Word got around the village, I was stopped on the street on a number of occasions with the comment “I hear you got a roaring stag up the Ohika. Well done”
On another occasion I was looking at the old mining track between Lyell and Mokihinui. There were two on a tiny clearing. Made the shot and couldn’t see the other one. There were two lying there. I hadn’t seen the second one move behind the first. Two for one.
I carried that rifle enough to get a good impression of its capabilities. Up to a hundred or even a hundred and fifty it was excellent. If it was further than that I used to ignore them. Put an aperture sight on it which made sighting in a lot easier. My one seems to put different bullet weights to different places but I found that with care fifty mil groups were very achievable at one hundred. I certainly didn’t find the cartridge lacked power, the range was limited by the ability to get good, certain hits.
As you can probably tell, I hold this rifle in very high regard.