Cartridge Families (4) - Hunting With Lever Rifles
Kim du Toit
June 10, 2006
7:32 AM CDT
Yesterday, I put up ONE picture of an old Henry lever-action rifle, and the wails of desire and covetousness could be heard all over gundom.
Why so? Lever rifles have an almost mystical pull among gun lovers—they are a part of American heritage, and a living reminder of times past, when the frontier was something to be tamed. The heritage continued from the earlier “cowboy” lever rifles into the more modern “hunting” ones. Here’s a Winchester Model 1894, in .30-30 Winchester, made in 1906:
Lever-action hunting rifles have traditionally been designed for short-range action, with cartridges that don’t have much in the way of carry past about 150 yards. (I’m excluding the pistol/ cowboy cartridges, which we’ll examine later.)
What this means is that the bullets are typically about .30 caliber, and have a hefty thump upon arrival. Here’s a pic of some of the more popular ones:
The .250 Savage is also known as the .250-3000, and the .30-30 is aka. the .30 WCF or .30-30 WCF (Winchester Center Fire).
It is probably no exaggeration to say that this cartridge family has taken more American deer than any of the others. Heck, the .30-30 alone has taken more deer than any other two cartridges combined.
I’ve fired all the above, and here’s what I know: each cartridge has its devotees, and I’m not going to argue with a single one of them. In terms of knockdown power, the .35 Rem has a slight edge over the .300 Savage (which itself approaches the .30-06). The .32 Win Spec isn’t far behind those two; but all of them will work as advertised.
Here’s another thing which endears me to this cartridge family: the .250 Savage was introduced in 1915; the .300 Savage in 1920; the .30-30 in 1895(!); the .32 Win Spec in 1902, and the .35 Rem in 1906. They’re old, and they still work well today. My kinda ammo.
Note that the Savage cartridges may come with pointed bullets (giving them a little advantage in the accuracy stakes), because they were designed to be fired in either Savage lever rifles (which do not use a tube mag) or bolt-action rifles. Here’s a Savage Model 99 in .300 Savage, made in 1932. Note the octagonal barrel:
If you were to say to me, “Pick one of these lever rifle chamberings”, I’d probably choose the .300 Savage (if I had a Savage lever rifle) or else the .32 Win Special (if I had a Winchester/Marlin lever rifle).
But on the other hand, if someone were to say instead: “You can only ever shoot the .30-30 [or .35 Rem or .250 Savage] again”, I’d reply: “Bummer!”, and then set about enjoying myself for the rest of my life, secure in the knowledge that I could hunt pretty much anything that wasn’t covered with bear fur (and even there, black bears would not be safe).
That’s how good these cartridges are. Not a dud among ‘em.
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