brace yourself sns2
30-30...pretty sweet cartridge even today and yet it's 125 years old
ran some numbers on a typical 30-30, 150 gr load at full 24” barrel rated velocity 2390 fps(1903 ft/lbs energy) and it shows a 6.6” pbr range of 225 yards with a 190 yard zero (3” high to 3.6” low of point of aim) and a 17” drop at 300 yards with 20” of 10 mph wind drift, it’s sad b.c. of only .186 means it drops off the face of the earth real quick and blows in the wind real easy past pbr, but within it’s pbr it’s pretty strong numbers
at 200 yards the 30-30 still has about 1700 fps(962 ft/lbs energy) with a .226 s.d. should offer decent penetration still, I believe history bears this truth out 😉
for a modern look at a similar horsepower cartridge you’d want to look at the 6.5 Grendel, slightly less ft/lbs muzzle energy and recoil energy, this is where 125 years difference comes into play…
the 6.5 Grendel 123 gr load at full 24” barrel rated velocity of 2580 fps(1818 ft/lbs energy) and it shows a 6.6” pbr range of 275 yards with a 225 yard zero, (3” high to 3.6” low of point of aim) and a 6.7” drop at 300 yards with 5.8” of 10 mph wind drift, with it’s outstanding b.c. of .5 means it hangs onto it’s trajectory significantly further and fights wind equally so
at 200 yards the 6.5 Grendel still has about 2295 fps(1439 ft/lbs energy) with a .252 s.d. offers very good penetration and it’s short history bears this out also (16 year history)
at 300 yards the 6.5 Grendel still holds down 2153 fps (1266 ft/lbs energy) and a similar number for the 30-30 for that velocity would be 60 yards (2165 fps & 1560 ft/lbs), if one wanted to put an impact velocity limit of say 1800 fps on the 30-30 load that would be 165 yards and the 6.5 Grendel would be 570 yards…to lend perspective of what’s possible with modern vs the original
note: I just chose a basic 150 gr standard load for comparison purposes only for the 30-30 as a true original vs modern comparison, modern loads like the ftx leverevolution with more horsepower and better b.c. will obviously improve the numbers for a 30-30 for hunting today, but I’d have to wager you’re only going to add about 50-75 yards effective range over the example shown here, still night and day differences in potential, you won’t notice much difference inside 200 yards on game however, the versatility of the modern is well past most peoples ability to use it, nice that it’s there for those who can utilize it for far wider range of hunting situations and applications
that sweet little carbine pictured above, the modern version of that would be the ruger American ranch in 6.5 Grendel with the 16.1” barrel, 36” overall length, low 6 lb range out of the box, 10 round detach magazine, mine shoots around ¾ moa out to 500 yards in my hands with a leupold 6x36 fixed scope and weighs just over 7 lbs all up in some weaver low rings, cz 527 looks to have a 16” barrel model now also if a modern performance stubby carbine is your jam, you could do everything the old thirty does and then double to 2.5x the distances if you care to set up for that, I put a cds-zl turret on mine and can dial up for coyotes or target fun up to 600 yards, the 540 yard wind drift of the Grendel is the same as the 300 yard wind drift of the 30-30 example here, hit probability near zero with one of these options on a hung up coyote ranged and dialed at 500, much more likely to scare the shat out of the coyote with the Grendel
this could explain why sales trends go the way they do, we can do so much more for the powder we burn now, can do the same job at double to triple the distances of old