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What is America's all time best, purely civilian hunting cartridge?

Mustangs Rule

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What is Americas’ all time best, purely civilian hunting cartridge?

So let’s talk “Made in in the USA”. Designed right here for sporting/hunting intentions only. Stop right there. Forget foreign, and leave out military . Sorry no 30-06, 308, 30-40 even the 45-70.
 
Even tho I don't own one I'd say the .270 Winchester. I recall from eons ago Jim Carmichael making a comment about Winchester should never have developed the .270 or something like that, but he never said why. I hate it when those people like that make those kinds of comments and never back them up. If you're afraid of insulting Winchester keep your pen in your pocket protector.
 
30-30

It has taken more big game than any cartridge other than the 30-06.
Does anyone really believe that's true about a 30-30?

I think its a fairy tale.

My family started hunting Montana in the early 1900's never shot a single big-game animal with a 30-30 that I'm aware of. Matter of fact, nobody in the family owned a 30-30 until the late 1960's and nobody has shot any big-game with it...doubt it has been fired more than 30 times and is going to be sold shortly.
 
30 WCF was the first America sporting cartridge of the smokeless era. Undoubtedly has been used the most just by virtue of time & availability. But is it the best?

7mm Remington Magnum is a purely sporting cartridge, and the reprobates that like it claim it to be the most powerful cartridge known to man.

the 300 Savage is chambered in millions of firearms, and the .308 was built off of it. it can still be found in deer camps across the Eastern US as can the 35 Remington & 358 Win.

Most American cartridges have a European counterpart that matches them ballistically. 7x64 = the .280. 300 H&H is close to the 300 WM, etc.

But the 338 WM stands above them all as far as being the tops of American specific hunting cartridges. It is the quintessential American cartridge of the 20th Century. Overpowered, loud like a Olds with a 442 and glasspacks, it's the boss of the cartridge world. It's a Percheron in a Quarter-horse world, the Mastiff to the greyhound, the Jerome Bettis of cartridge's & yet is delicate and able to finesse like Tim Meadows in the Ladies Man.

And I'll internet fight anyone who says differently.
 
Does anyone really believe that's true about a 30-30?

I think its a fairy tale.

My family started hunting Montana in the early 1900's never shot a single big-game animal with a 30-30 that I'm aware of. Matter of fact, nobody in the family owned a 30-30 until the late 1960's and nobody has shot any big-game with it...doubt it has been fired more than 30 times and is going to be sold shortly.
Back in the day, a lot more deer in the woods and fields of the east, mid-west and south got killed than elk in the west so it is possible. But who knows
 
Back in the day, a lot more deer in the woods and fields of the east, mid-west and south got killed than elk in the west so it is possible. But who knows
Even then, I doubt it...as Ben Lamb pointed out, lots of 300 savage, 308, 35's, 25-35, 25-20, etc. used in the East and mid-west.

Deer numbers and opportunities were also much lower as well...with the number deer that we have now, and the amount of deer being killed yearly, no way the 30-30 has killed more than lots of other rounds.

Who do you know that hunts deer with a 30-30?
 
Even then, I doubt it...as Ben Lamb pointed out, lots of 300 savage, 308, 35's, 25-35, 25-20, etc. used in the East and mid-west.

Deer numbers and opportunities were also much lower as well...with the number deer that we have now, and the amount of deer being killed yearly, no way the 30-30 has killed more than lots of other rounds.

Who do you know that hunts deer with a 30-30?

Winchester alone has made over 7 million 30-30's. Add in Marlin & every other manufacturer, and that the 30-30 is still in the top 10 for cartridge sales in the US, and I don't think it's going anywhere too soon.
 
Winchester alone has made over 7 million 30-30's. Add in Marlin & every other manufacturer, and that the 30-30 is still in the top 10 for cartridge sales in the US, and I don't think it's going anywhere too soon.
I know one that's going somewhere soon...and in perfect condition. Have no use for it late 60's model per serial number...actually 1965 manufacture date.

IMG_20210311_200801424.jpg
 
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Even then, I doubt it...as Ben Lamb pointed out, lots of 300 savage, 308, 35's, 25-35, 25-20, etc. used in the East and mid-west.

Deer numbers and opportunities were also much lower as well...with the number deer that we have now, and the amount of deer being killed yearly, no way the 30-30 has killed more than lots of other rounds.

Who do you know that hunts deer with a 30-30?
I know that it was the first and only ranch rifle my family owned until the late 1960's. My dad killed deer with almost every year in California from the mid 1940's until he got his 742 Rem in '06 in 1968. I have it now and occasionally hunt whitetails with it. It is far from perfect, he cursed it often and dreamed of getting a "real rifle".

Add to that all the early T/C pistoleros who had one in a Contender.

While I do think the numbers support the 30/30 claim, I think it may also hold the title of having caused more wound/loss deer than any other cartridge as well.
 

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