Was at the range one last time last Sunday with my hunting buddy. The wind was strengthening and gusty, not a good time to adjust scopes but OK to check zeros. I was trying to determine which rifles would go elk an deer hunting come Friday. The choices were as follows:

.30-30 with Winchester factory 170g Power Point loads
7mm Rem Mag with 160g North Fork handloads
.300 Win Mag with 180g North Fork and 180g Barnes TSX, both handloads
.45-70 with 350g North Fork

We set up paper targets at 100 yards and paper, hanging steel gongs (which I sprayed with fluorescent orange marking paint) and clay pigeons at 200 yards. Then we set up the chrono for my hunting buddy and declared the range “hot”. (Awfully nice to be a member of a 500-member club and have the range to yourself!) I was using ear muffs over plugs while my buddy was using muffs only.

First up was the Marlin .30-30 I had picked up this last spring. I single loaded a WW Power Point into the ejection port and closed the lever, chambering the round. After setting the crosshairs on a 200-yard steel gong I squeezed off the first shot of the day. “Click!”

Opening the lever, I could see the round still in the chamber with a primer indentation. I immediately closed the bolt in case it was a hang fire and tried again. “Click!” This time when I opened the lever and saw the case head in the chamber it dawned on me that the case should have extracted and didn’t. Comprehension came a little late but I finally realized what the problem was – I had just fired a .30-30 cartridge in the .45-70!

My buddy said he had heard a “Pop!”, kind of like a squib load. I opened the bolt and ran a cleaning rod down the barrel to knock the case out. From the case mouth to a point about 0.8” back the case was blown out to match the .45-70 chamber. From that point it had what reminded me of a Weatherby shoulder (in reverse) as it narrowed back down to normal .30-30 case diameter.

No one was hurt from my stupidity (several instances thereof). I removed the lever and the bolt and ran a brush down the bore several times, gave it a good visual inspection and reassembled the Marlin before putting it away for the time being.

With the right rifle this time, I tried the .30-30 again. It was shooting low at 200 yards which surprised me until I remembered I had zeroed it for 100 yards for bear season. A quick adjustment on the scope brought the point of impact up to where it needed to be. The .45-70 was shooting low and to the right and I decided to leave it home this year rather than mess with it. (It took a forkhorn buck and a 6x6 bull two years ago.) The 7mm Mag that has served me so well for over 20 years was shooting well but a couple inches to the right, something I attributed to the increasing winds. The .300 Win Mag was happy with both the TSX and North Fork bullets.

So the decision was made – this is “The year of the .30’s”. The .300 win Mag for days when long range shot opportunities can be expected and the .30-30 for days we hunt the heavy stuff. We leave for Buford, CO, Friday morning.

Good luck, enjoy, and be safe!

Friend of mine in haste once fired a 270 through his 30-06... it was kindof spooky in retrospect. We all heard it go "plop" when he fired... he removed the split case and was horrified to see what he had done.


-DallanC