The Dark Reason the .30-30 Is Still Being Made
Ivan Jackson
20,377 views
The man who built the first American cartridge to break three thousand feet per second died broke in Winchester's own city, ten weeks after Winchester went under — and the 1895 round he spent twenty years trying to bury is still being loaded today, under that same name, by the company that bought the wreckage. His name was Charles Newton.
Picture a gold-plated Model 94 in a president's hands in 1927. Then picture a rented factory floor in New Haven. The box on the shelf still says Winchester. The rifle in the rack was made in Japan.
In this video:
Why Marlin's refusal to print a rival's name on ammunition accidentally gave the .30-30 the name it still carries today
How a hundred thousand rifles in the field, not superior ballistics, made the .30-30 unkillable within a decade of its release
Charles Newton's actual claim — velocity and bullet construction matter more than raw weight — and why his .250-3000 Savage became the first American commercial cartridge to reach three thousand feet per second
Why Newton's own manufacturing companies failed four separate times, and what he was actually competing against each time — not a better cartridge, but an installed base that no longer had to prove anything
What John Olin's Western Cartridge Company figured out that Newton never did: you don't sell a new cartridge, you sell an improved load for the rifle a man already owns
Why Winchester engraving its millionth Model 94 for Calvin Coolidge in 1927 marked the exact moment the .30-30 stopped competing and started being serviced
The strange irony of Newton moving his last company directly into New Haven, Winchester's own city, and what that geography actually meant day to day
Why Winchester itself tried repeatedly to kill the .30-30 with better cartridges — the .284, the .375, the .307, the .356 — and lost every single time to a rifle men already knew how to work
What Hornady actually solved in 2005 with LEVERevolution — the exact geometric limitation that had capped the .30-30's performance since 1895 — using Newton's own argument and Olin's own method
Why every cartridge on the shelf today chambered in a modern Marlin 336 is gone except the one from 1895
Neither man at the gun counter this fall has heard of Charles Newton. Neither of them needs to have. That is the whole point.
They have been having this argument for a hundred and thirty years and nobody has ever won it — if you have a side, put it in the comments.
Like the video if it was worth your time, and subscribe.
20 Comments
a 30-30?
1) it worked. Very well. Even if you stumbled on a bear with bad intentions, you were in pretty good shape.
2) price/ availability: you can buy a box of 6.5 PRC. Or, three boxes of 30-30.
3) loadings offered? Plenty...the Leverevolution point particularly
cool if you running a lever action.
4) Guns were some times beloved 4th generation the belonged to
your family. Sometimes it was a person's first gun.
PS: we sold a lot of old time stuff: 30-40 Krag. Savage 300 and 303. 45.70.....this cartridge sold more than all our other grandads
merchandise combined.
5 pleasant to shoot. A day in the woods or at the range doesn't beat you to death. Minimum flinch inducer.
Thanks
Why is it still being made, does this require a rocket scientist to figure out?
The .30-30 rifle is light, compact, and handy in forests and dense brush. Introduced in the 1890s, the .30-30 was an early smokeless-powder sporting cartridge with a practical short-to-medium-range role somewhat comparable to that later occupied by the 7.62×39mm. The Soviet SKS, introduced near the end of World War II, and the AK-47 both used the 7.62×39mm cartridge. In practical terms, .30-30 lever actions and 7.62×39mm rifles have broadly similar hunting-range capability and terminal performance, although they differ substantially in design, ammunition, and military purpose.
Historically, .30-30 lever-action rifles saw widespread use among mounted irregular forces during the Mexican Revolution. During the First World War, they were also used for border patrol, security details, guard duty, law-enforcement work, and rear-echelon special-service roles. French, British, American, and Canadian forces employed lever-action rifles in limited or specialized roles rather than as standard infantry weapons. The .30-30 rifle also remained in use by some American police agencies for security and patrol duties well into the late twentieth century.
One of my uncles still lived on a farm and he hand loaded his 30-30 hot. He had an old rifle with a long barrel, at least six inches longer than the ones my father had. When my uncle fired his hand loads it sounded like the 30-06 my grandfather owned!
Uncle loaded sharp pointed bullets in his 30-30. He had one in the chamber and one in the tube magazine. It's not safe to put two pointed bullets in the tube. I watched him take down deer that were 300 yards from the corner of the barn. He insisted the pointed bullets flew a lot flatter than the blunt nosed ones. We measured that distance with a wheel a neighbor used to measure factory roofs.
The Dark Reason the .30-30 Is Still Being Made
Ivan Jackson
20,377 views
The man who built the first American cartridge to break three thousand feet per second died broke in Winchester's own city, ten weeks after Winchester went under — and the 1895 round he spent twenty years trying to bury is still being loaded today, under that same name, by the company that bought the wreckage. His name was Charles Newton.
Picture a gold-plated Model 94 in a president's hands in 1927. Then picture a rented factory floor in New Haven. The box on the shelf still says Winchester. The rifle in the rack was made in Japan.
In this video:
Why Marlin's refusal to print a rival's name on ammunition accidentally gave the .30-30 the name it still carries today
How a hundred thousand rifles in the field, not superior ballistics, made the .30-30 unkillable within a decade of its release
Charles Newton's actual claim — velocity and bullet construction matter more than raw weight — and why his .250-3000 Savage became the first American commercial cartridge to reach three thousand feet per second
Why Newton's own manufacturing companies failed four separate times, and what he was actually competing against each time — not a better cartridge, but an installed base that no longer had to prove anything
What John Olin's Western Cartridge Company figured out that Newton never did: you don't sell a new cartridge, you sell an improved load for the rifle a man already owns
Why Winchester engraving its millionth Model 94 for Calvin Coolidge in 1927 marked the exact moment the .30-30 stopped competing and started being serviced
The strange irony of Newton moving his last company directly into New Haven, Winchester's own city, and what that geography actually meant day to day
Why Winchester itself tried repeatedly to kill the .30-30 with better cartridges — the .284, the .375, the .307, the .356 — and lost every single time to a rifle men already knew how to work
What Hornady actually solved in 2005 with LEVERevolution — the exact geometric limitation that had capped the .30-30's performance since 1895 — using Newton's own argument and Olin's own method
Why every cartridge on the shelf today chambered in a modern Marlin 336 is gone except the one from 1895
Neither man at the gun counter this fall has heard of Charles Newton. Neither of them needs to have. That is the whole point.
They have been having this argument for a hundred and thirty years and nobody has ever won it — if you have a side, put it in the comments.
Like the video if it was worth your time, and subscribe.