BigBlue wrote:This discussion of 30-30 brings up a question I've always had about the round... Why is this almost universally a lever-action round and not found in bolt action rifles? It seems well regarded as a deer round and pretty popular so I'd think someone would make bolt actions out of it.
As a side note, the one gun I want from my dad's hunting stuff is a Winchester '94 30-30. It's what he hunted with way back when he went deer hunting. I hope to someday get to add that to my collection. Perhaps it is because it is the one gun of his I never shot when I was a kid.
Rimmed cartridges are harder to make work in a non tubular magazine or a single shot.
Also the .30-30, due to the tubular magazine and bullet tip to primer orientation, is generally loaded with round or flat nose projectiles.
Lever guns are generally less accurate than bolt guns. Leverguns are generally thought of as close range brush guns. So it seems that bullets used in .30-30 ammo are not usually your best and most optimized for accuracy. Long range ballistics suffer as a result so it becomes almost self fulfilling that the .30-30 is relegated to the levergun.
Nosler used to make a 170 grain, flat nose, solid base, boat tail that was lights out from my Montgomery Wards (Mossberg 472) .30-30. Pushed with a load of 3031 it was very accurate.
It is probably more cost efficient to manufacture rifles chambered for rimless cartridges. Also not to difficult to find a cartridge that can be used in the same scenario as a .30-30 with better interior and exterior ballistics. Makes more sense than throwing money and resources at a .30-30 bolt gun that is only going to appeal to a small segment of the gun buying public.