What magnification was the tasco?

 

Not sure .. seem they could be lot's better .. I would try a better optic than tasco at that range if it was me..

But until you get it settled and not tuning it .. you won't know for sure

 

The Tasco is a 60$ 1.5 - 4.5 power laid on its side so ejected casings clear. I went to 100yds and got 150 winchesters and 150 Wisconsin cartridges both 4" groups clustered around bullseye. 170 remingtons were 5" low and left in a little 3" group for three of them, but I took 4 shots - that one had to be at least 12" to the right and off the drywall or worse in any other direction. Will get more LE's and try again at 200. There was a lite breeze and inexperience involved. I think I need a 336 to try the scope on and put the peeps back on the Winchester someday. I am curious where the one shot went for sure, may do more tomorrow. I am confident at 100 but would like to be confident at 200 with hornady's on deer and have some chance on a coyote further.

 

I can do better than 13 inches with my peep and iron front.

 

Was that 1/2" drywall, or 5/8"? ;D

I would try again at 100yds. See if you can get decent, consistent groups. If you are still having problems, I would 1st suspect the scope and/or mounts. (I will gracefully decline pointing out the obvious problem) ;D

 

I would also get a better scope for longer range shooting. Like they say! You get what you pay for, If you purchase a $50.00 scope you will get $50.00 groups. ???

 

At 200yds. you could be having some serious paralax issues. Try moveing your eye around while keeping the rifle still in the rest. If the crosshair moves then you've got paralax problems. You can resolve these by taking the exact same hold each time you shoot, same cheek weld, same grip same position on the shoulder, and most important same position of the eye in regard to the scope lenses.
Guzziac,
Richard P.

 

In my experience, from a solid rest, a great shooting .30-30 levergun has the capability of keeping 5 rounds in a 3" group and sometimes better @ 200 yards in good weather conditions.

Here's a target (3"x5" card) fired @ 200 using a 336 Marlin and 150 gr. Hornady ammunition. The shooter was known as 1897/336. It measures 2 1/2". 4 rounds are in 1 1/2". ;D

dtkraj,
Your story about your neighbors .300 Magnum reminded me about an experience I had with one of my friends back in the early 1970's. He had a .300 Magnum with a heavy barrel and a 12X scope.
It was Memorial day and he was going to a gun club that had a 200 yard range. I went with him with my dad's '94 Winchester. It wore a 4X scope in a side mount like your rifle. I had never shot it at 200 yards and jokingly told him that I would shoot it against his .300 Magnum for the best group. He got a good laugh at that!

Anyway, his first 5 shot group measured about 4". My dad's .30-30 was capable of 2" groups @ 100 with the handloads I was using (110 gr Hornady/36 /Rel11). Anyway, I then carefully fired a 5 shot group and when we went to look, I was elated to say the least. Those 5 rounds fell into a 1 3/4" group! Talk about luck. ;D.

I said to my buddy, "Well would you look at that! That old .30-30 outshot your .300 Magnum!" He didn't think that was too funny. He then proceded to shoot 2 more groups...each one bigger than the preceeding one (barrel was heating up). I knew when to quit and did not attempt another group.

Longer story short , he never asked me to shoot with him at 200 yards after that.

w30wcf

 

30wcf .. Somehow I can see that grin on your face.. ;D

I know I would never challenge you to a distance shoot 8)

 

This could get expensive, yesterday was the first day I shot at anything other than clay pigeons or milk jugs at 100yds. 4" groups = consistently busted clay pigeons at 100 yds and was happy enough that I could reliably drop any deer at 100yds or less, didn't want to try any further. Reading on this website is a good/bad influence so I decided to try further on paper, was disapointed. I have spent a fair amount of time with a marlin 60 and a marlin 25 on paper at 30-50 yds and was always happy but had never tried with the 30-30. I am tempted to ditch the cheap scope and put the peeps back on, with those I could consistently break clays at 100yd also. Thanks for your responses.

 

Forgot a few things, to get such good accuracy, how long between shots,how often do you clean the barrel, what kind of rest- I doubt you guys use feed sacks. I will look into the paralax thing also? The side mount certainly doesn't fit naturally like my 4X scope on my 60 and I know I wasn't consistent with my holds. A new 336,good scope,boxes of ammo, and a lead sled aren't all in the budget very soon--- I would like to try reloading also, this place is an expensive influence. Thanks, my wife thanks you also. Almost forgot- 1/2 inch drywall scraps-makes great targets and obviously easy to write on. I was afraid my daisy 30-30 wouldn't penetrate the 5/8 stuff. The drywall is fun to blast with a shotgun also.

 

I clean the bore on my centerfire rifles after every 20 shots or so. For the .22 I will shoot probably 100 before I clean it. On a hot Texas day I will wait some 5 minutes between shots if I'm going for maximum accuracy. It takes a bit for the heat to soak into the gun so sometimes I like to do a quick 3 shot group to see how it would do in the woods if I had to put a couple more rounds into some furry creature.

I shot a Tasco 3 x 9 on my 30-30 for ages at 100 yards and it was ok at that distance. At 200 yards it got questionable so I recently upgraded to a TruGlo for the 30-30. I moved my old Tasco to my Marlin 60. Its great for a rimfire scope. I have actually shot that combination at 200 yards just to see what I could do with it.

Here is one of my 200 yard experiments with the Marlin 60.

I had previously checked my bullet drop on the computer and dialed up the clicks but it came up low. There was no wind to speak of so it was just the scope. Past 100 yards it appears that the clicks are not consistent on the Tasco scope. Those are the hits circled at 9 / 8. I adjusted my elevation up more and put 4 in the X-10 circles. The splatter dot target was on the cardboard above my competition black target also at 200 yards. It was the same day and my last few rounds. I was off target 2 or 3 times shooting at the splatter target. Those were Winchester Wildcats which I have so far found to be what my gun likes the most out past 100 yards.

I have started testing my 30-30 with home loads at 100 yards so I'm not back out to 200 yards yet with the TruGlo scope on it. If it goes like my 100 yard testing is going I should be able to shoot MOA or close to it. I'm using the FTX bullets with either BLC-2 or H4895. The jury is still out as to which is the better powder to use.

 

Update- I ditched the scope and put the peeps back on, much happier.The gun looks better and carries like it should. I recently tried a few more shots with the scope and again one was missing completely. Today I fired 24 shots in 3-shot groups and none were missing with the peeps at 100yd. I shot 6 groups with rem 170's and biggest group was 5 inch with other 5 at 2-4 inches. Two groups with fed 150's were 5-6 inches. This was shooting off the tailgate of my pickup on one knee with no bags or anything. I only had 3 LE's left so I didn't try them. The 170's seem to group a little tighter and it seems to me the peeps worked just as good, if not better at 100 than the scope. I should try a chair and bags to see how much I can tighten up the groups with a good rest. The 50 $ Tasco is now a kids toy. I will also start reloading this winter, I have bought a Lee manual and a box of 160 gr ftx bullets so far. The store I was in just to look around had absolutely no 30-30 type bullets except for 6 boxes of the LE's so i figured maybe I should grab a box. For next year I plan on a 336 30-30 with a GOOD scope to try 200 yds again.

 

Your quote.. "Is this bad or is there hope?"


There is. Bury the Winchester in a deep hole and then go get your Marlin.

Good luck.

 

Suffering through the trials and tribulations of having a winnie will make that 336c with a leupold 2-7x33 all that much sweeter, the decision has been made, now I just need 600$ of play money. I will bury the chinese scope if the kids don't play with it though.

 

Well, I think your all nuts shooting at 200 yds with a 30-30 lever action! IMHO The balistics of a 150 gr Remington CoreLok bullet show a drop of 3.47" @ 100 yds, 8.34" @ 150 yds, 16.04" @ 200 yds, 26.99" @ 250 yds & 42.25" @ 300 yds.
This verifies that your are shooting a 150 yd gun and if you don't have a good one, you're outa luck...
I love my little Marlin 336CS tack hammer but it is a brush gun, not a 600 yd match rifle. Remember, two piece stock, barrel bands and tubular magazines don't add up to accuracy but then again, most deer are taken at less than 100 yards.