i will be using my savage99 in 3030 for deer hunt in canada this october. the hornady 160gr. flextip shoots great!!! 3/4 to 1.25 at 103 yards.i have shot several small does in texas and worked ok but not sure about the much bigger deer i will be seeing in canada. what say you guys? any better factory load better suted? D O M I T !

I've shot quite a few Mule Deer in Alberta and Saskatchewan when I lived there. I found it no problem to get within 100 yards of them, Nor did I find them any bigger than Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Utah, or Montana Mule Deer, if as big.

I used my .30-06 with .180 grain Nosler Partitions almost all of the time, but a .30-30 Model 94 Winchester would have done just fine for the deer. Your 30-30 Savage was felt by the old-timers to be a somewhat better deer rifle for open country shots than the Winchester .30-30 (the longer barreled Savage had slightly better velocity than the short barreled M94 carbines), so I wouldn't worry about it working on Canadian deer.

BUT, if I was deer hunting in grizzly country, which southwestern Alberta IS (and southern Saskatchewan is NOT, generally speaking) I wouldn't be carrying a .30-30 Savage!

If I wanted to use a lever gun in griz country and still wanted to be able to take a bit longer shots, I'd take something more like a BLR in .358 Winchester, a .348 Winchester in a Model 71, or a new Marlin .338 Marlin Express. The Marlin has almost exactly the same ballistics as the .348 Winchester with either the 200 or 250 grain loads. (If you took such a Marlin, you'd wanta take plenty of ammo, in separate parts of your luggage though...you sure won't likely find any of it there.) In the great majority of the boonies and the small rural town stores, you can't find even .444 Remington ammo, and there are a heck of a lot more of them in everyday use than there are .338 Marlin Expresses thus far.

i will be hunting near cold lake alberta. not worried about bears just wonted to know about best factory load for bigger deer.

I grew up shooting big Mule Deer and elk with the 30-30 and 170 gr. Rem. Corelokts, and I would not hesitate to take on the biggest black bear with a 30-30 and have...I would also feel comfortable shooting a Grizzly with a 30-30 under the right conditions or if I had too.

Never underestamate the 30-30, even the 300 Wby is a 30-30 at some point, and folks seem to think its a real killer at 600 yards. go figure.

quote:

Originally posted by domit:
i will be hunting near cold lake alberta. not worried about bears just wonted to know about best factory load for bigger deer.

If you are hunting north of the Cold Lake bombing range, you will also be near one of the best fishing lakes in Canada...Grist Lake. It is actually two lakes separated by a nice, wide 1,000+ foot gravel airstrip. The southern of the two is full of Lake trout up to 35 to 45 pounds each, while the northern of the two has BIG Walleyes AND Northern Pike so numerous you can't throw a lure into the water without getting one or more strikes per cast.

The bush north of Cold Lake is so dense you will very likely not have to worry about ANY shots beyond 30 to maybe 50 yards, unless shooting straight down a "cut line".

Should be a very fun hunt with your Savage.

Some years Fall comes there rather late. Other years, about two months from now it will be a lot like hunting the Michigan UP in December or January but probably colder, with less snow. So I would advise taking both some light wear for warm weather, and some down wear for the other stuff. Good boots are needed, too.

Oh, and in that area I would recommend 170 gr. bullets of any make it shoots well for your .30-30.

Have fun!............

There is so much iron in the soil in the North country that deer eating the foliage actually develop an iron hide and it can be very difficult to penetrate with something like a .30-30.

Because of this the deer also become terribly magnetic and are always facing the north so never hunt east to west or vice versa as shots should only be taken facing the south. Brisket shots are the only way to get a clean kill on these "iron plated" deer.

One also observes that the largest deer are farthermost north as the grazing of deer over time means the oldest deer are simply farther north as they cannot overcome the magnetism and turn south......as a matter of fact the really big ones are actually called moose as the heavily iron-laden diet causes the antlers to web together.

With this in mind, get as fart north as possible and only hunt towards the south and look for the unusual antler formations of webbed tines.

Also please note that many Canadian hunters don't skin their deer with a hunting knife.....they use a can opener.

Just trying to be helpful!

quote:

get as fart north as possible

Vapo, the Canadian EPA has just revoked your hunt Visa !!!!!

If you have not already done so, I would suggest talking to your guide about the terrain to be hunted, before you go up there, to find the likely distance parameters of your shots.

As you probably know already, Cold Lake town was and still may be, a town pretty much oriented around the major Canadian Forces base at Cold Lake.

To the south and and west of Cold Lake town, there are some areas with open fields and bluffs which were opened up by local residents, some Cree, some Metis, and some Caucasian...."bluffs" being a Canadian prairie term for small stands, up to maybe an acre or two each, of birch or aspen...usually scattered among open grain fields or grazing land. Jump shooting deer out of the bluffs is a LOT of fun, but may be a more useful environment for the 150 gr. 30-30 bullets than the 170s, as the shots can be longer.

If you will be primarily hunting bluffs, then you WILL have a LOT of fun. In the "bluff" type counrtryside, there are often bluffs as far as you can see in all directions, with either flats or rolling very small gentle hills separating them all from each other. Makes for real fun, hunting those suckers. Wish I was going along, if that's the kind of terrain they plan to put you into.

ok thanks guys. the guid said 150 will be about max but could get longer. the extra speed in the hornady load will be 3" high at 100 and 1" low at 200. that old gun really likes that load and i was just worried about it not being tough enough. that leaverlution load in my 4570is good shooting but did not shoot through a B I G bison brodside! i was supprised none of the 4 shots went through. wish me luck. oct 25 is hunt date, film at 11 ha!

quote:

Originally posted by domit:
i will be using my savage99 in 3030 for deer hunt in canada this october. the hornady 160gr. flextip shoots great!!! 3/4 to 1.25 at 103 yards.i have shot several small does in texas and worked ok but not sure about the much bigger deer i will be seeing in canada. what say you guys? any better factory load better suted? D O M I T !

I have no problem on the gun or the 30-30. However, the hornady flextips have been too soft for deer in my 308 me. I suggest a better bullet if you are going to use it on big deer.

Any one with experience with Winchester 170 gr Silvertips? This bullet is supposed to not open too fast and therefor useful for shooting larger animals that maybe are on the edge of what one should be using a 30-30 for anyway.

quote:

Originally posted by buckeyeshooter:

quote:

Originally posted by domit:
i will be using my savage99 in 3030 for deer hunt in canada this october. the hornady 160gr. flextip shoots great!!! 3/4 to 1.25 at 103 yards.i have shot several small does in texas and worked ok but not sure about the much bigger deer i will be seeing in canada. what say you guys? any better factory load better suted? D O M I T !

I have no problem on the gun or the 30-30. However, the hornady flextips have been too soft for deer in my 308 me. I suggest a better bullet if you are going to use it on big deer.

Yeah but a .308 is pushing those bullets about 500 fps faster than a .30-30.

quote:

Originally posted by gbanger:
Any one with experience with Winchester 170 gr Silvertips? This bullet is supposed to not open too fast and therefor useful for shooting larger animals that maybe are on the edge of what one should be using a 30-30 for anyway.

My first few years deer hunting was with a M-94 in 30-30 with that bullet......and IMO it is and was adapted specifically for that cartridge....it's as good as it gets in a .30-30!

30-30 wont work in Canada. You have to use a metric size. Otherwise it's square peg round hole deal. If you want to use the 30-30 you'll have to go South and cross the border into USA then it will work.

quote:

Originally posted by carpetman1:
30-30 wont work in Canada. You have to use a metric size. Otherwise it's square peg round hole deal.

quote:

Originally posted by carpetman1:
30-30 wont work in Canada. You have to use a metric size. Otherwise it's square peg round hole deal.

In Canada one should use a 7.62 X 52.....