Thoughts on trapper 16" barrel on 30-30, good & bad?

[iMigraine]

Hey lever heads,

Been thinking about getting a 30/30 for plinking and using casting boolits. Read somewhere that 16" barrel will loose 200fps compared to a 20" barrel. Is that the only real negative? In a .357Mag lever I wouldn't be bothered by this. Not sure if I should care when using a 30-30 too?

TIA

[Der Gebirgsjager]

I've got one, and the portability and handiness makes up for any velocity loss. And, velocity-wise, you're still ahead of most pistol cartridges. But if target shooting is the goal, then the convenience of the short barrel becomes less important and longer might be better.

[JSnover]

For plinking with cast, what's not to like? Makes a good defensive carbine too, if you don't already have one.

[kingstrider]

I have two factory Marlin 30-30 rifles with 16" barrels and love them. The loss in velocity is negligible but the muzzle blast is greater than a longer barrel if that matters to you. Eventually I'm going to buy another 30-30 and convert it to a SBR for use with a suppressor.

[1Papalote]

I have a 78 model 94 Winchester. Love it.!! Critters can't tell the difference. It'd be real hard to part with this one

Papalote

[Bill*B]

I love my Winchester 94 Trapper. It is my "go to" rifle. Bill

[Shawlerbrook]

They are like an adult’s Red Ryder.

[Guesser]

I have a Wrangler in 32 W.S. with the 16" barrel. Great cast shooter, especially after I mounted a receiver sight. It almost doubled the sight radius and made me a much more accurate operator.

[pietro]

Been thinking about getting a 30/30 for plinking and using casting boolits.

Read somewhere that 16" barrel will loose 200fps compared to a 20" barrel.




Only those who are OCD care...................................

While 16" Trappers (mine is a .30-30) are very handy for hunting, they're not quite as accurate at longer ranges (say, 150yds) as a (say) 24" barreled example - simply because their shorter sight radius is less forgiving @ longer ranges.


.

[Guesser]

pietro.....that is exactly why I put a receiver sight on mine; almost doubled the sight radius.....

[Texas by God]

A T/C Conteder 16" 30-30 is considered a long range wonder-and a Trapper 30-30 is not. Strange. Trapers are cool.

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[OlDeuce]

Very good thoughts !!!! Ol Deuce

[runfiverun]

so slowing a 30-30 down to 300 B.O. speeds is okay?

[Texas by God]

so slowing a 30-30 down to 300 B.O. speeds is okay?It would be interesting to chronograph 150 gr bullets out of 16" barrels .300BO vs 30-30, R5R. I think the 30-30 might win.

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[starnbar]

The rifle will do what it needs to accuracy is more the shooters responsibility than the barrel and with a 150 grn round nose cast I can still hit what I am aiming at with open sights out to 100 yds.

[nagantguy]

We love our shorty Winchesters one a 30-30 the other a 44 mag; both wear reciver sights and are very very handy hand fast handling both my full size and short 30-30 94s shoot the same cast boolits very well but the longer one is slightly more accurate at longer distances can't remember the actual velocity lose between the 2 but I vaguely remember it wasn't as high as I was expecting. The short ones are much louder or seem so cause there closer to your face/ears. No critter deer hog black bear has ever seemed to know the difference. The .44 is what my daughter used to take her first and all subsequent deer and know claims it as her rifle so I've been playing with the 30-30s more and can't say either one is the wrong answer for Hunting plinking walking around target of opportunity rifle.

[Drm50]

I've got a Marlin 30/30 16", have had it for close to 50yrs. When I got it my crew turned up their
nose at it. Said barrel was to short. Now same guys have pestered me for 49 yrs to trade me out
of it. Nothing I ever shot with it complained about -200fps, it shot right with standard guns. As
a matter of fact I got a 35 just like it and it's a shooter to. Have Lyman 66s on both of them.

[robg]

love my 357 mag trapper.

[OlDeuce]

My Old 16'' trapper has been around the rock a few times But, Still today has a Great Barrel after all these years 1927 !!!! Way cool

https://s20.postimg.org/s9vj3r4tp/IMG_3820_2.jpg (https://postimg.org/image/p30zk4kdl/)

Ol Deuce

[Uncle Grinch]

I've got a Marlin 30/30 16", have had it for close to 50yrs. When I got it my crew turned up their
nose at it. Said barrel was to short. Now same guys have pestered me for 49 yrs to trade me out
of it. Nothing I ever shot with it complained about -200fps, it shot right with standard guns. As
a matter of fact I got a 35 just like it and it's a shooter to. Have Lyman 66s on both of them.

You’ve got something fairly rare. I believe the 16” marlins were called Marauders and were only made a few years.

I’ve got a Texan with 18 inch barrel and it sure is handy to carry and hunt with.

[runfiverun]

now you guy's got me thinking I should go measure the barrel on my pre-64 carbine.

[beagle]

Got a friend in VT that took a M336 Marlin .35 Rem and made a "marauder". Carries it in the spring during the sugar run when black bears are crawling out of hibernation. Furnished him some 200 grain cast and he loves it and it's easy to carry when working his sugar lines./beagle

[Texas by God]

I shortened a first reissue Marlin 1895 45-70 to Trapper length in 1981. My first time to file a dovetail and it turned out great. Unfortunately I traded or sold it on a whim like hundreds of other times. Marlin made a youth model SpikeHorn 16" 30-30 a decade or so ago. My daughter wanted one bad but didn't get one. A post 64 Win 94 rebored to 35-30 or 38-55 in trapper length would be very nice.

[Greg S]

Trappers are a joy to carry, perticularly in the denser stuff. I've owned a couple in 45 Colt, a 94AE and presently a Winokow 1892. In the pistol calibers, the added barrel works as a gain in fps. If you looking for accuracy/hunting beyond 75-100,the longer sight radius helps. If you are trying to get top velocity with joolits, take a gander at the contender loading for the shorter barreled pistols to get an idea for powders. For a kick around plinker rifle, its more about enjoyment than velocity so have at it.

[Randy Bohannon]

My son bought a Montgomery Ward/Marlin 16" Trapper from his Pastor for $200.00. Nicer than stock Marlin of the day with cut checkering and nicely polished and blued furniture. Factory drilled and tapped for a scope we put a old 4 X Weaver scope on it,with the elevation to the top and the bottom post. We could take 8-10 pigs on the silhouette(300m) line using the 30-30 Leverevolution factory ammo.

[Drm50]

205627
You’ve got something fairly rare. I believe the 16” marlins were called Marauders and were only made a few years.

I’ve got a Texan with 18 inch barrel and it sure is handy to carry and hunt with.

Yeah, they are Marauders- I got them back before they were "cool", wish I new then what I know
now and would have bought them up. Really never ran across that many of them even back then.

[OverMax]

Had a Trapper 44 mag years ago. Very inaccurate mine was. Wish I had bought the 30-30 version instead. Sold the Trapper to a fellow I worked with. Shortly after his buying the rifle was again traded to a gun shop for a down-payment on a T/C Encore as told.

Still have a Marlin 36 model in reserve. Its the Sporting Carbine model in 30-30. Pretty good accuracy it has for being a short barreled rifle. But the best lever 30-30 I have for accuracy is a little Savage Model 1899 t/d. That rifle came to me with a Williams F/P peep installed and Boy can that rifle ring the gongs out at 200. Its so short and light weight with a tiny lever hoop you would think the rifle was made especially for the ladies or those fellows having a small physical stature.

Its been said for every inch of barrel cut a cartridge looses about 50 fps. Probably a even higher loss of velocity suffered with those belted Magnum cartridges?

Would I buy another short barreled rifle? I don't think so. Um a tall fellow with long reach. Those shorten sight plain carbine barrels with their open barrel sights are rather bothersome to get on target for this feller. 20" barrel is more of a preferred short barreled rifle for this old bushwhacker.

[OverMax]

Sorry for the double tap.