30 WCF, AKA Thutty-Thuttys

[airedale]

My Dad left me his model 99 Utica Savage 30-30 from his days when he worked there before going into the Navy, I never had a whole lot of interest in the rifle and it just sat in my safe unused. A friend of mine also has a couple of unused 30-30 rifles he inherited, a mint Winchester model 94 1950s vintage and a nice old 99 Savage straight stock 99A type in 30-30. I also recently acquired an old Spanish made Starr Rolling Block carbine in nice shape chambered in 30-30 at the spring Syracuse gun show.

We got to shooting the breeze at a July 4th cookout and decided to make a day available to shoot those old gals and see what they can do, yesterday was that day. I found a vendor that had some once fired brass and loaded up a pile ammo with spitzer and hollow point bullets and had some factory Remington ammo to blast away with.

All the rifles were shot with open sights and both of us being old geezers with piss poor eye sight would have welcomed an optic but being as it may we shot decent 50 yard groups well enough for any Deer hunting. I especially had fun shooting the old rolling block, I just liked the mechanics of the thing. The trigger pull though is atrocious, I am not kidding it has to be 15 or more pounds. I had a bit of fun with my pal as I had him try a shot with that rifle to see what he thought and did not mention the heavy trigger. I stood behind him as he zeroed in on the target watching him struggle with the trigger, he turned and asked me how to take the safety off. LOL!

All and all pretty much what we expected function and group wise

Will give me some projects this winter getting that rolling block trigger weight down and some sights that I can see.

Below are the principles, Hornady 165 gr spire points, Sierra 135 gr HPs, and Remington 150gr corelokts

Al

Edited July 15, 2022 by airedale

[wolc123]

Cool, I love carrying the 30/30’s up in the Adirondacks.  Hopefully, this will be the year that I finally get a shot at a deer with one.

[Lawdwaz]

ZERO is the amount of interest I have in these guns but 110% cool as heck you & your buddy got to shoot them.  I could see myself getting some curiosity at some point although I'm not there yet. 

Think you'll hunt with your gun this year??

Edited July 15, 2022 by Lawdwaz

[Pygmy]

This post reminds me of one of the several  guns I regret  NOT buying...It was a 1940s vintage Marlin ( not sure of the model #)  with a 24" barrel and a half magazine...It had a buckhorn rear and was not d/t for either  scope nor reciever sights...The guy wanted $100 for it...I turned it down because although it was a neat old rifle, I figured I'd never use it...That as over 30 years ago...

[GreeneHunter]

If possible please provide a close up of the Starr Rolling Block , Love Old Rolling blocks ! Hard to find these days !

[Splitear]

Great line-up of guns Al. That Savage 99 is such a cool design for a lever gun. Does that top one have a peep sight?

[airedale]

15 hours ago, Lawdwaz said:

Think you'll hunt with your gun this year??

As they are right now I would not, with some tinkering mainly with the open sights I would. The Savage sights would be the easiest to upgrade, I can still shoot well enough with fiber optic sights and there are some upgrades for those made for the Savage. The Rolling block sights would be tougher and a challenge. If I can get that rolling block's trigger pull down I may kill a Deer with it.

 

12 hours ago, Splitear said:

That Savage 99 is such a cool design for a lever gun. Does that top one have a peep sight?

The top Savage has a Lyman tang peep. Even though the Savage 99 is an old design it is still a first rate hunting rifle even today, it is a very strong action that can safely fire high intensity rounds using pointed bullets due to it's rotary magazine. I have a late model 99A in 250 Savage that is a fast handling shooter and I love it.

 

13 hours ago, GreeneHunter said:

If possible please provide a close up of the Starr Rolling Block , Love Old Rolling blocks ! Hard to find these days !

 

Edited July 16, 2022 by airedale

[airedale]

Worked on the rolling block's sights to give me a better picture, put a Truglo fiber optic on front and opened up the shallow V on the rear with a round file, good improvement and much better sight acquisition.

Al

Edited July 24, 2022 by airedale