I need some ammo advise for a 30-30.

[floormat1957]

I recently bought a Henry 30-30 lever action to use for bear hunting here in Virginia hunting with hounds. Most of the shots if a bear goes to tree or backs in a brush pile will not be that long. 35 yards maybe? My question is should I use 150 grain bullets, 160 grain using the Hornady Leverevolution or 170 grain bullets? Thanks for any info that anyone can share.

[reloader22]

I own a few 30-30's and handload for them. A 30-30 is one of those rounds that performs well with all the "std" weight bullets. Speeds are much slower than most rifle rounds these days. But for bear I would say it depends how you will be normally hitting them. Head or body. Maybe both? You can't go wrong by going heavy. Since your shots are very close, almost any load will be accurate enough. If you handload, barnes makes a stout 150 gr solid copper that is longer than a cup and core 170 gr. Barnes also makes a 190 gr round nose. Nosler makes a 170 gr partition.

I have shot 3 large bodied bucks with my Marlin 336.
1) 170 gr sierra jacketed soft point
2) 150 gr copper barnes
3) 170 old sytle silvertip

All shoulder shots at different angles. 2 from a tree and one on the ground. All under 50 yds. All pass throughs. 2 short death runs and one DRT (150 barnes at 45 degree angle at 20 yds. Broke onside shoulder, took out lungs and exited low on off side. have shot about 6-7 does as well. I think all of them were with the 170 gr Sierra since I used that bullet for quite a while before trying others and it also shot amazing groups at 100 yds. All pass thru's. But I digress. I think you have a perfect round for what you describe. 30-30 is highly under rated in today's world of wiz-bang super mags.