Today, I want to talk about one of North America's most loved hunting cartridges, the 30-30. So, we're going to take a look at how the end of the black powder era spawned an icon, and brilliant marketing made it a legend of an era it didn't really participate in. And remember: if you think I'm wrong, fight me in the comments; if you can prove I'm wrong, shoot me an email, I'd love to hear from you.

The story of the .30 caliber rifle cartridge begins in the dying days of the black powder era. For an in-depth explanation on bore and caliber sizes see the first 3 minutes of our 45 ACP video, they will not be addressed here. However, we do need to mention another aspect of naming conventions in common use for black powder cartridges. That is when you see two or three numbers separated by hyphens, i.e. 45-70-405. The first number indicates the caliber, .45”, the second indicates the powder charge in grains, and the last indicates the bullet weight in grains. When new cartridges began being developed for smokeless powder the same naming convention was used and has caused no end to confusion as there is no way to tell from the name alone if a cartridge was developed with black or smokeless powder. 

We should also give a brief description of types of powder made. When black powder is produced it is made in liquid solution. Once the liquid is dried into a solid form, it is crushed into smaller pieces called granules. The granules are then sifted for the desired size. With black powder, the larger the granule the slower the burn rate, i.e. FF powder has larger granules than FFF powder. This is important because a slow, consistent, burn rate provides a useful push, whereas an extremely high burn rate creates an explosion. Early smokeless powder was made in a similar fashion, a liquid solution was dried into a solid and sifted to the desired granule size, with the additional step of rolling the granules into flat circular flakes. Flake powders are easily ignited and the chemical composition is the greatest control of burn rate. The next development came by extruding the drying mixture through a set of holes, powder would then be cut to length and the desired burn rate controlled by adjusting the diameter and length. The last commonly used development didn't come until the 1930s and was the creation of spherical (ball) powder, burn rate being controlled by chemical additives. This last development has also been the source of a great deal of confusion, as the US Military also uses the term “ball” in reference to ammunition. The military term dates back to the 1700s when round iron or lead balls were the standard type of projectile used and became a way to specify a standard projectile rather than something like an incendiary or explosive type. The military continues to use this term and it simply means “standard”, which since 1909 has referred to fully jacketed bullets.

During the reign of black powder, .32 caliber rifles had been something of a specialty arm, being among the smallest useful caliber for medium game and martial use. .25 to .28 caliber rifles had seen some popularity for small game but the limitations of black powder made the application of .30 caliber exceedingly rare. 

By the late 1860s the success of the bolt action Dreyse rifle had sparked an arms race. It allowed a soldier to fire 5-6 shots from a prone position, with accuracy to 800yds, in the same time an experienced soldier armed with even the latest musket was lucky to make 2 shots, of questionable accuracy at half the distance, while standing to reload. The race for speed, accuracy, and distance heated considerably with the use of smokeless powder in the late 1880s, the earliest successful adopters being the French with the 8mm Lebel. 

The wave of technological advancements during the small-bore arms race was not fully embraced by the small and fiscally limited United States Military until the end of the Indian Wars around 1890. While advancements in magazine rifles had been closely watched during the 1880s, the first serious efforts at rearmament were tests conducted in 1890 for the selection of a new service rifle and a smokeless powder cartridge. The selection of .30 caliber for testing was, by the Ordnance Board's own account, completely arbitrary. It being an even number, and falling between the 7.5-8mm adopted by European Nations. The conclusion of tests from 1890 recommended the Danish Krag-Jorgenson rifle, but protests from American manufacturers would result in further testing over the next three years. Nonetheless, the US Army adopted the Krag-Jorgensen rifle in .30 caliber, along with the new cartridge developed for it, imaginatively titled the 30 US Army, better known as the 30-40 Krag. The case for the Krag was remarkably similar the the 1889 British developed .303, and it fired a 220gr round nose bullet at a velocity of 2000fps. Because it did not have to deal with black powder fouling, shallow rifling grooves were used, being only.003” deep, and the bullet being .308” in diameter. Due to the delays from testing, the rifle would not go into production until 1893, with the Springfield Armory.

Throughout the early 1890s smokeless powder was still in its infancy. Limited and inconsistent production plagued the development and manufacture of the new Army cartridge. The Ordnance Department first had to rely on a single factory in Belgium as its only source of suitable powder, before developing and producing their own at the Frankford Arsenal around 1900. In fact, when trials began in 1890 so little powder was on hand that the Ordnance Department sent dummy cartridges, without any powder at all, to manufacturers and inventors who showed interest in participating in trials. Complete cartridges would not be available until late 1891, and then only after the Trials Board met to select who cartridge samples would be given to.

Winchester had been an active competitor for US rifle procurement longer than it had been a company, back to the Henry rifle. While sales of the Henry rifle during the 1860s managed to bring the New Haven Arms Company out of debt and establish the Winchester Repeating Arms Company, the lever action was simply not suitable to military doctrine of the time. Despite this they continued to submit rifles for military trials, with the Model 1873 in a musket configuration in the mid 1870s, and during the late 1870s with the bolt action Hotchkiss rifle, commercially sold as the Winchester Model 1879. Despite sales to South America and China, the American soldiers were even less enthusiastic about a bolt action than they were with the lever. After field trials during the early 1880s the Hotchkiss rifle was updated as the Model 1883, but was still rejected by the US Military. The Winchester Model 1883 is rumored to have been chambered for the 30-40 around 1893, but does not appear to be listed among rifles used in Military trials or to have been offered commercially. 

Winchester's biggest advantage over its competitors was that it also produced ammunition, another facet that had started under the New Haven Arms Company and the Henry rifle. At first Winchester only produced rimfire cartridges for their own rifles, but by the mid 1870s they went all-in on large scale production with a full line of rimfire, centerfire, and shotshell cartridges. While the Winchester rifles failed to garner military interest in the United States, they nonetheless managed to position themselves to manufacture the new ammunition, making sure their product line was up-to-date in all aspects of advancing cartridge technology. It was in this that Winchester finally saw an opportunity to release an innovative product before Marlin.

Competition between Winchester and Marlin in the commercial market had long been in a state where Winchester was able to stay ahead through production capacity, distribution, advertising, and outright strong-arming competition, but was also constantly a step behind with product innovation. Where Winchester had been able to acquire or dismantle the rifleworks of Spencer, Whitney, and Burgess, among others, in 1881 Marlin, who was backed by the distribution network of Schoverling and Daly, became a thorn in Winchester's side when they expanded from derringer pistols and single shot Ballard rifles, to lever action repeating rifles, with no less than a model which could efficiently chamber the 45-70. Winchester's own 1876, by comparison, was outdated and heavy, with an awkwardly long receiver which limited the length of cartridges it could chamber. Marlin continued to needle Winchester's market during 1882 with the purchase and production of, arguably, the highest quality all-in-one reloading tool ever made, designed by John Moses Browning. In response, Winchester looked to expand their product line with a single shot rifle, which would also bring them to the Browning Brothers. In December 1883 Winchester purchased the patent to Browning's 1878 Single Shot Rifle, an instant competitor to Marlin's Ballard rifle, and when produced as the Winchester Model 1885 what many consider to be among the best single shot rifles produced. In 1884 Browning again sold Winchester a rifle patent, which would become the Model 1886, solidifying a working relationship between the two firms. Winchester finally had a sliding breach-block, lever action, repeating rifle that could chamber some of the largest and most popular cartridges of the day. And, while expensive, it would be a market competitor for nearly 50 years. 

The undeterred Marlin, however, was just getting started. In 1888 and 1889 they released a pistol caliber lever action rifle, which once more made the comparable Winchester 1873 appear woefully outdated. Winchester again turned to John Browning in 1890. In a rare fit of ostentation, Browning made a deal for $20,000 and returned a working prototype in less than three weeks, which would be produced as the Winchester Model 1892. Marlin fired back, releasing the Model 1893, a relatively compact and lightweight rifle firing the 32-40 and 38-55 Ballard cartridges, which today we might look at as being the intermediate rifle cartridges of their time. This must have struck directly at the ego of Thomas Bennett, as he immediately turned once again to John Browning, now requesting a rifle that could chamber the same cartridges but used as many parts or machining operations of the Model 1892 as possible. We don't have exact details of the rifle's prototype development, but the combined efforts of Browning Brothers and Winchester took the Model 1894 from idea to full scale production in less than one year. At the same time, Winchester began setting up production of yet another Browning rifle, the Model 1895, which could take full advantage of the new 30 US Army cartridge, that Winchester had spent years working to produce themselves.

But the Model 1895 and the Army cartridge wasn't enough for Winchester, they took full advantage of their work on the 30 caliber, and designed their own line of smokeless powder cartridges for the Model 1894. The rifle had to be modified slightly and an improved quality of steel was used, delaying release of the cartridges until 1895. The new cartridges, on the other hand, were rather straightforward. With a true sense of economy, Winchester simply necked down the 38-55 Ballard case to seat a .30 caliber, 160gr round nose jacketed bullet with a velocity of 1,970fps using the same powder developed by DuPont for the Army cartridge. 

The one-upsmanship between Winchester and Marlin was far from over, though. As soon as the new 30 Winchester Center Fire cartridge was announced, Marlin announced their own smokeless .25 caliber cartridge and immediately turned to UMC to make it a reality. The UMC cartridge would be produced as the 25-36 Marlin, 36 referring to 36gr of smokeless powder, although it appears that a suitable powder was not found until the fall of 1895, as the first 25-36 cartridges were released that summer loaded with black powder. By the time Winchester released the 30 WCF along with the updated Model 1894, they had also added a new 25-35 Winchester cartridge, again simply necking down the 38-55 Ballard case for a .25 caliber bullet and using 35 grains of the DuPont smokeless powder. The 25 Winchester cartridge had a shoulder lower on the case than the Marlin, allowing it to be chambered in the Marlin rifles but not vice-versa. There is speculation that Winchester did this intentionally, but also those that argue it was coincidence and that the cartridges were developed concurrently. While it seems unlikely that Winchester would have previous knowledge of the developing Marlin cartridge, it is entirely plausible, as both Winchester and UMC were members of the same price-fixing cabal known as the Ammunition Manufacture's Association. 

UMC would also produce their own version of the 30 Winchester, with a 170gr bullet, marketed as 30-30 Marlin. Again, the nomenclature indicating a .30 caliber bullet and 30 grains of smokeless powder, though precisely what powder UMC used initially has been lost to history. By 1897 UMC switched to the same DuPont Government Powder as Winchester and used a smaller bullet with a .306” diameter. Powder changed again in 1898 to a Laflin & Rand Government Powder, and in 1899 to a Laflin & Rand Tubular powder, that today we would call extruded. We do not know what powders Winchester used in their early cartridges, but they are sure to have experimented just as much as UMC as chemical and manufacturing technology was advanced among American powder producers. 

1890 to about 1915 saw the definitive close of the American frontier. Despite this, the new lever action rifles traded heavily on the earlier Winchester's frontier reputation and were equally popular among men who made their living in the back woods and city folk who had to take a train to get there. The Winchester reputation persisted and Marlin along with it by association, as rifles from both manufactures largely chambered the same cartridges and competed for the same market. Endorsements from “Old West” entertainers were a popular advertising ploy during this time, a perfect example being Annie Oakley. The talented marksman made her name in the traveling Buffalo Bill's Wild West exhibition. Throughout her career she used, and endorsed, rifles from nearly every manufacturer. 

Advancements in bullet technology since the 1920s alone was enough to keep the Winchester and Marlin rifles relevant among hunters, but continuing innovation from Marlin and relentless advertising from Winchester kept the rifles at the forefront for the icon of the American outdoorsman. From the 1930s to the 1960s the Winchester rifle featured heavily in the extremely popular Western movies and TV shows, with the Model 1892 being a favored stand-in for nearly any Winchester rifle. 

In the 1940s Winchester dropped the WCF nomenclature in favor of the more widely accepted 30-30 designation. The Marlin name faded from collective memory almost overnight, and the cartridge has since been known as the 30-30 Winchester. In addition to the advancements made in bullet technology, the cartridge overall has come a long way since its introduction. Originally a round nose 160gr bullet with a velocity of 1,970fps, then 170gr around 1,800fps, the current cartridge is loaded with all type of bullets ranging from 110-190gs, with 150gr and 170gr being the most popular. Current average velocity for those bullet weights are just under 2,400fps, and just over 2,200fps respectively. 

Despite continuing advancements producing smaller, equally or more capable cartridges in lighter automatic rifles, the 30-30 and lever action alike has marked its place as an icon of American identity and will continue to be carried into the field, where it will serve faithfully,  for many years to come.