The 270 is a fine caliber as well as the 30-30. Each in their own class. The 270 is a nice flat shooting rifle with good knockdown. It is a time proven cartridge. It will do you fine for hogs, deer and elk. The 270 is a capable cartridge out to 300+ yards on most game. The 30-30 is the number one deer killer in the USA hands down. It has been around for a long long time. It is definitely slower than the 270 but does have a bigger bullet. Their is a long standing debate on which is better a faster lighter bullet or a heavier slower bullet. The 30-30 is now loaded in the leverolution ammo line by hornady and they greatly improved the ballistics on this caliber. With the leverolution ammo it is a capable cartridge out to 250 yards from what I have read. Any deer or hog would fall to the 30-30. Even the older round nose ammo would be fine on deer and hogs out to 100-125 yards. The number one factor with any centerfire rifle is the ability of the shooter. Whichever caliber you choose to shoot be very comfortable shooting it in many different positions and at different ranges. One nice thing about the 30-30 also is the lighter recoil even though the 270 has very manageble recoil itself. In my experience dont always believe the ballistics charts. They are there as a guide not always the gospel.
Good question and should bring about a good debate. P.S. if your buddy wants to sell that combo of marlin 30-30 and leupold scope for only 500 bucks take it!! Or email me and I will buy it from him. Good luck.

Not having owned a lever action in years and never a Marlin, I was wondering about that price. What does it go for new? $850 sounds like a lot for a used lever action Marlin even with a Lueopld scope, but then I don't know what the rifle goes for.

As for the Marlin in a 30-30. different cartridges have different things they are good at, all will kill! The thing that the 30-30 does best is work well in a flat sided easy handling lever action rifle. The bullets designed for it work at a lot different range of velocity that the 270gr bullets. Lacking the velocity to make the bullet open up, the lead is softer and likely the jacket a bit thiner. If all you were going to do was shoot pigs at 100yds and less, The 30-30 might be the better choice but, I wouldn't use a 3-9x scope in any case on a 30-30.

don,

my friend bought the rifle back in february, and he had the leupold scope all by itself at the time he bought the marlin. he only put the 3-9x scope on it because he wanted to try the hornady lever evoloution rounds, which he was taking out to 200 yards. he's never had the rifle out in the field and has only shot about 100 rounds with it at the range since he bought it. and that cost includes rings, mounts, and a couple boxes of the new lever evolution rounds.

he told me that since he knows i'm new to shooting and hunting, and because the only rifle i have is the .270 while he's got a whole arsenal of rifles, that he'd sell me the marlin for $500 because i would get a lot more use out of it then he would. plus being that he's a friend, he's willing to give me a good deal.

anyhow, i'm thinking about buying the 30/30 and taking off the 3-9x scope. i'll keep or sell that scope and have a 2-7x or 4x fixed scope put on the 30/30 and sight it in at 100 yards. i like the way the marlin shoots and i like the action. i doubt if i'd take it much further than 100 yards.

so here's the question; at a range of 100 yards (give or take a few) what is better, a 30/30 round pushing 2150 fps/1643 ft/lbs or a .270 round pushing 2504 fps/2087 ft/lbs? again, this is mainly with pig and deer in mind. these are numbers taken off ballistic charts from the remington and hornady websites.

thanks for the feedback.

Personally, I feel the 270 is a better round than the 30-30. Ballistically it is a superior round. That said, I have a Marlin 336A in 30-30. Why? I really like shooting the 30-30. It is a fun round and I like lever actions. Any deer sized animal within a 100 yards will fall to a well placed 30-30 bullet just as it will fall to a well placed 270 bullet.

I think the package you describe is worth $500. However, if you are going to take the package apart, I would looke to buy elsewhre. I picked up my Marlin 336A with a Weaver 3-9 for $250.

If your are going to keep your shots with a 30-30 to under 100 yards, you may want to consider putting on a holographic red dot sight.

I think you got some good advice there. The 270 is going to outperform the 30-30 but you'll probally not notice the difference with 100yd shots. Another scope I'd look at is either a 2 3/4x, which is my favorite hunting scope or a variable with a min 2x. Those red dot sights might work well but I've never used one so can't say. I think that the 3-9 is really over powered on a 30-30. But remember that I like low power scopes on most hunting rifles. My 30-06 has a 2 3/4 and will keep it after it get's re-bored and my 6.5x55 has a 1-4x. The price Rodney paid for his is much more what I'd concider right. That would make that Leupold one nice scope. I'm not sure what the rings and bases cost but the Leupold set is fairly costly. I just bought a one piece base and rings, Leupold, and I think it ran me about $50 I have no idea what any factory ammo cost, I haven't used any in years.

I'm not sure which Leopold scope this rifle has on it. Vari-X II maybe? I know I paid close to $400 for my Vari-X III 2.5-8 w/o rings and bases. Checked Cabela's and a VX-II 3-9 is around $300 for a bare scope. If it's a new VX-II scope, the combo could be a good deal for $500......if it's something you really want.

a new 30-30 marlin 336c goes for about $460 canadian. if you can get it for $500 with leaupold scope......TAKE IT!!

first post was a little light on the details. its a marlin 336XLR and the scope is a leupold VX-I. the combo is worth about $750, plus another $50 for rings, bases, and ammo. $500 for the whole thing seems like a good deal. i was more curious about the performace expectations between a the slower/heavier round and the faster/lighter round. sounds like there wouldn't be a whole heck of a lot of difference up to 100 yards or so, and anything significantly further i'd definitely go with the 270.

thanks for the input. being new to rifles and hunting, i'll take all that i can get!

THE 30-30 IS A DEFINITE 100 YARD GUN! AFTER THAT IT MAKES A GREAT BULLDOZER(PLOWING DIRT)

one thing to consider if you travel to go hunting, its nice to have a second rifle near by if for some reason something would go wrong with the weatherby.