Anybody got experience with this ammo. I'm thinking of experimenting with it in my 30-30. Not sure which is better for the lever action. I am not real clear on the 150gr. GMX....... From what little i've read, the 160gr. FTX will work good in the lever. I cannot find any ballistics as far as velocity and energy on the GMX. I would like to shoot the lighter bullet but don't know the difference in these two bullets. Would like to see some kind of comparison chart and find out the different characteristics (expansion, trajectory, etc.) of the two.

The box of 160 gr indicates 2400 fps.

Anybody else want to add to the info. Could use people's opinions on this ammo. thanks

tHE 160'S shot great in my 50+ year old Marlin 30-30 for a while but since my gun has the micro-groove barrel, it started keyholing shots. I talked with Hornady and they told me this was a problem with the micro-groove barrels but if you cleaned the barrel after every few shots it would not be a problem. I went back to Federals. I don't want to wonder if my next shot will/will not keyhole.

I have a newer 2007 vintage Marlin 30.30 and my rifle likes it. Groups extremely well. Recoil is the same as a 170gr. load.

Gave a box to a friend, he has early 70's vintage 30.30 and he was impressed with the ballistics as well.

I shoot it in my Marlin .35 Rem. It shoots well, but it is expensive. I was talking to my dad about it a few weeks ago and I'm going to switch back to the regular pointed bullets. With a lever gun, you are generally only shooting short-distances or tight hunting spots, and you aren't going to get more than 1 follow-up shot anyway, so no need to have 4 or 5 rounds in the gun. I'll have one in the pipe and one in the tube and call it good. No chance of rounds setting each other off if you don't have the loaded in line with each other.

That's my .02 for what it's worth. I have a Winchester 30-30 with open sights that I can carry with regular round-nose ammo if I want to carry a lever gun with more than 2 loaded.

Can't say exactly whether this was because of the LeveRevolution or not but here is the story:

My dad hunts with a Marlin 30-30 with open sights that he has had forever. He has always hunted with the lead round points. He has never missed a deer with it or taken a bad shot. I'd say 95% of the time the deer was DRT (dead right there) and if it did make a run it was usually less than 250 yards.

Last season he bought some of the LeveRevolution rounds. He was in a small ground level blind when an 8 point stepped out of the brush about 25 yards from him. There was no brush or anything between them. He had a good line on the deer and and took a typical heart/lung shot. The deer dropped right where it was standing and didn't move. It fell on it's left side and was shot on the right side.

He waited about 30 minutes and finally left the stand to check the deer. He could see it the whole time he was in the stand and it never made a move. As soon as he was 15 feet from it the deer sprung up looked at him for about 3 seconds and took off. He just stood there in shock. He went over to where the deer had dropped and there was not a drop of blood, hair, bone, nothing.

He took off in the direction the deer had ran and was never able to find any sign that the deer had been hit. He had been searching for about 3 hours when I finally gave up at my stand and found him.

This is the theory that we concocted......I think the round hit the deer directly on a rib and completely mushroomed and stopped right there. The deer fell on the opposite side than it was shot so no blood was on the ground. If the bullet stopped just under the skin against a rib, it would not have been a very severe wound and would not have bled much. We think the shock of the hit knocked the wind out of the deer or maybe knocked it out for awhile or something. It was probably hurting pretty bad with a broken rib and was in no hurry to go anywhere until he approached it.

Either my dad who has never missed a deer that he has shot at totally missed a 25 yard shot and was too embarrassed to tell me, or the round lost all of it's energy and didn't penetrate. I just know that he has never hunted with that ammo again and neither would I.

I'm getting sub-moa groups out of my Marlin 308 with it. Haven't had a deer go more than a few yards yet.

Well, I went ahead and bought three boxes from "cheaper than dirt" since they are a little scarce. Gonna be a few days before me and my son get to the range and try them out. That is, after santa puts it under the tree for him tonight. I haven't owned or shot a lever gun or a 30-30 since i was a kid myself. My fourth and fifth deer where taken with an old top eject 16" barrel 94. I just figured this ammo had to be an improvement over the flat nose stuff. It's about time somebody decided that this cartridge that's been around so long and so widely used for years, deserved to get some recognition and new technology. Thanks for everyone's input.

I shoot it in a Marlin 1894 44 mag. Very accurate, my son shot a big doe with it, and it did what it's supposed to do. Behind the shoulder, passed completely through, she went about 30 or 40 yards, great blood trail. Everybody I know that uses it likes it.

How do you delete threads on this particular forum?

texretvet - How much range time did your dad put in with the LeverEvolution ammo before hunting with it? I ask because when I first tried the new ammo, my first shots at 100yds weren't even on paper, where the gun had been sighted dead on at 100 with 170gr round-nose loads.

I moved to 25 yd targets, zeroed the gun, then moved out to 100 and re-sighted. The ballistics of the LeverEvolution round are significantly better than the round-nose - enough to drastically change POI. I'd guess that this is more likely the case than the round losing all its energy on a rib at 25yds. At 125 yds, I've smashed a rib, gone through the lungs, and blown out the opposite shoulder. DRT.

I doubt your dad's bad experience has much to do with his skill, and really doubt that it was an under-performing round. Unless all his shots are under 100 yds, I'd recommend giving the Hornady stuff another chance. Think you (and your dad) will be impressed. If the shots are all pretty short, it's probably not worth the difference in cost.

You know, to be honest, I don't think he fired a single one before hunting with them. Now that you bring it up, it sounds like a pretty stupid mistake. One I might have made though.

I guess there would be a lot of POI difference between those and the traditional rounds. Maybe he gut shot it or something and that is why it went down for a while and then got back up.

I do know that it really shook his confidence in that round, the gun, and himself. He is the type of hunter that is more worried about the deer laying out there dieing than about missing the shot. I will bring this up to him. It will probably make him feel a little better.

I bet the round was flying higher as it shouldv'e been and the shot was high right under the spine. The story is very typical of a high shot. A lot of high shot deer make a full recovery