The 30-30 Winchester is a rimmed centerfire rifle cartridge of .308-inch groove diameter, first marketed by Winchester in 1895 for the Model 1894 lever-action rifle, and loaded today almost entirely as a short- to medium-range big-game round for tubular-magazine lever guns. Federal and Remington classify the loads charted below for big game, and every table on this page is the makers’ published data, not ours.
30-30 Winchester ballistics chart
Loads are ordered by bullet weight, then by muzzle velocity. Each cell gives velocity in feet per second and energy in foot-pounds at that range. A blank is never a zero here: where a maker stops publishing, the cell says so.
Scroll the table sideways for the remaining columns.
| Load and item number | Bullet weight | G1 BC | Muzzle | 100 yd | 200 yd | 300 yd | Test barrel length |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Federal Fusion, F3030FS1 | 150 gr | .268, model not stated | 2,390 fps / 1,902 ft-lb | 2,086 fps / 1,449 ft-lb | 1,805 fps / 1,085 ft-lb | 1,553 fps / 803 ft-lb | Not published |
| Remington Core-Lokt Tipped Lever Gun, R21428 | 150 gr | .272, model not stated | 2,390 fps / 1,902 ft-lb | 2,090 fps / 1,455 ft-lb | 1,812 fps / 1,094 ft-lb | 1,564 fps / 814 ft-lb | Not published |
| Norma Whitetail, 20177672 | 150 gr | 0.217 G1 | 2,362 fps / 1,858 ft-lb | Published in meters only | Published in meters only | Published in meters only | Not published |
| Federal Premium Trophy Copper, P3030TC1 | 150 gr | .222, model not stated | 2,300 fps / 1,762 ft-lb | 1,943 fps / 1,258 ft-lb | 1,625 fps / 880 ft-lb | 1,354 fps / 611 ft-lb | Not published |
| Federal Premium Barnes TSX, P3030G | 150 gr | .184, model not stated | 2,220 fps / 1,641 ft-lb | 1,803 fps / 1,083 ft-lb | 1,447 fps / 697 ft-lb | 1,178 fps / 462 ft-lb | Not published |
| Federal Fusion, F3030FS2 | 170 gr | .313, model not stated | 2,200 fps / 1,827 ft-lb | 1,950 fps / 1,435 ft-lb | 1,719 fps / 1,115 ft-lb | 1,510 fps / 860 ft-lb | Not published |
| Remington Core-Lokt Hollow Point, 21395 | 170 gr | .254, model not stated | 2,200 fps / 1,827 ft-lb | 1,894 fps / 1,354 ft-lb | 1,619 fps / 990 ft-lb | 1,380 fps / 719 ft-lb | Not published |
What these numbers mean for a shot
150 grain, the default deer load
The 150-grain loads leave the muzzle between 2,220 and 2,390 fps, a spread of 170 fps. By 200 yards that spread has grown to 365 fps, and the reason is the ballistic coefficient. The Federal Fusion 150-grain, with a published .268, still carries 1,085 ft-lb at 200 yards. The Federal Premium 150-grain Barnes TSX, at .184, starts only 170 fps slower and is down to 697 ft-lb at the same distance, roughly a third less energy. It carries the lowest published coefficient on this page and sheds energy fastest of the loads charted. Federal classifies both as big-game loads.
Two 150-grain loads publish identical muzzle figures of 2,390 fps and 1,902 ft-lb: the Federal Fusion and the Remington Core-Lokt Tipped Lever Gun. They separate downrange, where Remington’s .272 holds 1,094 ft-lb at 200 yards against Fusion’s 1,085, and 814 against 803 at 300. Remington states this load is engineered to function in lever-action rifles.
The Federal Premium Trophy Copper and the Norma Whitetail sit between those poles at 2,300 and 2,362 fps. Norma is the only maker charted here that names the drag model behind its coefficient, and it states G1; Federal and Remington publish a bare number. Where a hunt falls under a non-lead requirement, the lead-free loads on this chart are the Trophy Copper and the Federal Premium Barnes TSX.
170 grain, more bullet and less speed
Both 170-grain loads publish 2,200 fps and 1,827 ft-lb at the muzzle, which matches the industry reference loading for that weight. They part company downrange on coefficient. Federal Fusion 170-grain publishes .313 and 1,115 ft-lb at 200 yards; the Remington Core-Lokt Hollow Point publishes .254 and 990 ft-lb. At 300 yards the Fusion is still above 1,500 fps where the Core-Lokt has fallen to 1,380.
Against the 150s, the 170-grain loads start slower than every 150-grain load charted, by 20 fps against the slowest and 190 fps against the fastest, then cross over on retained energy past 200 yards. Federal’s 170-grain Fusion carries 860 ft-lb at 300 yards where its own 150-grain carries 803. The heavier bullet also has the higher sectional density, 0.256 against 0.226 for a 150-grain at .308 inch; both of those are computed from weight and diameter rather than published by the maker.
190 grain, measured on a different basis
Buffalo Bore 190-grain jacketed flat nose, item 28A/20, is published at 2,100 fps and 1,860 ft-lb. It is deliberately absent from the chart above, because Buffalo Bore does not generate its numbers the way the other makers do, and that difference has its own section below. Buffalo Bore states plainly that this load is not designed for deer, and that it is safe in any 30-30 chambered firearm in normal operating condition.
Trajectory and where to zero
A drop figure without its zero range is unusable, so the zero sits in the caption with the sight height. This table carries the loads whose makers publish a trajectory at a stated zero.
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| Load | 50 yd | 100 yd | 200 yd | 300 yd |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Federal Fusion 150 gr, F3030FS1 | +0.1 in | 0 in | -6.5 in | -23.9 in |
| Remington Core-Lokt Tipped Lever Gun 150 gr, R21428 | +0.1 in | 0 in | -6.5 in | -23.7 in |
| Federal Premium Trophy Copper 150 gr, P3030TC1 | +0.2 in | 0 in | -7.9 in | -29.0 in |
| Federal Premium Barnes TSX 150 gr, P3030G | +0.3 in | 0 in | -9.4 in | -35.8 in |
| Federal Fusion 170 gr, F3030FS2 | +0.3 in | 0 in | -7.7 in | -27.2 in |
| Remington Core-Lokt Hollow Point 170 gr, 21395 | +0.3 in | 0 in | -8.4 in | -30.0 in |
These are Federal’s and Remington’s own published trajectories, read on 20 September 2026, and every row shares the same 100-yard zero and the same 1.5-inch sight height. Read down the 200-yard column and the practical shape of the cartridge appears: with a 100-yard zero every load here asks for between six and ten inches of hold at 200 yards, and between two and three feet at 300. Three feet of drop is deeper than a whitetail’s chest, which is why the 30-30 is worked as a cartridge for inside 200 yards. Federal and Remington each publish a second table labeled long range, and this page does not reproduce it: those tables repeat the 100-yard-zero caption while the data underneath is zeroed at 200 yards, so the stated zero and the numbers disagree, and a figure like that is not safe to hand a shooter.
Why your carbine will not make these numbers
The 30-30 is overwhelmingly a carbine cartridge, carried in 16, 18 and 20-inch barrels, and the published figures are not carbine figures. The industry standard for the cartridge, ANSI/SAAMI Z299.4-2025, specifies the standard velocity and pressure test barrel for 30-30 Winchester as 24.000 inches plus or minus .010, with six grooves and a 12.00-inch right-hand twist. That same standard cautions that firearms built for general sale are made to looser tolerances than test barrels and vary in barrel length, so test-barrel velocities should not be expected to repeat in a rifle. That is SAAMI’s specification for the cartridge, not a statement about where any maker above got its numbers: not one of them publishes a barrel length beside its velocity.
Buffalo Bore is the exception that makes the difference measurable. Instead of a laboratory barrel it chronographs its ammunition in ordinary over-the-counter rifles and publishes the results gun by gun. These are its figures for the 190-grain load, item 28A.
Scroll the table sideways for the remaining columns.
| Rifle | Barrel length | Measured velocity |
|---|---|---|
| Marlin Model 336A carbine, circa 1940s | 24 in | 2,172 fps |
| Winchester Model 94 carbine, circa 1980s | 20 in | 2,146 fps |
| Winchester Model 94 carbine, circa 1963 | 20 in | 2,116 fps |
| Winchester Model 94 carbine, circa 1953 | 20 in | 2,075 fps |
| Marlin Model 336 saddle ring carbine, circa 1950s | 20 in | 2,071 fps |
| Winchester Model 94 carbine, circa 1980s | 20 in | 2,061 fps |
| Winchester Model 94AE Trapper carbine, circa 1992 | 16 in | 2,020 fps |
| Savage 99 rifle, circa 1917 | 26 in | 1,983 fps |
Eight rifles, one load, and a 189 fps spread from top to bottom. Buffalo Bore draws the useful conclusion itself: the longest barrel in that list gave the slowest velocity and the shortest one beat it, so barrel length on its own does not predict what a particular rifle will do. Read the chart at the top of this page as the manufacturers’ reference figures, expect your own rifle to differ from them, and put a chronograph in front of it if the number matters to your holds.
Twist, chamber, pressure and platform limits
These are safety specifications, and they apply to every box of 30-30 in this category.
Twist and bore. The SAAMI cartridge and chamber drawing for 30-30 Winchester, issued in 1979 and last revised on 10 February 2023, specifies six grooves and a 12.00-inch right-hand twist as optional, with a .300-inch bore diameter and a .308-inch groove diameter. Bullet diameter is .309 inch minus .003. Nothing in this category is a heavy-for-caliber bullet that outruns a 1-in-12 twist.
Chamber and cartridge length. The same drawing gives a cartridge overall length of 2.450 inches minimum to 2.550 inches maximum. Factory 30-30 sits inside that window. Handloads seated long enough to leave it can jam a lever gun’s carrier and will not reliably chamber.
Pressure. SAAMI’s maximum average pressure for 30-30 Winchester is 42,000 psi by transducer, or 38,000 CUP by copper crusher, with a maximum probable lot mean of 43,100 psi and a maximum probable sample mean of 44,700 psi. The reference velocities published in that standard are 2,370 fps for a 150-grain bullet and 2,180 fps for a 170-grain, which is where the familiar factory numbers come from. The standard sets out no elevated pressure category for this cartridge, so a 30-30 box marked +P carries the loader’s own designation rather than an industry ceiling, and such a load belongs only in the specific actions that loader names. Buffalo Bore’s 190-grain 28A is not marked +P, and the maker states it is safe in any 30-30 chambered firearm in normal operating condition.
Pointed bullets and tubular magazines. This is the limit that hurts people. Almost every 30-30 rifle feeds from a tubular magazine, which stacks cartridges nose against primer. A pointed, spitzer-style bullet resting on the primer of the round ahead of it can fire that primer under recoil, and the general reference literature on the cartridge describes the result as potentially catastrophic for both rifle and shooter. That is why 30-30 ammunition is loaded with round-nose, flat-nose or soft polymer-tipped bullets, and why every load charted above is one of those three. Never load a hard-pointed bullet into a tubular magazine. If your 30-30 is a single shot or a box-magazine rifle where the risk does not arise, the risk returns the moment that ammunition is passed to someone with a lever gun.
Platform. 30-30 Winchester is chambered in lever actions such as the Winchester Model 94 and the Marlin 336, in the Savage 99, in single shots and in a small number of bolt actions. It is not interchangeable with any other cartridge that shares part of its name, and other cartridges built on the same parent case, the 32 Winchester Special among them, are separate chamberings that will not safely substitute. Fire only ammunition marked for the chambering stamped on your barrel.
What is not in the chart, and why
The chart covers seven loads, with Buffalo Bore’s 190-grain handled separately above because its numbers come from rifles rather than a test barrel. This category also stocks Winchester, Browning, Hornady, Nosler, Barnes, Fort Scott Munitions and Underwood 30-30 ammunition, and those are absent for reasons worth stating rather than hiding. Winchester and Browning publish no ballistics at all for their current 30-30 products: their own pages give the symbol, the bullet weight and the box count, then state that no ballistics data is available. One Nosler 30-30 load publishes an energy column that does not reconcile with its own published velocities, so nothing from that row is repeated here, and a second Nosler item publishes no velocity to chart at all. For the rest, no figure could be confirmed on the manufacturer’s own page on 20 September 2026, so this page gives none for them. Where a manufacturer does not publish a figure, or we cannot confirm it at the source, this page does not borrow one from a retailer or a third party.
Hilltop Armory LLC is a licensed FFL dealer in Pineville, Missouri, license 5-43-119-01-6B-18066. We stock these brands; we do not speak for them, and we have tested none of this ammunition. Every figure on this page belongs to the manufacturer named beside it.
30-30 vs 30-06: 18,000 psi apart
Both fire a .308-inch bullet and the resemblance stops there. ANSI/SAAMI Z299.4 measures both in a 24.000-inch standard test barrel, which is the only way to set them beside one another without a manufacturer’s unnamed barrel in the middle.
Scroll the table sideways for the remaining columns.
| SAAMI specification | 30-30 Winchester | 30-06 Springfield |
|---|---|---|
| Maximum average pressure | 42,000 psi | 60,000 psi |
| Standard test barrel length | 24.000 in | 24.000 in |
| Test barrel twist rate | 1 turn in 12.00 in | 1 turn in 10.00 in |
| Test barrel groove diameter | .308 in | .308 in |
| Light reference load | 125 gr — 2,155–2,550 fps / 1,289–1,804 ft-lb | 125 gr — 2,645–3,125 fps / 1,941–2,710 ft-lb |
| Standard deer weight | 150 gr — 2,370–2,440 fps / 1,870–1,983 ft-lb | 150 gr — 2,740–3,080 fps / 2,500–3,159 ft-lb |
| Heavy reference load | 170 gr — 2,180 fps / 1,794 ft-lb | 180 gr — 2,690–2,860 fps / 2,892–3,269 ft-lb |
The 30-30 Winchester is standardised at 42,000 psi and the 30-06 Springfield at 60,000. That 18,000 psi is the whole story. At 150 grains the 30-30 reference velocities are 2,370 and 2,440 fps and the 30-06 range is 2,740 to 3,080 — 300 to 710 fps of daylight at the same bullet weight. The 30-06 also keeps going: SAAMI lists it to 220 grains, where the 30-30 stops at 170.
The lower pressure is not an oversight. The 30-30 was standardised for lever-action rifles with tubular magazines, which is also why its bullets are round- or flat-nosed and why they shed velocity faster than their weight suggests. A 30-30 chart and a 30-06 chart answer different questions, and neither answers the other’s.
We stock the other side of this comparison too: 30-06 ammo, 308 ammo.
30-30 ballistics questions
How much does a 30-30 drop from 100 to 200 yards?
With a 100-yard zero and the sights 1.5 inches above the bore line, Federal and Remington publish −6.5 inches at 200 yards for both 150-grain Fusion and 150-grain Core-Lokt Tipped Lever Gun, −7.7 inches for the 170-grain Fusion, −7.9 inches for the 150-grain Trophy Copper, −8.4 inches for the 170-grain Core-Lokt hollow point and −9.4 inches for the 150-grain Barnes TSX. The spread across six factory loads is about three inches.
Is a 30-30 more powerful than a 308?
No. SAAMI standardises the 30-30 Winchester at 42,000 psi and the 308 Winchester at 62,000, and at 150 grains the reference velocities are 2,370–2,440 fps against 2,800–2,980. Computed from those figures that is 1,870–1,983 ft-lb against 2,611–2,957. The 308 also takes bullets to 200 grains where the 30-30 stops at 170.
Which is better in a 30-30, 150 grain or 170 grain?
The published figures put the two closer than the debate suggests, and they cross over. The 150-grain loads start faster — Federal Fusion at 2,390 fps and 1,902 ft-lb against the 170-grain Fusion at 2,200 fps and 1,827 ft-lb. By 200 yards the heavier bullet is ahead on energy, 1,115 ft-lb against 1,085, because Federal publishes a .313 coefficient for it against .268 for the 150. Federal classifies both as big-game loads.
What is the effective range of a 30-30 rifle?
It is not a published specification, so the honest answer is where the makers stop. Federal and Remington chart these loads to 300 yards, and at that distance the six loads above are carrying 462 to 860 ft-lb and are 23.7 to 35.8 inches below a 100-yard zero. Norma publishes its downrange figures in metres rather than yards: 1,987 fps and 1,315 ft-lb at 100 m, 1,652 fps and 909 ft-lb at 200 m, 1,368 fps and 623 ft-lb at 300 m.
What distance should a 30-30 be zeroed at?
Every trajectory figure Federal and Remington publish for these loads is given from a 100-yard zero, which is why the table above uses it. Reading it the other way round: from a 100-yard zero the 150-grain loads are only about a tenth of an inch high at 50 yards, so the useful point-blank band sits between the muzzle and roughly 150 yards, after which the drop accelerates quickly.
Where to buy these loads
Every load in the tables above is stocked at Hilltop Armory. Browse the full 30-30 ammo range, which carries makers beyond the ones charted here — the tables are limited to loads whose manufacturer publishes figures that could be verified, not to everything on the shelf.
