For as long as I can remember, I've always used plain old Winchester 150 grain Power Points. They always seemed to do the job just fine as long as I did mine. But I've been watching lots of videos lately about the Hornady LEVERevolution 160 grain FTX and reading up about this ammo and I am really liking what I see. I remember when this ammo hit the scene and it made a pretty big splash with some lever gun users. But at the time I largely avoided it because I felt it was designed mainly to improve the 30-30's range, not so much its terminal ballistics. And being I live right in the middle of the dense Kentucky forest in hilly terrain, I never felt the need for greater range than what typical 30-30 ammo delivered.

Fast forward to today. Upon giving the Hornady ammo more consideration, I've discovered this load also seems to up the 30-30's game in the terminal ballistics department as well. Watching gel shoots and it has become apparent that the extra velocity from the pointed bullet design wakes the old 30-30 up a bit. Many of the tests seem to show this 160 grain load generating around 2400 fps from a 20" barrel rifle. This actually makes for performance that kind of sits in between 7.62x39mm Soviet and .308 Winchester. And that is exactly how the round seems to perform in gelatin. It penetrates fine, just as well as most of the soft point loads. But it has a much more impressive temporary stretch cavity and the permanent tissue damage track also seems more impressive. This load also seems to impart much more significant energy transfer to the gel blocks. The regular 150 grain soft points will make the gel wiggle a bit. The Hornady load throws the blocks up in the air and knocks them off the table.

I'm thinking about picking up some of this to try in my Marlin 336 rifles. For those of you who have used this ammo, how has it performed for you? And are there any downsides to this ammo other than the extra cost and potential availability issues? I don't use a 30-30 for anything larger than whitetail (or possibly a black bear in a defensive situation). And I also like them as a truck gun, so there is always the chance it could be called upon for defensive use against two legged predators. But I don't need a big game capable cartridge for my area, just a good general purpose load that will work well on the things I might actually encounter in my AO.

I can’t help much with the performance of 30-30 LEVERevolution  but I do know my marlin 450 doesn’t like pointed bulles. The tubular magazine floor plate gets thrown off center and tries to go around them and causes failure of last round to feed. I get around the problem by using a lead round nose reload as 1st shell loaded so the plate base a nice big surface to push against. Other than that my exp with leverlution has been great.

For .30-30, are we talking about the 160gr FTX or the 140gr Monoflex (GMX)?

I was excited when I came across it, and really wanted to like it.  But.....it shot like crap out of my Winchester 94s.  They shoot everything else, 150s, 170s well but for some reasons that ammo is horrible for my guns

I shoot the 160ftx on hogs. Work great in my 336.

I tried them in my 336, but it will only shoot 170gr slugs well. I like the Speer 2041. It has a pretty good BC as far as 30-30 bullets go and shoots great in my rifle. My 35 Rem and 45-70 do very well with them.

I used the 160 load in my Marlin Texan to take 170lb 10 point a few years ago. Distance was 175 yrds. High shoulder shot. Did not take a step. Groups at 100 were in the 1.5" range. They really heat up the barrel fast though!

My 336 shoots it into sizeable patterns, not groups.

I’m now working up a load using the Leverevolution powder under regular 170 gr Sierra Pro Hunters.  I want to see if I can capture some of that LVR velocity with an accurate bullet (at least an accurate bullet in my 336).

I may just stick with my regular old soft points. They've been getting the job done for many, many years and cost about half what these Hornady loads cost. I sometimes come across Fiocchi 150 grain soft points (which seem identical in construction to Winchester Power Points) for $10 or less per box. Hard to argue with a value like that. I might experiment with the LEVERevolution to see how they shoot and function in my guns. But if feeding or accuracy issues come into play, I'll probably just go back to what I know works.

This is exactly the reason I've never tried them. Shooting iron sights at my age isn't as easy as it was 20 years ago so my gun shoots better with the cheap stuff than my ability to see the target. I can still shoot minute of whitetail out to 200 yards but my groups have opened up a little.

I have both the 140's and 160's to try, have not yet.

My standard load is Remington core-lokt 170gr.  I have quite a bit of other stuff too.. i also hear good things about the Fusion.

They performed really well out of my old Marlin 336 on serval hogs all the way out to the 250 yard line. Accuracy was pretty good not with the old Winchester 150gr open points but those are getting harder to find. Other than the cost I have nothing to complain about except my .45/70 doesn't like them at all.

Seems like all of the Fusion loads are hot!

I can't comment specifically on 30-30.  But, my Rossi 1892 .45LC/.454 handles .45 LC lever revolution rounds perfectly.  That is my go-to deer round.