As many of you people know, I love leverguns and what can be done with them. As far as which caliber has more range their actaully very close. The plan old factory loaded .30-30 is capable for game up to 300 yards. But if you say shooting at another person thats shooting at you, you can shoot and kill a person at much farther ranges than you think.
The Secret Service did a study several decades ago to study how much does it take to kill a person. There findings: It takes only 58 foot pounds of energy by a projectile to kill a man. At even a thousand yards a .30-30 or .44mag has more energy than that, going for it.
Theirs a 220 RNL bulliet that when loaded to safe pressure it will cover a thousand yards while being only 100 F.P.S. slower than the .30-40 Krag. Yes, I am talking .30-30 here.
Then there the .44 Magnum. If two men with 7 3/4" Barreled Ruger Blackhawk revovelers. Shooting Hot, 300gr .45 Long Colt loads can shoot in one side and out the other of a log cabinat 800 yards, than a .44 magnum will also!! Never mind a 16" or 20" barreled rifle chambered in same.
The thing that goes for the .44 Mag is the heavy bulliets that retain energy at distance. The .44 Magnum has more energy at a hundred yards has more foot pounds of energy than a factory loaded .30-30. Sad but true.
When it comes to shooting game most people in the East can easily get to within 200 yards or less to make a clean, ethical shot to harvest game. But in the West game can see for ever and get skiddish easy favoring long rang and flatter shooting cartridges. But when shooting against humans at distance, one has a lot more lattatude when it come to egagement distance when the terrain and curcumstaces allow.
Now alot of people are already saying that such long distance shots aren't possiable with a levergun. Truth is their partially right. Those brass bead front and "buckhorn" rear sights are fine close game sites, but lousy target sites. If one were to get the sqaured front sight and ladder sight rear available from Skinner sights than one can have the sight that made long range shots possiable in our great grandfathers time before good, economical scopes became common place.
Yes, you will be lobbing these rounds at the target, but ask than target if it really mattered that the .44 came in at 20 degree angle versus a sexy 5 degress of 7.62 NATO round.
Some thing to think about.
Redrooster I say you have a no win situation, trying to decide between the two. About to only thing I can advise is get a .44 Mag revolver so as to have a handgun that shoots a common round.
Of course It's often not how powerful you have to be when taking small game and with a piece of 00 buckshot over 5grs of any pistol powder and one can shoot squirrel and rabbit without vaporizing it. That favors the .30-30.
Again I am just making the debate worse so I'll shut up now!!

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Rifleman 336