The .30-30 Cartridge and the Armor Piercing Ammo Ban

 

By Neal Knox

 

 

The .30-30 Winchester, the lever action, tubular magazine rifle is most commonly seen as a "cowboy rifle" in the movies.  It was the first civilian smokeless propellant rifle, introduced in 1894.  The second "30" refers to the approximate power of the cartridge as measured by black powder performance.  Until two years before, when the U.S. Army came out with the .30-40 Krag (also a smokeless propellant rifle), the standard Army rifle cartridge was the .45-70, which fired a 500-grain .45 caliber bullet with a 70-grain charge of black powder (7000 grains make a pound). 

 

    The .30-30 fires a 150-grain bullet at about 2,300 feet per second muzzle velocity.  I'm confident that it would penetrate a Type 1 vest, made to stop a .38 Special pistol -- a 158 grain bullet at about 870 fps.  The guy in charge of developing the Kevlar vest for the Justice Department told me it was designed to meet the greatest threat, the cartridge and gun most cops were carrying.  When officers began carrying .357 Magnums (158-gr. at about 1,400 fps),  DOJ developed the Type 2a vest to stop it.

 

    Kennedy's comments on March 2 about "new technology" causing a need for more than the present 1986 law, which prohibits civilian sale of bullets with the seven hard metals used in Armor-Piercing bullets, is ludicrous.  That's particularly so when he was talking about the number of officers killed with the 110-year-old .30-30, the 5.56mm/.223 Remington (1964) (55 gr. @ 3,300 fps), or 7.62mm/.308 Winchester (1956) (150-gr @ about 2,800 fps) .

 

    For comparison, the 7.62mmx39 Russian (fired in the AK-47) shoots a 122-gr. bullet @  about 2,150 fps.  Probably the most popular U.S. rifle cartridge, the U.S. .30 cal, Model of 1906 (.30-'06), fires  a 150-gr. bullet at about 3,000 fps). 

 

    The point is:  the "high-powered" AK-47 is less powerful than the .30-30, and at about the bottom of the limit for deer (although I know some guys who hunt deer with it due to the rifle's sturdiness and reliability).  I have deliberately not addressed the more powerful cartridges routinely used for bigger game like elk or moose, which fire 180-gr. bullets at 3,000 fps.

 

    In short, any conventional deer hunting round -- even the antiquated .30-30 which Democratic Presidential Nominee John Kerry claims to be personally familiar with -- will zing through either a law enforcement officer's Type 1 or Type 2a  soft body armor like it wasn't there.  If Sen. Kerry wants to ban any cartridge capable of penetrating an officer's vest, which he voted to "study" on March 2, 2004, he should say so.