Hornady .30-30 LEVERevolution Ammunition: Worth the Premium?

Estimated reading time: 0 minutes

For those who hold and own lever action rifles, the imagery of living in the shoes of cowboys, outlaws, and the classic hunter is impossible to escape. It also helps that the lever gun, by design, is light, quick-shooting, naturally ambidextrous, and holds a fair amount of ammunition. The lever action is also available in several different calibers to tackle anything from beer cans to bear. But one big downside of the lever action is that most of them use ammunition with round-nosed bullets. This drops quicker and loses more energy compared to pointed spire point rounds. That was until the Hornady LEVERevolution line of ammunition came onto the scene.

The Hornady LEVERevolution line of ammunition represents a quantum leap in lever action ammunition. Hornady has grown the line since its introduction in 2006. It has an excellent track record for pushing the power and range envelope of existing lever action rifle cartridges. Despite that, most lever action rounds are still based on old round-nosed designs.

I had good luck with both rounds in the original .30-30 Winchester configuration, but my luck isn’t anything objective. After a long hiatus, I took up the lever gun once again. I began to ask: is the Hornady LEVERevolution round that much better than traditional soft points? If so, is it enough to matter?

Soft Points and Flat Points: The World before the LEVERevolution

The 1860 Henry was developed before the American Civil War. It uses a fifteen-round magazine housed in a tube under the barrel. The ammunition is fed into the tube until it is full, and a lifter actuated by the lever lifts the ammunition, one at a time, from the tube to the feed ramp into the chamber for loading.

Subsequently, the Winchester 1866 and 1873 featured a more perfected version of this tubular magazine, which became a standard feature in their lineup as well as those of their competitors like Marlin and Colt. Tube magazines worked well with the blunt nosed ammunition then in use. They were also cheaper to engineer, and held a healthy amount of ammunition.

But as cartridge technology shifted from black powder to smokeless powder, velocities increased, and lead bullets gained a copper jacket. Then came the perfection of box magazines that stacked the ammunition on top of one another. But the same blunt nosed bullet profiles stuck around until the French came up with the first spitzer or spire point bullet in 1898.

This pointed round had a higher sectional density. Its longer and more aerodynamic profile allowed it to cut through the wind and defy gravity to a greater extent than old round nosed rounds. It also took full advantage of new box magazines. The state secret got out and by the time the US Army adopted the .30-06 in 1906 with a freshly pointed bullet, most armies had already made the jump.

Gradual Adjustments

The shooting public was slower to change, due to both tradition and sunk costs. The hunting community, in particular, was still making good use of black powder and those who went to smokeless, saw a great improvement in performance.

The community did not necessarily want innovation. It also did not help that the popular lever action rifle had a tubular magazine. When the ammunition was stacked in the tube, the point of one round would sit on the primer of the round in front of it. If the rifle was dropped, inertia in the magazine could set off all the rounds in the tube at once.

As such, most ammunitions used in lever action rifles have either a flat point or round nosed bullet profile. That avoids a chain detonation and was still a good option to those coming off a laundry list of firearms developments. But as time went on, particularly as bolt action rifles became more popular after World War II, the popularity of the lever action started to wane, partly due to the ammunition limitations.

Hornady’s LEVERevolution Ammunition

It was hard to get around the safety concerns of stuffing pointed bullets into a tubular magazine. It was a handicap to an otherwise solid platform and otherwise capable cartridges. The Winchester Model 1895 and Savage Model 99 aged better. Although they were designed before Spitzer bullets, their box magazines could take that kind of ammunition.

Shooters are quite used to tubular magazines and the ammunition is still good. Rifles like the Winchester 1894 and the Marlin 336, among many others, were made in their millions, all of which came with tube magazines. But with bolt actions and semi-autos growing in popularity, solutions to lever action ammo arrived

Hornady solved the problem of chain detonations with their patented FTX projectile. It is a jacketed spire point with a soft polycarbonate red tip in place of hard copper. The tip deforms against primers and resumes its shape when loaded into the chamber. The LEVERevolution round debuted in the ubiquitous .30-30 Winchester in 2006. This new ammunition also had a new smokeless propellant.

Improvements

The new bullet and powder lead to an advertised velocity increase of up to 250 feet per second. Greater range and power than traditional soft points also followed. Within a few years, additional chambers would be offered. The FTX concept would be retooled for the Hornady Critical Defense line of handgun ammunition.

More recently, the LEVERevolution has gone green with a Monoflex option. It is an all-copper lead-free projectile that uses the same FTX tip as the original. Currently, the LEVERevolution lineup includes loadings for .25-35 Winchester, .30-30 Winchester, .308 and .338 Marlin Express, .32 Special, .348 Winchester, .35 Remington, .444 Marlin, .450 Marlin, and .45-70 Government. It is also available for traditional handgun cartridges now used in lever actions including .357 Magnum, .41 Magnum, .44 Magnum, and .45 Colt.

On the Range with the Hornady LEVERevolution

The .30-30 Winchester round is a shorter-range cartridge. I hear the stories whenever I tote my ’94 Winchester into the woods on opening day. Eager to improve my performance any way I could, I bought a few boxes of the Hornady round when it first came out. I even convinced my grandfather, a dedicated 7mm Rem. Mag. fan, to give it a chance in his old Marlin 336.

The results were three shots, three hits, and three deer that dropped where they fell. But looking back, all those shots were within a hundred yards, as were most of our shots on game. That is where the lever gun, even with traditional ammunition, tends to shine. I had no way of truly knowing how advantageous the Hornady LEVERevolution was. All these years later, I set out for the range with a new-to-me Marlin 336 and a bunch of .30-30 ammunition to see if the LEVERevolution is worth its weight.

I began my evaluation of the Hornady LEVERevolution ammunition by zeroing my rifle from the bench at a 100-yard target and checking for groups before ranging out on paper at 200 yards and 300 yards to see how the rounds fare against gravity. To keep the comparison pointed, I started and finished the process with Winchester 150 grain and 170 grain Super X round-nosed ammunition. These ammunitions are par for the course for traditional .30-30 ammunition and serve as a basis of performance for the LEVERevolution.

Accuracy

The rifle used in the testing is a 1970s vintage Marlin 336 rifle with a 20-inch carbine. It is mounted with a Crossfire Vortex II 3-9×40 rifle scope and zeroed at 100 yards with Winchester Super X 150 grain. From the bench, I fired five round groups with each ammunition at that distance to see how each performed. I knew from experience that my particular rifle holds a 2 inch group at 100 yards using Winchester 150 grain soft points and I was able to repeat that feat.

Without adjusting my zero, I switched to the 170 grain load. Accuracy widened to 2 1/2 inches but the group fell 1 1/2 inches lower than my point of aim. There was also a noticeable increase in recoil over the tame push of 150 grain ammo. I followed that up with five rounds of the Hornady LEVERevolution ammunition.

As I expected, the point of impact shifted, although it printed four inches low. I was more surprised that the group measured the same 2 inches that the low-tech Winchester 150 grain ammunition did. I fired a few more groups only to duplicate the results.

Results

But as I shot I noticed in every string of fire that after every third round, the final two would widen out an otherwise stellar group. It seems that once the barrel starts to heat after the first few rounds, the groups widen. It is the case with all ammunition, but it is more pronounced with the Hornady load since the group itself starts with a 1 inch pattern for those first three shots, whereas the soft points are already starting wide.

If you are only having to fire one or two rounds in a hunting situation, that bit of extra accuracy might be helpful if you are trying to hit small varmints and all you have is your 30-30. But across the board, it is surprising how close the traditional ammunition stacks up.

Velocity

In general, the higher the velocity of the projectile, the flatter shooting a given round will be. The holes on paper were backed up by velocity data. On the whole, the Hornady LEVERevolution is touted as more powerful ammunition and, downrange, it is. But at closer distances, I was surprised at how close those old school soft points came.

I fired several five shot groups using all ammunition and averaged them out at distances from the muzzle to 300 yards. The velocities are given in feet per second, while muzzle energy is recorded in foot pounds.

Hornady’s LEVERevolution 160 grain FTX has a spire point and has a ballistic coefficient of .330. A traditional 150 grain soft point is at only .186. To get down to brass tacks, the Hornady round is longer and more aerodynamic. This allows for better resistance against gravity and wind, allowing for a slower decline in velocity and greater hitting power with less holdover at longer distances.

The Hornady load is marginally more powerful at the muzzle and no faster than the conventional 150 grain soft points. But even at distances as close as 100 yards, that 160 grain FTX is over 200 feet per second faster while the other rounds bleed their velocities.

Ballistic Drop

The Hornady LEVERevolution’s ability to resist the atmosphere and keep its velocity was duly translated to how the round behaved when I checked its ballistic drop relative to the traditional offerings. After that initial accuracy testing, I shot five shot groups from each type of ammunition again at 200 yards and finally 300 yards.

Although the findings on paper suggest that the Hornady LEVERevolution load has a more elliptical trajectory, this is not the case. The 150-grain load is hitting its zero at 100 yards and the 170 grain just shy of it at 1.5 inches low. But at 200 yards, both rounds are in free fall, whereas the Hornady load has yet to reach its zero. At that distance, the traditional rounds could hit a point target with 7-10 inches of holdover. But the Hornady load cruises along with just 2 inches of holdover.

At 300 yards, the difference is even more pronounced. The 170-grain slow pill drops 31 inches below the point of aim. The 150 grain Winchester soft point falls 25.5 inches. The Hornady load strikes 18.8 inches low. Certainly not great by higher velocity .308 Winchester or .300 Win. Mag. standards, but markedly better than typical 30-30 ammunition.

Hornady LEVERevolution Ammo: Juice Worth the Squeeze?

I picked up my first box of Hornady LEVERevolution .30-30 ammunition the year it was introduced. I was convinced that its spire point bullet would give me some advantage, given that everyone else in the hunting camp was fielding bolt action rifles that used similar bullet profiles. Even then, on paper, the Hornady round was more accurate on the square range. I hunted in ideal lever gun habitat, which consisted of thick pines and marsh where a far shot was 100 yards. On game, I noticed no difference but I always had a box handy because it was good, consistent ammunition.

READ MORE: .32 H&R Magnum vs .38 Special For Concealed Carry

But in truth, the Hornady LEVERevolution ammunition is worth more than I put through it and more than what many .30-30 users expect to put their rifles through. If you are expecting close shots on bigger game, the Hornady LEVERevolution round may not get you as far as you think compared to less-expensive and readily available soft point ammunition.

The calculus changes when you start putting the .30-30 deer rifle where it is not commonly used. For the first few rounds out of a cold bore, the round takes the cake in a pest control role. It is also, hands down, the superior option in the open or working along powerlines and timber cuts where the short-legged soft points might not cut it.

*** Buy and Sell on GunsAmerica! ***