Looking at buying a lever-action brush gun for pigs in the off-season. What would you buy? Leaning toward the .44 mag. Vast majority of shots will be under 100yds, with most under 50yds. Is flatter trajectory the only benefit that 30-30 provides over the other two?

Taking ammo availability/prices into account also. Probably won't be doing much plinking with this gun.

Mostly pigs, mostly under 50 yards

I’d take the 44 mag every time

Of the 3 choices I'd go with the 30-30 and call it good.

I’d agree on the 30/30

Because of the versatility? I'm not very knowledgeable regarding rounds, but which one packs more of a punch at close range? 44 or 30-30?

Having or had and hunted with those 3 plus a few more, I would take the 44 Mag. For that purpose now I just about always take the 357 Mag Marlin 1894.

Go with the 30/30 and smile for years and years. It will perform beautifully in the environment you describe, and ammo will hardly ever be a problem for you.

30-30 is one of the hardest off the shelf ammo to find in today’s current market.

44mag is easiest to find on your list, if your willing to hand load specifically rifle data in the 44 mag it’s extremely potent in a rifle around 18-1900fps and will flat lay out anything you shoot with it within 100 yards.

45-70 is excellent also but the cost/ recoil and all I say 44 mag or a 45 colt in a rifle for your needs edges the big 45-70 out.

Nothing against a 30-30, just not as popular as other cartridges and will likely be one of the last to be loaded and come back once all this silly hoarding stops.

I think the opposite is true of the .30-30. It's one of the most owned cartridges in America. That's why ammo is hard to find. It gets bought up as soon as it is produced.

45 Colt if you load, 44 magnum if you don’t. 9-10 rounds in a smaller frame lever is nice.

No offense but I chuckle when someone says "Brush Gun". I live and work daily at my ranch in the South Texas Mixed brush country. If I have to go look for a cow or a calf that has turned up missing, it's generally in heavy brush that you have to walk into and fight your way through. For that reason I most often grab my Model 94 in .30-.30. I do have a 94 in .44 Mag as well. I have had them for around 50 years and they do what they are supposed to do. I own a .45-.70 in a Marlin but it's too much to use in the brush. Either 94 is good for what I need but the .30-.30 is what I would recommend for your use as a "Brush Gun".

I know some still do, but I would hope most don’t interpret this as something that will penetrate brush. For me it’s a short range, easy to handle rifle.

30-30, any of the three is going to be hare to find ammo,

Exactly, something that is shorter and easy to carry in thick brush. Glad I could make somebody chuckle.

I think y'all have answered my question. 44 mag or 30-30. Either will do the trick. Thanks for the input!

I would go with a 30-30. I hear there is a really nice one for sale here on the forums. Haha

Short range & easy to handle is spot on. In that heavy brush, it's take a couple or three steps and stop & listen. Since you can't rely on seeing at a distance, you have to listen. The reason I take a .Model 94 30-.30 with me is simple. More often than my 75 years would like to remember, I have either come upon a boar or worse yet, come between a sow and a piglet or two. Now they can move through that brush a lot faster than you can imagine. I have shot several sows coming right at me. They hit the dirt thank God and the noise ran the others off.

Agree on the short and easy to handle, is really what a brush rifle is about not shooting through brush and not being deflected. To me that is where the Trapper versions of the Marlin 1894 and Winchester 94 excel in function. 16.25 inch barrel on a fast handling carbine makes it easy to get through the brush where it is thick and the need for its use can often come quick.

30-30 been working well for over a century. Also very reliable, some pistol calibers don't feed as well in some actions as those long slender cases. Buy the 170 soft point and you can kill any creature my might wander upon in thick brush. I wouldnt hesitate to shoot a nilgai at close range with a 30-30 with a properly constructed bullet.

I would go with the 30-30, UNLESS you are also packing a revolver and you could have them both in 44 and share ammo.

If that's not enough, compare the cost of 30-30 ammo with the the other two.

How does it compare to 44 magnum?

My brush gun is a 375 H&H, if I had to choose from your list it would most definitely be the 45/70 though. Why throw spitballs when you can throw hammers is my motto.

Short, easy to handle thumper, iron sights only. That's a "brush gun". Of those 3 I prefer a good ol' 30-30. 44 mag would be next in line. Don't need the extra recoil from a 45-70 when a 30-30 will do the job just fine IMO.

45-70 is cool but kicks like a mule especially in a lever action rifle with no recoil pad. I’m not saying I would be afraid to shoot one but I wouldn’t want to take that punishment if I wasn’t shooting something that required it. A 30-30 or 44 would be plenty for hogs.