I've been trying to find a deal on a .30-30 lever action with a short mag tube for a couple of years. I wanted one to suppress but I didn't want to mess with shortening the mag tube. I finally snagged one yesterday, a Marlin 30TK. It was a version of their Texas carbine made for Kmart in 1989-1990. I feel a little bad about messing with it since it's in really good shape and they seem to be a bit of a collector's item but I'm not going to sell it anyway.

My plan is to have it threaded and mount a Silencerco Trifecta flash hider for my Saker 762 MAAD mount. I know other people have suppressed .30-30s so I'm wondering if there are any tips or things to consider. For instance, the barrel is 18-1/2". Should I consider having it cut shorter (I don't want it short enough to SBR though) before threading? I don't know anything about the ballistics of the round and if losing a few inches would greatly affect its performance.

Any shared experience would be appreciated.

This is the rifle:

There won't be enough ballistic loss to make much of a difference. 18" vs 16" ain't squat. What are you going to shoot through it? Standard ammo? Subsonic hand loads?

I'm liking this project. A suppressed thuddy-thuddy lever gun is pretty cool.

jlwilliams wrote:There won't be enough ballistic loss to make much of a difference. 18" vs 16" ain't squat. What are you going to shoot through it? Standard ammo? Subsonic hand loads?

I'm liking this project. A suppressed thuddy-thuddy lever gun is pretty cool.

I don't currently reload so it will likely be supersonic stuff for now. I enjoy shooting my Ruger GSR 308 & SIG 516 5.56 with the Saker, even with supersonic stuff. I just think a suppressed lever gun will be a lot of fun.