About 19 years ago my father bought me a used marlin 30-30 with a 4 power bushnell sportsman scope on it, every deer I ever killed was with that rifle, at least 12 that I can think of.
The first few years I used whatever I could find for ammo, whatever was cheapest or whatever was given to me. The fist 6 deer I shot with that rifle I used 170gr flat point winchesters & federals the cheapest ones you could buy, 5 out of the 6 deer dropped in a heap on the spot and one I had to track about 30 yards. All the shots were less than 100 yards and all deer were sucessfully recovered. All 6 deer were shot behind the front shoulder and all were complete pass throughs.
After that I started shooting more and learning a little more about ballistics, I found that the 150gr factory loads from winchester, federal, and remington would all group slightly better than the 170 grain factory loads I had been using all along so I gave up the 170 grainers in favor of the 150s. I figured in the 30-30 giving up 20 grains of bullet weight for an added 100fps or more would be well worth it since the velocity is quite low to begin with and the trajectory would be a little better.
Out of the next 5 deer I shot, only 1 droped right there and the other 4 I tracked and recovered, most within 30 yards or so and 1 about 75 yards. All the bullets were complete pass throughs and all were shot behind the front shoulder broadside. These were also the cheapest factory loads on the market that I could get.
Those 11 deer were all pretty much shot in the same place at the same ranges, the 170s and 150s all did their job and killed fine but I always wondered if it was a coincidence that the 170s seemed to flatten the deer right there and kill quicker or not. The exits on the 170s seemed to be larger than the 150s, the 150s seemed to have pretty much the same size entrance and exit holes.
Anyone have similar experiances with the 30-30?