my family was all wrong to use our Win 94's for all western game, including elk.
You got that right. How many did you wound?
I'll take a wild guess and say they wounded every single one of them fatally, with the beasts collapsing in a heap not too terribly far from where they stood when the trigger was pulled, and likely within seconds after the firing pin hit the primer.
Why? Becauase I've shot a half dozen elk with a .30-30 myself and each was a one-shot kill. Using 170 grain bullets at modest ranges, that outcome was largely assured.
If I wanted a falling block single shot in a rimmed round, I could be very content with a .30-30. I already know I can kill everything I want to kill very dead with one. It is pleasant to shoot and about as cheap to shoot as a .223 is. It is a delight to reload for, and reloading allows the use of reduced velocity cast bullet loads that are accurate enough for small game hunting and not overly destructive. I killed a lot of rabbits that way with my 336 when I was a kid and it was the only rifle I had. As we all know, reloading components for the .30-30 are easy to come by, as is loaded ammo.
I'm biased because my first gun was a Marlin 336 in .30-30, and it has seen regular use for the last 37 years and neither it or I are ready to retire just yet. The .30-30 is tied for first with the .30-'06 on my list all time favorite centerfire rifle rounds, too. And I know from using one for everything from rabbits to pronghorns to deer to pigs to elk that it'll kill everything I want to kill deader than its printed ballistics would lead one to believe it could. I suspect that the modest velocity is the key to its versatility. It might not make impressive secondary wound channels, but modest impact velocity pretty much assures deep-digging penetration with standard cup and core bullets of decent sectional density.
In a nutshell, if I could only have one rifle, it very likely might be a .30-30 because I can make it work over the range of critters I want to render in to meat with a rifle. The round can deliver very impressive accuracy, too.
JP