I have been selling my rarely used guns, but had a nice lever gun collection and focused on getting the .30-30 models, so I had easily obtainable ammo for the 100 year old or so guns.
MY attraction to 30-30 was thje basic cor-lokt ammo was a few dollars cheaper than the 30-06 and 308 budget ammo.
You can do just fine with it. I have liked cor-lokt ammo in the past because remmington has relatively soft lead n copper.
Alot of myths about gun problems are associated with a few things. Poor shot placement, not much fixes this except something close to a cannon. The large one is lack of a blood trail. What commonly does this is shooting high in the lungs, the blood stops circulating causing death, but stays in the chest cavity.
The huge saving grace for 30-30 is it's bullet shape. You need a round nose for the magazine tube. This make the gun manufacturers to produce a bullet unique to the 30-30, which means it's well sutied for the velocity produces. 300 win mag, 22-250, oddballs like 243wssm and 270wsm have trouble here. There have unique velocities and the ammo makers match them with slower velocity bullets, causing fragmenting and even stability problems......
Every hunting region can create a culture amoung it. I hunt the adirondacks, there are groups of hunters who only use open sighted lever guns.
IF you have a good blind / large stand. Bring up both guns on a nice day. Deer is up close, use your lever gun.
95% of my target shooting is open sighted competition 22lr rifles, or open sighted flintlocks. I competitively shoot blackpowder woodswalk shoots. Open sights can have 2 problems tool ittle light or too much light when the snow is out. Most marbles and williams front sights are white. That is a problem where folks shoot too low. You want to shoot a white dot somewhere between a white and brown target. Sight and target contrast make a big difference. I just about never shoot a white target, usually use natural cardboard color. That being said, choose a front sight color that contrasts well. I like the green glow in the dark paint. The marbles brass sights work well. Even the kids acrylic paint work well too. Wipe it off when your done.
