I also used to think that 30-30s were better for thicker hunting situations as opposed to the 30-06 and come to find out they are relatively equal in a sense were one wouldnt be praised over the other
Try your comparison out for real you will see the 30-30 will out shoot your 30-06 ... 10 to1 in the old growth cuttings up here. Those hardwood sapplings will throw your bullets off quicker than heck. High power doesn't do much good when you see most of your deer in this thick stuff. When they are hit you will being doing a lot more tracking than you anticipated. Here alot more deer are lost under these conditions when using the higher power in the thick stuff.