ORIGINAL: robbcayman
Thanks for the link Hog. I have been reading some stuff online and it is starting to make sense the 30-30 may be one of the best rounds for deer, hogs, etc.. The reasoning it is better than say a 30-06 or another high end caliber is due to it's energy is dispersed better. With the right load typically a heavier round (170 grain ) it moves a lot slower giving the round moretime to expand. Whereas, a larger round moves at a lot faster rate not giving it time to expand, and sometimes a clean through shot which can be bad. I gathered all that info from the internet, so I don't know how accurate it is, but is sounds right in theory anyway.
I do hunt in very thick woods S.E. Oklahoma and I need something that will knock a deer down quickly.
OK, now we're getting a little carried away... There are very few instances in which a .30-30 might be considered "better" than a .30-06. The only two things I can think of are (a) less recoil, and (b) generally smaller, handier rifles. Other than that, the .30-06 is, hands down, the better of the two rifles. The "moves slower giving more time to expand" is a rather weird notion, as it takes speed to make a bullet expand. Match your bullet to your target. i.e. Given the same cartridge use for each, you probably won't use the same construction of bullet for a Whitetail as you will for a Grizzly. On a whitetail, you want the bullet to go all the way through. If they're leaking blood out of both sides, you're going to have a better blood trail to follow. On my first whitetail, the deer turned slightly to his left, exactly at the moment I was squeezing the trigger. As a result, the bullet entered the front of the right hip, and lodged under the skin of the left front shoulder, quartering throug the vitals. The deer died within about 30 yards of where he was hit, but, because of where he was hit, and lack of an exit wound, he left no blood trail, we had aheckuva time finding him.
Knocking down a deer quickly is more a factor of where you hit them than what you hit them with. I've had EXACTLY the same knockdown vs. travel after the shot results with my .243 as I've had with my .30-06. Given a double lung shot, you should generally expect the deer to travel roughly 20-100 yards before it bleeds out. Sometimes they'll fall on the spot. Most of the time, they won't.
Most deer tend to move at night, and it can be hard to follow a blood trail at night in the thick woods.
The way this last sentence reads, itsounds like you're planning to shoot at night. I think that's illegal everywhere...