No matter what the numbers say, choosing a cartridge is ultimately up to each individual shooter. Variety is the spice of life. If you're going to own ONE rifle, you need a little more versatility than a guy that owns two or more rifles, but ultimately, every cartridge has it's own "flavor".

I absolutely LOVE the .45-70 for deer. As well as the .44mag. If I have a big buck on the trailcams but haven't pinned him down, yeah, I'm going to take the .300WSM to give me some extra range, but it sure makes for a good story when you dump one with a big old pumpkin ball too.

I'd never say the .30-30 isn't a good deer cartridge (or the .270, .308, etc etc etc), but if I were faced with choosing ONE big game rifle, it would be a .300WSM or 7mm WSM Savage 12 Stainless/Laminate with Fluted heavy barrel, topped with a Bushnell 6500 4.5-30x50mm glass. There's nothing that rig couldn't do on the American continents. Yeah, it'd be a little heavy for hill country, but I'm still young enough to portage a 13lb rifle through the woods (that's what Mule's are for, right? Both the 4legged and 4 wheel varieties).

Thank goodness I'm not faced with such a nightmare!