I can't believe I'm saying this but I actually agree with Blain on something...almost. I certainly wouldn't pick a 30-06 as my first choice for coastal brownies but for anything else in north america it's hard to beat. The 30-30 is a great deer round within it's range limits, about 200 yds. I wouldn't take it after elk or moose but it could be made to work if that's all you had. The .223 is another matter, it's not a deer round no matter what way you slice it. It's illegal in most places so it's a moot point. A few states let you hunt deer with it and you'll find a bunch of guys on this forum getting defensive because they killed "X" number of deer with a .223. What they don't tell you is the number they wounded to collect "X" number. In my opinion if you don't have enough respect for the animal to use something bigger than a .223 for deer then you shouldn't be hunting.