RE: Which Scope for Lever 30-30
Personally, I'd opt for a 3-9x42mm...Yes, the rifle IS a mid-range cartridge, Yes, you'll be limiting your shots to under 250yrds (more likely 150), and YES, you do want to make sure you're actually pointing at his vital area, and not a little off because you can't see well enough. You might not ever get to hunt to the range the scope is capable of (although you'd be hard pressed to shoot a deer out of range of a 9x glass with any cartridge), but you KNOW where you're aiming.
Look at most open sights' manuals or specs., it's quite common for them to be less accurate than 1MOA, just in their own admission of "shifting". I.e. if you hold your front sight perfectly centered in the rear, it's dead on, but if you let it "lean" farther one side than the other, it's off an inch....Here's a surprising example:
Say I've got a "PERFECT" rifle with a 20" sight to sight radius, POA is POI EXACTLY...now, if I hold the sights PERFECTLY alligned, I get a hole centered around where I aimed....NOW, if I hold my front sight just 1/64" off, my shot lands 2.8" off of center at 100yrds....if I'm off by 1/32", it's 5.6" at 100yrds. 1/32" at 20" comes out to less than .1 degrees, pretty certain you're not that steady, and don't have that descerning of eye!!!!
My old man made fun of me for a long time when I put a 4-16x42 on my 44mag lever rifle, until one day I told him I'd like to mount it on HIS .44mag lever rifle and see what happened...He swears his rifle is no good and can't hit anything in anyone's hands, which is pretty well true with the factory sights...I mounted that scope and reduced my groups from 10" at 100yrds to about 4"...he doesn't make fun of my scoped lever rifle anymore.