When I was young I used the 30-30 and 32 Special in Marlin leverguns quite a bit. Later I got the 336 rifle in .35 Remington and was immediately impressed by how slick it loaded and how smooth those rounds cycled through that gun. I've often wondered if the .30 and .32 Remington would've been better in those guns than the rimmed cartridges that are synonymous with levers? How important is the rim in these rifles?
The rims accomplish two objectives. The first is providing positive feeding and extraction in the Winchester designs, and the second is providing an offset of the point of the bullet off the primer of the cartridge ahead of it. The latter is less of a concern now than in years past with more of a fear of chain reaction firing and softer/thinner primers. That said, to my knowledge, the "rimless" rounds do not work in the Winchester designs and since Winchester was the major progenitor of the levers and rounds, you got what you got.
I can't see how the .30 Remington or .32 Remington would have been "better" in lever guns than their ballistic twins of the .30-30 and .32 Special.
