Although it took me decades to get one, I've always felt a collection of hunting rifles is never quite complete without a lever-action Marlin or Winchester .30-30.
None of my bolt guns provide the shooting pleasure I get from shooting my levers and the .30-30 is the most pleasurable of all.
Well, except maybe for my .45-70 shooting 300-350g plinking loads at 1167fps and 1097fps respectively using 13.5g HS-6 as the propellant. These are powerful loads with much less recoil than standard .30-30 loads (about 7 ft-lbs). My girls and I love to shoot these loads and they are dirt cheap to build. Guess I could do something similar with the .30-30 if I had a mind to do so as Hodgdon lists a 160g LFN load at 997fps that would generate less than 2ft-lbs recoil. Those would be fun, cheap and hard on rabbits.
I had a Rossi .44 Magnum we shot a lot with similiar loads, a 200gr. RNFP bullet with 8.5gr. of Universal Clays. We called 'em "popcorn loads", they popped and tossed bullets at roughly .44WCF speeds, 1200fps. Scarcely any recoil, and they shot pretty well. I killed a few rabbits with it, amongst other things. I even lobbed a few at prairie dogs, just for fun.
I'm sure that the .30/30 can be loaded similiarly, but it's easier with the .44 Magnums, since you can use carbide dies.
