I think I read somewhere several years back that the 30-06 had taken over the #1 spot from the 30-30......Hb
It would make sense. Deer hunters seem to have this Ol Timey fixation. However, when you think about it, the 30-30 had only a few years' head-start on the 30-06 (1895 vs. 1906) and people were hunting deer with Ought-Sixes long before WWII. Additionally, there weren't all THAT many deer around "back in the day." Deer were well-nigh extirpated from the Eastern US before 1910, and there was generally a moratorium on whitetail deer hunting until the modern seasons were instituted.
Here in KY, they had to import them from MI to start the modern herd. In my county, back in the 60's, the sighting of a deer would have been big news.
