I catch a lot of grief over my belief that the 30-30 is not the deer-killing cartridge so many claim it to be. Decent with a 150 grain bullet but the 170 grain bullets have a nasty habit of not opening up. Every deer season I find one in the woods that was shot during a drive by one of the locals. They don't see it fall so they assume another one missed. The Model 94 or Marlin 336 is the only thing keeping the 30-30 around today. Someone will come on here and tell me how they dropped a deer in its tracks at 200 yards with a 30-30. But I believe it to be the exception and not the rule.
I still hunt with my Sharps 50-70 carbine. It does not drop deer in their tracks, but I know that they will run a few yards before falling over. So I don't hunt with it when there is a lot of pressure in the woods that would cause the deer to run farther. Calm, undisturbed deer are a lot easier to kill.
