[Those kinds of things can happen occasionally with any cartridge. Chances are that doe would have died just as quickly and gone no further if you'd have stopped shooting after the first shot. She was dead on her feet and just didn't know it. I had a similar experience many years ago with 12 gauge foster slugs. Pumped 4 of them through the lungs of a young buck from 30 yards before he finally figured out he was in a bad spot, trotted off 40 yards and keeled over. Another time I put a 12 gauge foster slug through both lungs of a broadside doe and watched her run 250 yards across a field before she went down. That's the farthest I've ever had a lung shot deer go with any cartridge. Do you suppose that means 12 gauge slugs aren't good deer killers at close range ? I have also used many different cartridges to kill deer over the last 44 years including .22LR, .22 mag., 5mm Remington rimfire mag., .222, .223, .243, 6.5 Creedmoor, 7x57 mm Mauser, .30-30, .308, .30-06, .357 mag., .35 Rem., .44 mag., 20 gauge and 12 gauge slugs and I can't say any have really been more effective at woods ranges than the .30-30. Just last season I had a doe run 50-60 yards after taking a 150 gr. Federal Fusion bullet from my .30-06 through the lungs. I've had many others do the same with everything from .222 on up. The year before I shot a middling sized 7 point buck through both shoulders with one of those same bullets out of my .30-06 and recovered it from under the hide on the far side. That buck dropped instantly, just as it would have with the same shot placement from my .30-30 but I'm quite sure a 170 grain bullet out of my .30-30 would have exited as it has numerous times on even bigger bucks in the past. I am every bit as confident of making meat going into the woods with my .30-30 during deer season as I am with any other rifle in my safe. It has worked and worked well too many times in the past for me to feel any differently.
I'd be the first to say that inside 50 yards, just about anything will work on a whitetail-- give or take.
We're pretty well in agreement. My point was that 30-30 is not always dead-nuts certain proposition, and it isn't necessarily the hunter's fault.
