Originally Posted by Willto
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Yes, I've taken deer with it, but I always found it a little wanting, and I have always figured I could do better.


You can do better. And the 7mm-08 you mentioned is a fine replacement. Vastly superior to the 30-30 with little if any increase in recoil. I have one as well and it's about perfect for deer hunting in Alabama.

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LMAO. Anybody who can't kill deer very thoroughly dead quickly and dependably with a .30-30 either needs shooting lessons or deer anatomy lessons, one or the other. T


Odd that all the deer I shot with a 30-30 had a hole tight behind their shoulders when I found them. Always thought that was a perfectly fine place to hit a deer but apparently you know some secret place to shoot them that we newbies that have only been doing this for 45 years or more are unaware of.

Also odd that the deer I shoot with a 7mm-08, 25-06, 45-70 or a 30-06 tend to go one direction.....straight down. Weird track record with those calibers considering that I can't shoot for chit and apparently don't know where a deer's vitals are. LOL!

The last straw for me with a 30-30 was the day I shot a big doe while sitting over a green patch. She was one of 7 feeding in the patch. 70 yards broadside.. Put the crosshairs right in the crease behind her shoulder BLAM! Every deer in the patch hauled ass except the one I shot. She just stood there looking around like , "What was that" but showing no sign of being hit. So I jacked another round in the chamber and settled the crosshairs tight behind the shoulder again. Blam! This time she took off and ran straight out of the back of the patch. I gathered up my gear and climbed down from my treestand. Out in the middle of the patch where she had been standing...no blood. Followed her path from there to where she ran out of the back of the patch (about 40 yards). No blood. In the thicket behind the patch was a virtual maze of deer trails. Finally found her by just systematically following every trail. Finally about 50 yards out one of them I found a little blood and then found her about 20 yards farther on past that one patch of blood. She had two holes tight behind her right shouler you could have covered with a 50 cent piece. The exit holes on the other side were no bigger than the entrance holes. What little blood she had put on the ground back up the trail appeared to have been blown out her nose after her lungs finally filled up with blood. A less experienced or lazy hunter might well have thought he missed and not kept looking. I knew there was no way she wasn't hit however. If this were an isolated incident I would treat it as such. But this was the third hunt in which deer ran farther than normal without leaving much if any blood to follow. Hell, the deer I have shot with my compound bow typically only run 40 to 60 yards and leave a way better blood trail than the dirty thirty.

Now I'm not saying that the 30-30 is worthless. If you had a sick or crippled dog youn needed to put down then I'm sure it would do fine for that so long as you aim for the head. LOL!
Just the fact that you say all the deer you shoot with a .30-06, 7mm-08. .25-06 or 45-70 go straight down tells me you're either a praying man shooting at deer with a mighty sinful past, shooting them all CNS or a bold faced liar. You see, I have shot a fair number of them with a .30-06 and 7x57 {identical ballistics to your magic 7-08} myself and have seen a bunch of them run after well placed shots through the lungs with both. Just as I've come to expect with any cartridge, including the .30-30. Perhaps different bullets are in order for your .30-30. Maybe one of the 150 or 125 grain hp's would expand better on your little Alabama deer. I tend to switch when I see indications of poor bullet performance with any cartridge.