I experienced a few surprises with Hodgdon Lever powder. It appears to be easy to reach its “Balance Point” and get a surprise regardless of outside air temperature.
I had no trouble with Lever powder and published load data in the standard .30-30, .308 Marlin Express and .307 Winchester.

My Velocity goals with the 20” barrel .30-30AI were 3,000fps with the 100- and 110 grain bullets. 2,700fps with the 125- and 130 grain bullets. 2,500fps with the 150 grain bullets. 2,300fps with the 170 grain bullets.
You will find you are able to easily exceed any of these velocities with no trouble in both the Winchester Model 94, 94AE and the Marlin 336. You could start and stop your powder search in the .30-30AI with Hodgdon 4895 or 335.
For best accuracy at higher velocity Hodgdon Varget is the powder to start with. For your highest Velocity start with Alliant Reloder 15. Other powders will do the dead but these two powders are easy to work with and fill the case as you reach you velocity goals.

I had some unusual entrance wounds in both pigs and deer using the LeveRevolution FTX bullet. When the animals were hit inside 100 yards and particularly when hit inside 50 yards the hair was blown off the hide in a 1 inch circle around the entrance wound. The bullets sort of wad up and still penetrate but do not have a lot of bullet body left. I have seen pictures of Elk killed with the FTX bullet so it obviously works.

The standard .30-30 with 26” barrel and modern factory ammunition is about an ideal deer killer.
An example of factory loads is the Winchester Ballistic Silver Tip (a round nose bullet with a plastic ball in the nose).
From the 16” barrel Trapper the BT load gives you 2,148fps.
From the 20” barrel 2,351fps
From the 26” barrel 2,340 fps.

You will find using cup and core .30-30 bullets driven between 2,350 and 2,400fps from the .30-30AI you will have excellent performance on deer and pigs.
Your bullet selection could start and stop with the three Speer Hot Core bullets of 130- 150- and 170 grain bullets.

No thread is fun without a picture. Here is the .30-30AI, .308 Marlin Express, .307 Winchester and the .30 Wild West Guns.
There are a lot of variables in case capacity but here is a rough comparison with the bullets seated to the bottom of their respective necks in grains of water.
.30-30AI 39.4
.308 Marlin Express 47.3
.307 Winchester 50.6
.30 WWG 60.9
The sleeper in the group is the .308 Marlin Express. Get a 22” barrel .308 ME and enjoy the standard .30-30 as your cast bullet rifle.
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