the 30 caliber round has taken everything on the continent, and has been doing it for over 120 years, the us krag Jorgensen service rifle shooting the 30 government cartridge as well as the 1985 Winchester 30 govt. were both shooting 30-40 ammo, the old 1893 marlin and 1894 winchester was the 30wcf (30-30 )version, when the government switched to the 1903 springfield the cartridge was a 30 cal, 30-03, that was later converted to shoot the spritzer ammo and referred to as the 30-06, in the 1950s the 308 was born by shortening the same 30-06 round with the advancement in powders. the 308 case is the parent of the 243 Winchester round, as well as the 338 Winchester, todays 300 magnum is still a 30 cal pushing at greater speeds
two Saturdays ago I had a nephew come to the farm to sight in his deer rifles, a 243 tc and a open sighted rossi version of the model 94 Winchester in 30-30, he stated that he was going to use the rossi in the thick stuff, after zeroing his T/C rifle at 100 yds , I asked him to take it out to a 18" square hanging target I have set up at 300 yds., after explaining bullet drop and where he should hold he was happy to be able to clang the target at 300 with the 243, when I asked if he thought a 30-30 would be viable at that range he said there was no way to hit that square at 300 yds with a 30-30, so I asked him if I could shoot the carbine Rossi
I told him that I was going to make a spine shoot on the target, and setting on our shooting bench off hand with the Rossi and 150 gr federal blue box, I hit the target in the top 3 inches about 3 inches apart shooting offhand two shots two hits on the 18" square steel target at 300 yds.
I handed him his rifle and told him it was the man shooting the gun not the gun that made the difference,( I also did not want to push my luck so I quit while I was ahead, but that little rossi will shoot)
he stated that it did not clang as loud as when it was hit by the 243, and I explained that at 300 yds the 243 was packing over 1000 ft lbs of energy while the 30-30 was only hitting with about 650 lbs of energy, then he asked if that was enough to kill a deer at 300yds and I explained to him that the 30-30 was still hitting the target at 300 yds with 30 percent more energy than a 45acp at the muzzle, and that 150 gr corelock 308 at that distance is delivering 1350 ft lbs of energy
I got long winded but the 308 will kill anything on this planet , with proper bullet placement
I love the 308, I now own 6, ammo can be found anywhere ammo is sold, so buy you a good rifle, and a lot of ammo and learn what your ammo is doing at different ranges
and as far as deer ammo is concerned you don't need the greatest and lasted 3 buck a round ammo, the old soft point ammo has been getting it done for a long time