I'm a little different on the .30/30.
I've reloaded it since the '70's, and have shot cast/jacketed bullets from 60gr to 180gr.
With an iron sighted M94 (mine belonged to my older brother, died 06/12; it wears a Weaver "sour dough" reciever sight I gave him), Best ammo? It's what ever is on sale/available/cheapest of factory ammo.
As long as the bullet is designed for the magazine and velocity level of the .30/30, given the limitations of iron/reciever sights, most of the ammo on the market is "workable".
My brother killed his last deer, a 250lb+ 10pt (largest deer any of us three brothers have ever killed... I've killed over 300 to date...) with the M94 shooting a 150gr Hornady RN over 33.5gr of H4895. I still have the remains of the last "batch" of ammo he loaded and rifle is +3" at 100yds likewise for me....(and more accurate than his National Match M1 Garand, too!)
This load is "slightly" warmer than a Hornady Factory loaded 150gr RN, but only slightly.
However, I've mostly used 150gr Sierra, Remington, and Speer bullets in the .30/30. My preference is for the Remington 150 and 170gr Soft Points as they are "softer" than the others and give better "game" performance.
These are the same bullets as loaded by Remington in the "CorLokt" green/yellow boxes. They are amoung the cheapest, but best .30/30 ammo.
However, the Federal are very good as too the Winchester. The old discontinued 125gr Federal "Premium" load with Sierra 125gr JHP was outstanding on our "smallish" deer. I've used the 125gr Sierra in hand loads to kill deer and pigs. Never recovered a bullet, never shot one more than once, and never lost a deer or pig.
The cheapest .30/30 I've seen lately is the Monarch brand as sold by Academy Sports. This is their proprietary branding of the Privi Partisan ammo made in Serbia. I've used a lot of their components as sold by Grafs.com. It is good ammo. Not as accurate as premium Hornady or Winchester, but decent "shooter" ammo. From an iron sighted .30/30 "good enough"....
Btw; I'm not low rating the .30/30, or Win M94. Both of my .30/30's (win and marlin/glenfield M30) are 1-2moa rifles. Sighted in for 3"high at 100yds, they're zero at ~150yds and ~4" low at 200yds and as such are good for at least 200yds. The last deer I killed with a .30/30 was a ~100lb doe I shot "on the run" at ~170yds with a 170gr Rem. CorLokt at ~2,300fps over 34.2gr of RL15. I hit it twice with 3 shots. First shot broke the left front leg, second missed (I think..) and third shot took it through the lungs. It ran another 50feet and dropped. The Corlokt broke a rib in and another on the way out and left a 3" exit wound. As good as it gets from a .30/30!
This is with a cheap 4x scope on a "bargain store" rifle. (It shoots 7/8" three shot groups with this load at 100yds!).
In reality, I could have killed all but 4 of the 300+ deer I've taken with the scope sighted .30/30.
The day my brother killed that humoungous 10pt, I was driving deer to him carrying a Marlin M336 in .35Rem loaded with 200gr Rem. Corlokts over 40.0gr of H4895 (over book max... my gun, my ammo...ymmv) for 2,250fps. I killed a fork-horn later that afternoon at ~220yds on a fire-break. I "missed" the first two shots as I was holding-over too much. The third shot, I held on the "hair" and broke his back/spine... dropping him drt...(dead, right there!).
Don't let anybody mislead you. The "old .30/30" AINT Obsolete!!! just missunderstood and under-appreciated.
But I may be exagerating that... just try finding ammo for it last October.... Walmart, Academy, Gander's, and everybody else was "picked dry"... Must be somebody still shooting them. Heck, even Miroku has started back making the M94's! and guess what? They're the best ever made!!!
p.s. As my .30/30 sits on the rack with 9rds in a cuff on the butt-stock, It's sighted +3" at 100yds with Nosler 150gr Ballistic Silver tips over 38.5gr of LVR for 2,410fps per my chronograph.... Winchester sells this load under the "Super-X Supreme" black box brand. It's as good or imo, better, than the Hornady LeverEvolution 160gr FTX... But its $$$ and hard to find.
