Sorry Vara but you have your facts completly wrong when you combine the .308 or 7.62 Nato round with the 30-30. There simply is no way to compare to the two. The .308 DOES NOT have anywhere near or close to the "ARK" using your words as the 30-30. You should know that as a former "ARMY SNIPER" and as a Former Army Sniper you would have trained extensively at Fort Benning with the .308. That is were the Army Scout Sniper school is located, and the .308 Winchester is "STILL" the weapon of choice for all training in the initial phase of training at Benning.
Accuracy and bullet flight is always--- "ALWAYS" about Balistic Coefficient of the bullet and Muzzle Velocity. In the 30-30 a round that was the first smokeless round EVER designed in 1894. Had to by design use a flat nose or rounded nose bullet because it was built for the new Mdl 94 Winchester Lever Gun, a rifle with a tubular magizine with the nose of each bullet resting on the primer of the round in front of it. Flat nose and round nose bullets are inherently very low in balistic coefficient also the muzzle velocity of the 30-30 is also very low even today. Any 30-30 bullet that is adequate for hunting at 150 or 170 Grns has a muzzle velocity around 2200 to 2400 FPS in the 30-30. The commomly used bullets in the 30-30 have a BC of around .250 to .280 or so, using the very best technology of today Hornady makes a "Flexi-Tip" bullet that can have a BC of .330 that is the best that can be hoped for in this very old cartridge. So in the 30-30 with a 100 yd zero the bullet drops as much as 2 1/2 Feet at 300yds and over 6 feet at 400 yds.
Compare that with the .308 round one of the most accurate and flat shooting rounds out there because of its superior Ballistics. BC in the .550 range are easlily obtained with over the counter componenets. This and when loaded up to the potential of the bullets at Muzzle Velocity's for the BTHP "Boat Tail Hollow point Match Bullet at 170 grns with a BC of .540 loaded to 3200fps and with a 100 yd zero this bullet drops only 14 inches at 300 yds and at 500 yds it is down only 41 inches while maintaning 2478 lbs of bullet energy. Which is more than the 30-30 has at the muzzle.
The 30-30 certainly has a place today in hunting, but one place it for sure doesnt have a place is in comparing it to the .308.
Roland
PS, Vara after posting this and then seeing your last post about the M 60 are you saying that the M 60 used the same round as the 30-30?? That can't be right I must not be reading your response correctly. I am for sure as a "FORMER ARMY SNIPER" you would in fact know that the M 60 did in fact use the 7.62 Nato round or .308!!!

