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Originally Posted by KC911
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Didn't read the article, but here is my take on it. It boils down to impact velocity and bullet construction. One of the problems hunters faced for most of my lifetime was that as velocities improved, bullet construction did not. The ubiquitous hunting rifle bullet was the old "cup and core" design, a cupro-nickle jacket formed over a lead core. The hardness of the lead core and the thickness of the jacket control expansion on impact. We want to control that so that we can also control penetration. More of one necessitates less of the other.
The .30-30 is the slowest of the three, the '06 the fastest with a given bullet weight (150 is common in all three). 2,200 fps, 2,800 fps, and 3,000 fps respectively. With this old bullet construction, with some brands, we might be seeing higher impact velocities at 100 yards with the .308 and '06 than the bullet will accept without over expanding or just flat blowing to pieces. Same bullet in the .30-30 may be below that threshold, stay in one piece, and provide the penetration needed.
This whole thing is far different today, though. We have readily available to us some pretty remarkable bullets, designed to hold together at modern magnum velocities. Pretty hard to drive some of these "too fast" these days. This has served to pretty much negate this old erstwhile "advantage" inherent in lower velocity rounds.