Now, I hear people say that the .30-30 is "too weak" to kill a deer humanely.
Really? While it may be helpful in ridiculing those who question the 30 carbine, I do not believe your claim that people who question the 30 carbine are saying this.
For that matter, this whole thread can be summed in the same manner.
Almost nobody would object to anybody hunting with anything, provided they can consistantly make clean kills without routinely sending game off in the thickets to die uncrecovered, and have no doubts there are a few hunters out there who are good enough to do exactly that with about anything.
I simply do not believe the claims of most of the people advocating using low power rounds, that everything they shoot is quickly and humanely killed and gets recovered before running a mile to die and become scavenger food. If somebody is killing 3 or 4 deer in order to recover and take home one, it IS my business and I DO have right to voice my objections. Sorry, but I've seen too many of those guys to believe they are the rare exception. All the theoretical discussions don't change that, and the foolish comparisons to how far a human can run with a bullet through his lungs compared to a human, based on body weight is strictly egghead theory and not reality to anybody.
The simple fact remains. Unless you know exactly how many animals where shot and never recovered, to compare the success stories to, with a given caliber, you are left to your own beliefs which are better based on experience than ballistic theory.
I don't care what anybody hunts with, but if they have one deer tag, and for whatever reason, their hunt results in more than one dead deer to fill that tag, every other hunter has a right to be concerned. It does, and will happen to the best sooner or later, but it should not be routinely built into your expectations just because you want to kill a deer with a XXXX to prove it can be done. If you might have to shoot a few before you recover one, because your skills aren't adequate to compensate for its limitations or your over abundance of arrogance to admit that it has them, or an ignorance of exactly what those limitations are, that caliber is MARGINAL for you.