A couple years ago I posted saying that I had implemented a rule for our early season deer hunt in the Interior, BC. It was awesome!!! The rules were that anyone who camp to this camp (as it turned out, 6 of us did just that) had to carry and hunt with an open sighted, pre-64, Model 94 Winchester. It turned out that all of them were chambered in .30WCF, but that wasn't a rule. I got a some awesome pictures of all those .30-30 Lever guns leaning up against the woodpile at night with the campfire light dancing across the nickel steel. The entire camp just reeked of nostalgia. The hunt was great even though no deer were shot. The fellas hunting with me saw deer, and shot at deer, just didn't connect. One of the guys saw and shot at the biggest racked mulie he's ever seen in the area. The shot was made through brush at about 60 yards while the buck was sneaking off. He followed up with two more shots but didn't touch a hair. Most of the other guys saw deer in social groups, but because they had no scope on their rifle, they couldn't be sure of the shot. This hunt really made you look at alot of things that we take for granted while hunting today like 250 yard shots out on the open ground, the advantage of these higher powered scoped rifles, etc. It was great to step back a few years and remember how to hunt better, get closer, shoot better and make due with everything else that our grandfathers had to contend with. My one friend like it so much, he carried his Model 94 (made in 1911) exclusively at the deer camp until last November when he bagged his first mule deer ever with it. He shot a nice fat doe at 101 yards (paced out) with it. He was aiming for her lung area, but hit her in the head. Not a bad way to miss if you are going too.
Anyhow, enough babbling on here. The message that I'm trying to get out is, "Try this in your camp". To really feel it and make it work, leave ALL of the other rifles at home. Put yourself into the situation where you can't hunt part of the day with your .30-06 or .270, because the .30-30 is the only thing you got in camp. You'll have a great time!!
CDW

Someof my friends and I often do a similar deal but with unscoped, sidelock muzzleloaders. We even use them for antelope when we can draw tags. I have also left my 30-06 at home and carried a 45-70 with black powder loads. Another friend and i have gone on early hunts for hungarian partridge and sharptails with muzzleloading shotguns.

I use an open sighted -30-30 most of the time, and an open sighted side lock muzzleloader in that season too. You just have to adjust your hunting style. I do have a scoped 8x57, that I use some times when sitting in the early morning or evening, but I much prefer using the .30-30's, and that style of hunting.