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My now deceased uncle told me about hunting deer with a .30 carbine during his time in a WWII arial gunnery training camp in TX. He shot two different deer with the carbine from very close range, and both ran off as though they had not been hit. He was an USAAC arial gunnery instructor throughout WWII, and absolutely the best rifle shot and shotgun wing shot by far who I have ever seen in action on the hunting fields or trap/skeet range, so I don't think he missed what he shot at. He blamed it on the carbine's relatively puny cartridge, and that was no doubt a big factor. But I think it probably had just as much to do with the full metal jacket military ball ammo he used. Those two deer no doubt died later from the wounds, but the only ones who benefitted from their carcasses were coyotes and buzzards.

As someone said earlier on the thread, the .30 carbine round is basically similar to an overgrown .32acp pistol cartridge stretched out and more heavily charged with propellant for use in the M1 carbine, which was designed to replace the Colt 1911A1 .45 pistol as the weapon of choice for WWII rear echelon troops such as truck drivers, field mechanics, cooks, or supply dump guards who were not usually involved in combat on the front lines. Moral of my long and boring story, don't buy a .30 carbine for hunting anything larger or tougher than coyotes or other large varmints, and use only soft point commercial ammo for that.

BTW, I have an early-1920s vintage Winchester model 94 in .30 WCF caliber, aka .30-30, with a 26" octagon barrel and it's in very good condition for it's age, or for any age for that matter. I recently found it's twin brother for sale at an asking price higher than I would have to pay for a brand new custom made bolt action target rifle from a prestigious gunsmith, and that's all because of Winchester closing up shop last year and making instant collector's items out of almost all old Winchesters. So if all you want is a good lever rifle for hunting anything east of the Mississippi river, pick up a new or good used Marlin 36 in .30-30 or .35 Remington caliber and you're all set at a reasonable price.

A 336 Marlin is stronger and usually more accurate than a Winchester 94 anyway, or if you don't need as much power as the two deer cartridges offer the slightly smaller Marlin series designed for handgun rounds such as .44 magnum and .357 magnum are adequate for deer at short range with the right hunting ammo, and large varmints at longer range. Either way, I don't think you can go wrong with a Marlin for woods type hunting in the east.

But if you are in the Dakotas as your pen name suggests, you would be much better off with a bolt action rifle in a long range caliber such as the old reliable .270 or one of the new short case medium bore rounds that Winchester recently introduced. BTW, Winchester ammo is made by the Olin Chemical Corporation, and that isn't the same company as the Winchester gun maker that recently went out of business.