If you hunt in New York Pennsylvania or similar area you already have THE Deer rifle. IMHO

As long as your 30/30 isn't an old Winchester with out a safety stick with that. Get the Hornity Lever Revolutions for ammo and its a heck of a gun.

I'd stick with the 30-30 and use that money to buy a tree stand and/or other hunting equipment....like bullets (cause they're so expensive and rare to find now a days!!)

Ruger American. Savage Trophy Hunter XP (comes with scope). Remington has their new 783, which is a copy of the Ruger & Savage.

I've got a scope on my 30-30. It's a tack driver at 100 yards, even off-hand.

The Ruger & Savage are going to be the most economical, highest quality, AMERICAN made rifle these days (nice trigger, free-float barrel, good bolt, etc). The Remington will likely be too, but it is brand new this year. In my opinion of course.

I have a Ruger American 30-06.

If that 30-30 is a Marlin then it may benefit from a scope and one can be added easily. BTW the older Model 94 Winchesters were as safe as any other rifle if you knew what you were doing. The addition of the safety added nothing to that rifle in my opinion.

That 30/30 will do you well untill you decide you want to get more into it. If you already know that you want to stick with deer hunting the Ruger American rifle is a good gun for the price. Savage makes good rifles for the price as well. If you want to spend some money Reminton 700 is a classic. I have a ruger M77. Nice gun for the money. Walnut stock, blued barrel and came with scope rings all for $540. I topped it with a Nikon prostaff scope with BDC but I dont do much long range shooting so you could skipp on the BDC if you want to save some money.

The venerable "thutty-thutty" has killed more deer and started more hunters than probably any other caliber out there. Properly applied within it's constraints, it's a deer killing machine!

.308 or 30/06 are both great deer calipers. will enter and exit no matter what. i'd only add get one with a weather resistant finsh stainless or just melonite anything is better then blued. blued has a shiny finsh and will start rusting wihtout touching water if humidity is high enough.

Your 30-30 will be fine as long as you are hunting within ranges of 100 yards or brush country. If you are hunting with longer range shots in mind you can do much better.

When you say "beginning" rifle, to me that means inexpensive and deadly but low in recoil so the shooter can get lots of practice and not develop a flinch. I'd also recommend a rifle you can use to shoot lots of targets and varmints to develop your marksmanship skills. If you have to hunt over beanfields, on the prairie or shoot running game, you will want a very fast, flat shooting rifle to minimize the holdover and windage considerations of long shots. For hunting in timber conditions, you will want a rifle that can hit a twig but still find its way to the target without veering off on a tangent. I tried several when I started out.

1. I used the 35 Rem and the .30-30: Great for low recoil and close timber shots; sucked at running deer over 75 yards away and couldn't make a 300 yard shot easily.

2. 30-06 and .308: The recoil of the 06 was so bad I hated shooting it. My friend's dad made him shoot one his first season and he quit deer hunting because he hated it. Told me never to tell his dad though. The .308 is OK but I don't like it as well as a much faster rifle at long range or for running deer.

3. .243: I loved this rifle at first because of the low recoil. I shot it a lot at targets and varmints. The 58g V-Max bullet is fast and sweet for practice. My confidence in it caused me to hit where I wanted to all the time. I discovered that accuracy was the secret to success in hunting. The 100g bullets will push through brush well enough to succeed but a good 85g bullet (Barnes) will deck a deer in the open. It wasn't until I started shooting out to 400 and 500 yards that I noticed it fall off.

4. .270... now you are talking. Great for all conditions and excels at long range. Can flatten a deer out to 500 yards if you get a good shooter. The 130g -140g bullets still gave me one of the sharpest recoils of any but it seemed to be more tolerable than the 06. I really didn't like it for target practice and varmints and started to shoot it less because of this. I began to lose my confidence and accuracy. Remember... I was a 140 lbs ringing wet and my shoulder felt like it was made of Tinker Toys at the time.

5. .220 Swift: I liked the low recoil and blazing speed. The good bullets we have today make it great for antelope and even deer hunting on the prairie but it just can't shoot in the timber... too bad, because that is one sweet shooter (similar to the 22-250).

6. 25-06: I tried one of these by accident as they were rare wildcats when I was young. I recognized quickly tht this was the beginner's rifle for me. It had the low recoil of the .243 but the long range knock down power of the .270. The noticable difference was that it was faster than all of them I had tried except for the .220 Swift and it made shooting long range and running game a high percentage shot. I enjoyed shooting lots of 75g and 87g (very low recoil) bullets at targets and varmints to hone my shooting skills. Even my 100g deer loads had the low recoil of the .243 but they could deck a deer at 500 yards with authority. In the thick soup, 120g bullets have always seemed to peform as well as the round nosed .35 Rem bullets did; certainly as well as the .308. Please note that if you look at Chuck Hawks' recoil table, the lightest bullet he has listed for the 25-06 is the 100g with a recoil similar to the .243 100g (its a little higher because it is going faster). If he were to show the 75g 25-06 varmint bullet, it would be pretty similar in recoil to the 22-250 shooting 55g bullets.

Bottom line: for me the 25-06 filled the space from the ultra-fast .22 calibers (22-250 and .220 Swift) to the long range thumper .270 Win. That quickly became my favorite. By reloading, I could make inexpensive varmint bullets to the best deer bullets available. I could handle close up deer in the brush to 500 yard Muleys on the prairie. I have yet to find a better prairie dog rifle and consistently outshoot the big .22s at long range (400-600 yards). It is clearly one of the best antelope rifles one can shoot. It smashes deer similar to anyting up to 30-06 in size but seems to have more hydrostatic shock. You will begin to discover what that is if you shoot a 25-06.

Pick your first rifle... Accurate low cost rifles are available from Tikka, Howa (Weatherby Vanguard & Howa 1500), and Savage. If you can find a used Rem 700 that shoots, it might be good too. Above all, if you get a 25-06 get a 24 or 26 inch barrel... more barrel equals more speed and you will learn to love speed.

Oh, and I forgot to mention that after 45 years with my beginner's rifle, it is still my number one "go to" rifle for everything I hunt and even at the range! I have lots of other rifles but none have the broad functionality of that rifle. Best of luck with your shooting future. Shoot accurately and you will be an exceptional hunter!

You already have a good deer rifle. Sight it in with 160gr Hornady Leverevolution ammo and you are good to go.