So what is it like to shoot a .30-30 as a handgun?
I shot a 460 S&W a couple weeks ago and it kicked my ass.
Not bad at all. That barrel is a 14" heavy barrel with scope, so it's got a decent amount of weight. It just rolls upwards a bit. It's much less punishing than my 44mag with 300gr @ 1300fps (once those handloads are gone, I'm reducing that to something in the 1100 range).
Seriously, I can shoot the 30-30 all day long.
The 7mmTCU was disapointing. Almost as much recoil (almost same bullet weight, but with no scope and less barrel) and too much noise. It's a popular cartridge with the target and sillywet shooters, but it's not quite enough to make me comfortable using it to hunt (some do, but I want more room for error). As for target shooting, my 30-30 barrel is very accurate, so I gain nothing there.
Chris