The .307 Winchester is my favorite deer hunting cartridge. I have had more "one shot, dropped in its tracks" kills on deer with the .307 than any other rifle I have used. Good cartridge and rifle combination.
Here are a few quotes from Layne Simpson and Ken Waters. Waters called the .307 "Undersold and Overlooked"
.307 Winchester - Update
Ken Waters
Handloader 208
December-January 2001
No matter how you look at it, the .307 Winchester (and its .356 mate) are the finest cartridges for lever-action tubular magazine rifles that have come our way, along with the strong modern Winchester Model 94 Angle Eject that made them possible. Let's hope hunters will realize what they missed the first time around and will call for a reappearance of this great pair.
In the May 1998 issue of Shooting Times Layne Simpson wrote a lever action rifle article that has a GREAT quote on page 73: "I consider the .307, by the way, to be the finest deer cartridge ever offered in any tubular - magazine type lever-action rifle."
I wish he had thought to write that a little earlier!
On page 68 of the November 1998 issue of Shooting Times Layne Simpson stepped up again in his article: "Where Have All the Brush Cartridges Gone?" On page 70 Simpson says: "In my opinion, the .307 Winchester is absolutely the very best deer cartridge ever designed specifically for lever action rifles with tubular magazine."
Ken Waters, writing in Wolfe Publishing: The Legacy of Lever Guns wrote on page 47: " Pardon me if I don’t beat around the bush, but I consider the .307 Winchester to be the all-time best factory deer cartridge ever developed for lever-action rifles with tubular magazines."
This is a link to the gunsmithing forum on this site. As you can see it is easy to make the .307 and .356 from the .444 Marlin basic case. Of course you probably cannot find the .444 cases in Germany either!
http://www.huntchat.com/showthread.p...threadid=39959