At ranges up to 150 yards, 170 gr cast lead bullet loads with my 30-30 are much more lethal than the popular .223. And I can reload them for 12-15 cents per round
Yes that ol lever action 3030 round is great in the brush as well where the speed and weight of 223 will only send it off in another direction once it hits a limb.
I just scored 1000 rounds of 147gr 762 the other day to feed my M1A for 51 cents a round. Gives me plenty (lil less than 5K) enough that for testing purposes I went down to my back tank and did some turtle thumping with them. Buzzards had a field day the following day.
Lethality can come from bullet design as well.
I’ve noticed my Kurd friends in Syria have been begging the US for heavy weapons. The snipers they have are increasingly using much heavier rounds and bigger bore weapons.
One of my Syrian friends tells me that she has never seen Kurds waste ammo or shoot in the air. Guess that is something they learned in Kobani. They were very close to running out of ammo at the point where we brought in the first air support. They made every bullet count.