41.0 grains H-4895 with a 180 will give you about the same performance & recoil as a 30-30. That's about what I'm going for, just a hair lighter.
In a heavier scoped bolt-gun?
If she can't handle the recoil of that right there, she better stick with knitting or something. I could possibly borrow a Marlin 336 .30-30 but no guarantee. The Marling is actually heavier than the Savage Axis .30-06 so if I can get .30-30 ballistics out of the .30-06 I'm thinking the Axis would be the better option. And she's not the knitting type.
A 130 or 150 grain bullet using Hodgdon's 'Youth Load' data would be a better option then loading down a 180 anyway. I realize you're most likely right on that, but I haven't been able to find any "hunting" bullets locally in those weights. This rifle seems to like 150-180gr.
The 180 is probably more heavily constructed, and may or may not open up and expand at reduced velocity. At 300 yards with a muzzle velocity of 2500fps (roughly 2000fps at the target), a 180gr BTSP out of the .30-06 would generally be an acceptable white tail load. Seeing as where I hunt 100 yards is about the longest shot possible, a muzzle velocity of 2200fps would still produce roughly 2000fps at the target, wouldn't that still be acceptable? I've used a couple different ballistics calculators to find those numbers.
rc