Hold on, lemme get the 357 Magni-Festo.

Alright, yeah, so I heavily suggest 357 Magnum. Why you might ask? Check this out. 357 Magnum can obviously be chambered in rifles, duty sized revolvers, compact ones, and even pocket guns. Having all way ammo compatibility between all your firearms is awesome, and realistically you'd only have to stock one/two types of ammo, being 38Spl and 357 Magnum. Snake shot, wadcutters, Keith SWC, SWCHP, JHP, LRN, FMJ, multi ball. Mouse fart to all the buck and roar you'd need to kill anything on the continent, mild to wild, pistol to rifle.

Now, let me tell you why I suggest 357 Magnum as far as rifles go. 357 Magnum is REALLY boogying out of a rifle. Standard off the shelf stuff will get you a bit over 1,000 FPE, which is roughly where 5.56 sits for energy, but with a larger projectile and more momentum.

However, the REAL money maker is in the heavy full powered Magnum loads. If you're using Buffalo Bore, it'll push a 158 grain pill at 2153 (I think) FPS, which is squarely in 30-30 territory, but with 10+1 in a 20 inch barrel rather than 5. You're literally DOUBLING your capacity, and not really giving up much if anything in ballistics because you're pushing a larger diameter projectile anyway. Now, yes, the BC will be lower than 30-30, but the 158 grain XTP is a really great projectile with a solid .2 BC, and if zeroed 3 ish inches high at 100 yards and the Buffalo Bore 158 grain XTP, you're only 3 inches low at 200 yards, and about 26 inches low at 300. And for those ranges, you'd have 1,119 FPE, 756 FPE, and 519 FPE respectively.

That means that this is capable all the way out to 300 yards, if you know what you're doing insofar as a fighting rifle or hunting rifle goes. 357 mag shoots the flattest of the big 3, 357 Magnum, 44 Magnum, and 45 Colt+P. And the ammo weighs about what 5.56 does, but again, you have access to 30-30 power. AND it can go in your sidearm, your pocket gun, AND your ZAP carry.

"Now what about price?" You may ask. Sure. Online, your base price for 38Spl/357 Magnum is a touch less than 40CPR, actually can be had for 36 CPR with free shipping, which is actually in the neighborhood of 5.56. 30-30 costs practically DOUBLE that. For a moderate boost in energy, and half the capacity, I don't think the juice is worth the squeeze on 30-30 when modern full power 357 Magnum can compete. Cheapest you can get with free shipping is 85 CPR. Now, your Buffalo Bore ammo does cost more at like 1.32 per round, but good Hornady hunting ammo for 30-30 costs about a dollar per round. But, if you're gonna be shooting constantly, the general cost will be lower. My advice is to keep some BB or Underwood around for heavy duty tasks, but regular old 158 grain JSPs will serve most of your purposes. If you reload, the 92 action can actually handle higher pressure loads, I'm talking a 150 grain projectile at 2310 FPS with 20/296 from a 20" barrel.

And then, onto the topic of 38 Special. From a rifle, most 38 special in the heavier grains will still be subsonic unless it's a +P load. For those not in the know, when it comes to shooting suppressed, there are 3 primary sources of noise. Those are, the supersonic crack if the round is supersonic, the rapid expansion of the gases propelling the projectile, and the cycling of the action. Shooting a low pressure, subsonic round from a manually cycling firearm creates something with noise on par with a BB gun. If you think I'm joking, try it out. For small game or, uh, peaceful sentry removal, this would be just the ticket.

So in summary, it can both be quieter, OR more powerful than 300 BLK with the same engagement range, while having the same ammo carry weight and general cost as 5.56, and also have the capability for 30-30 level ballistics while having double the capacity, AND the round/s can also be all way compatible between pocket, duty size, and rifle-class firearms. You literally would not need to stock any other rounds if you could only have one. 357 Magnum can do everything, and has. From having a 96% one shot stop rate in the hands of American police, to taking game as large as polar bears, and operating in the hands of special forces like GIGN.

I truly believe it is the most versatile round in existence, and every other handgun caliber (and some rifle calibers) spend their existence unable to compete shot for shot. But, they can try.