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My friend used a lot of cartridges like the .30-30 AI in pistols because he lived in upstate NY and he had to use either a pistol or shotgun to deer hunt.
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About when did your friend live and hunt in NY??
Also I'm a bit curious where he was. I grew up in NY and left there in 75. "Upstate" was a term commonly used by people in the lower Hudson valley and NYC metro areas, and covered everything in the state north of where they lived. I grew up in the lower Adirondack region and no one there, ever, used the term "upstate". It was a bit of a matter of local pride.
New York state is shaped like a "T" tipped on its right side. For hunting the part sticking up is the Northern Zone, and the rest of the state is the Southern Zone.
No idea what it is today but back in the 60s-70s Southern Zone had some "peculular" rules. First off, it was shotgun only, no rifles for deer or bear. And, in the later 60s, they ruled out buckshot for deer, SO, in 3/4 of the state deer hunting was shotgun only (20ga or larger) and slugs, only. Oddly enough, you could use buckshot (#4 buck or larger) for black bear, but NOT for deer. State wide the only reg for pistol hunting deer/bear was .24 cal or larger.
I don't recall being allowed to pistol hunt in the Southern Zone, might be something they changed after I moved west, might have been something allowed back where I lived there, just not widely known. Handgun hunting big game wasn't something widely done back then.
From what I've been able to find out, the .30-30 AI was an easy conversion for the Win 94 and Marlin 336 rifles only needing a rechambering, and allowing as much as a couple hundred fps velocity increase without stressing the action.