I have always thought of the .257 Rob as the perfect whitetail cartridge and the 30-06 as perfect all around cartridge.

Now that I have a Tikka T3 Lite 7-08 I'm leaning toward that as a replacement (dare I say it???) for the venerable 06, tho I won't be selling my Mauser Straight Pull Springfield anytime soon.

The good is balance... rifle-wise, cartridge-wise with propellant, speed, and ease of forming brass (someone here once said that if his 7-08 could read it'd think it was a 7.62 NATO and that's true of mine as well).

The ugly is factory ammo; that inexpensive Hornady American Whitetail 139 Interlock load was sick accurate through mine. If I weren't a loonie I'd question the intelligence of continuing to use handloads!

The other downside to the 7-08 is one it shares with the 270, 308, and 30-06; once you have one you set yourself up for difficulty justifying a new big game rifle as a "need".

Mine will head west with me this October for pronghorn and return next year for elk. Love it.