I just reread this entire thread again, and wonder who in the hell is supposed to be doing the "underrating"? Your cousin Frank who's hunted with the same .30-06 since 1965? The local meth-heads who can't pawn the rifles they steal? Barack Obama?
I hang around with rifle loonies a lot, including on the Campfire, and in my entire life cannot recall anybody bad-mouthing the .223 Remington, 6mm Remington, .257 Roberts, 6.5 Mannlicher, .260 Remington, 6.5x55, 7x57, .280 Remington, .30-30, .300 Savage, .300 Weatherby Magnum, 8x57, .358 Winchester and most of the other cartridges mentioned so far.
I have heard some nitwits (mostly aspiring Elmer Keiths) bad-mouth the .243 Winchester, and once heard an ignorant dipschidt who never handloaded a round in his life, much less chronographed anything, say "the 7mm Remington Magnum makes the .30-06 look sick." Used to hear some Montana hunters degrade the .270, but that was mostly back in the 1960's and 70's when the 7mm Remington Magnum was the answer to every personal problem from stammering to erectile dysfunction.
But other than those exceptions, and a few Campfire members or gun writers who're trolling, where are these legions of under-raters? Can somebody point me to another website, or a Cabelas full of 19-year-old clerks?
