I shoot .30-30, .30-'06, .250 Savage, and .257 Roberts. I have a .375 H&H, but I don't do much with it.
The .30-30 wasn't my choice. It was chosen for me by my father when I was 11 years old. My first rifle, which I still own and shoot 39 years later, was a Marlin 336 in .30-30.
The .30-'06 very much was my choice. I wanted a cartridge that didn't have so much recoil as to be tiresome during extended range sessions, a cartridge that had a reputation for accuracy, a cartridge supported by a good assortment of match grade and hunting style bullets, a cartridge that could do everything I ever thought I'd want to do with a center-fire rifle, having sufficient range and power to meet then-present and anticipated needs, while being reasonably efficient and easy on barrels. To me, the .30-'06 is everything my then 18 year old self hoped it would be. Boring it may be, but it works.
The .250 Savage got bought just because I thought it was cool as hell and that it, plus the Ruger M77RL Ultralight I bought that was chambered to it, plus the Leupold Vari-XIIc 2-7X I bought the same day, was kind of an ideal marriage of cartridge, rifle, and optic. I still feel that way about that combination, thirty years later. The .250 does most of what I want a centerfire rifle to do, has but a flea-bite's worth of recoil, has mild report, delivers stellar accuracy in a rifle not universally praised for precision.... It's just a hell of a lot of fun to shoot. It terms of recoil and report, it's like shooting a .223 Remington. In terms of thump, it's like a .243 Winchester, with the benefit of handling 120 grain bullets with decent SD of .260. It's a pretty efficient user of gunpowder, too, and pretty easy on barrels. I've shot the piss out of that Ultralight and still do and it still groups down to .660".
The .375 is something I thought I needed for a trip to Africa. I wound up shooting my entire bag with a .30-'06. I started using it when guiding pig hunters, mostly because if I did have to shoot when guiding, I'd likely be dealing with poor shot angles but also an immediate need to stop the pig in its tracks. Overkill for recreational pig hunting; not so much under the circumstances I'd have to use it when guiding. It's not something I have much of a use for nowadays. On my annual California birthday bash pig hunt, I usually just use my old Marlin 336 or the .250 Savage Ruger Ultralight and call it good.
The .257 Roberts got to me in the form of a Browning A-Bolt II than I won as a raffle drawing prize. I decided to keep it because I like the rifle and, like the .250 Savage I've had long association with, it has all the power and range I need, while having really mild recoil. It's "just enough more" than the .250 Savage that I could (and did, this past fall) use it on everything from cow elk down to smallish local whitetails.
Sometimes, I choose a cartridge. Sometimes, they've found me. Lots of 'em out there do the same thing, pretty much the same way. Some, like the .250 Savage, are just cooler than others.
