And Phil provides meaningful data - again. He showed uses that I've never considered, and likely will never do.
This thread is kind of a realization, at least for me, that the 30-06 covers almost all the ground almost all big game sportsman will ever need. As I explained in the previous 30-06 thread, I despised the 30-06 for years. I humbly submit I was wrong.
I've also come to the realization, painful as it is, that as I age (51 at the moment) I'm becoming less enamored with recoil. I've had magnum eyebrow twice shooting magnums at weird angles on game. I'm asking why should I put up with that?
As someone pointed out earlier in this thread, a guy must have confidence in his rifle. I have extreme confidence in my rifles and associated abilities within my self imposed restrictions. I've had zero faith in the 30-06 for most of my life for some reason. I'm seeing it in a much different light as I work through tolerating recoil to arrive at an end point. I don't need a 300 RUM to shot elk at 400 yards or less. I don't need a 257 Weatherby to shoot an antelope at 400 yards. I've always shot flatter shooting cartridges to give me the maximum amount of error when shooting at big game - what if animal X is 450 yards instead of 400? Truth of the matter all bullets starting dropping like rocks after 400 yards. You need significant skill and equipment to be able to shoot much past that distance. I have neither the inclination or desire to do that, so limit my shots to 400 yards. The other truism is that once 'big game' enters the equation, we all run up against the recoil equation. We could all shoot 30-378 or 50 BMG rifles to maximize the effective point blank range but who the hell wants to A. carry one of these, B. shoot it from a straight up or half quartering angle. Then there's the whole bullet integrity issue. To truly maximize a flat shooting rifle capacity, we need high BC's bullets. Truth be known most high BC bullets tend toward the frangible end of the spectrum because of the velocity envelope necessary to perform as advertised at distance.
I see how a laser shooter is a good idea for 'smaller big game' because the recoil investiment for the performance gain is fairly minimal making these type rifles very capable in the hands of those who take the time to learn to shoot at distance. My issue is very simple - reading the wind. I read an article lately that stated that a really good long distance shooter can read the wind within 3 mph. They used a ballistic program to show the differences in drift of a high BC bullet at 500-1000 yards for wind readings +/- 3mph. I left the article confirming that I'll never be shooting at long distance. Remember - this is a good wind reader. What about the average or not so good wind readers?
This factoid was proven to me when I was in my 20's. I stated in the other 30-06 thread that I've never shot at an animal past 350 yards or so. Not true - that should have said big game animal. We had a place to shoot woodchucks. It sat along a gravel road and we knew the landowners well. We used to bring a bench and sand bags set up in the back of a pick-up to shoot at them from point blank to way out there, I'm guessing 1/2 mile or so. In those days I normally used a 243 shooting various 70-100 grain bullets or my 280 Rem shooting 140-150 grain bullets. Shooting from a dead steady bench, the only reason to miss was mis-estimation of range or wind. After a while we figured the hold and distances so the major variable was wind. We soon learned that lightweight, fast 243 bullets would drift in a breeze enough to miss woodchucks at less than 300 yards unless you compensated for the wind. Very unscientific but did prove to me the impacts of wind. I've carried those lessons with me for the past 30 years. I know it is possible to shoot effectively in the wind but have also seen the wind change directions, swirl, and a bunch of other weirdness to know it can't be read accurately 100% of the time.
