Rick,
I grew up hunting the same way, and still do.
My point wasn't that old-school is bad, but that today the obsession with muzzle velocity isn't necessary, and often results in more recoil for the same results with a high-BC bullet at somewhat slower muzzle velocity. It's easy to get 2900 fps from a 127-grain Barnes LRX in a 22"-barreled 6.5 Creedmoor, or 2800 with a 140 Accubond. Either will hit, and penetrate, big game animals out to 500 yards just as well as traditional .270 loads--or even a 150 Partition at 3000 fps with RL-26 (which is also one powder to use in the Creedmoor to get 2800 with a 140). But the Creedmoor does it with significantly less recoil, which makes practicing more pleasant and productive. It's also usually easier to get really fine accuracy with a Creedmoor, even with really "affordable" factory rifles, though in my experience the .270 is also an accurate round.
The other thing I know even more certainly is that one sure way to get the snot kicked out of you is to push heavier bullets at really high BC's with magnum cartridges, because you believe a certain "premium" bullet with a mediocre BC is absolutely necessary for killing big game, whether deer, elk or whatever. But it's much more fun to use a good higher-BC bullet with less powder to achieve the same results.
These comments on 6.5 Creedmoor ballistics apply equally to similar rounds like the .260 Remington and 6.5x55. But the Creedmoor became so popular because it accomplishes this easily in factory rifles, with factory ammo.
I'll also point out that the entire history of hunting rifles has been a "regression" toward smaller calibers and cartridges, especially after smokeless powder appeared. Before World War II many hunters were whining about a new cartridge that they claimed was OBVIOUSLY inferior to the .30-06, which had just become comfortably established as the most popular big game round in North America.
The new cartridge used small, lighter bullets than the favored 180's and 220's for the .30-06, and many hunters (including established gun writers) spent considerable time trying to persuade other hunters to avoid this new-fangled cartridge. Many even insisted cartridges much larger than the .30-06 were necessary to consistently kill mule deer, let alone elk. This was because, like many of today's hunters, they clung to what HAD worked for them, so insisted the upstart cartridge was a fraud, and would fade away.
But it didn't, partly because bullets continued to improve, to the point where many hunters feel very comfortable that "new" cartridge on not just mule deer, elk and moose, but African plains game. That new-fangled cartridge that would OBVIOUSLY fade away, of course, was the .270 Winchester.
