Mule Deer - Just to clarify, I never said the 30-06 is not an effective or otherwise good cartridge. I have indeed noted 458Win's signature line many times. No doubt he is in the top 0.01% of skilled hunters and guides in North America, and probably higher than that. That he will let a client hunt a brown bear with a 30-06 says more about his level of backing skills than about the cartridge, itself. And I still say that the pull of tradition is strong in the rifle community, but tradition is not the same as rational thought for making a cartridge choice.
Again, I am not saying the 30-06 is a bad or ineffective cartridge. If the only cartridge in existence was the 30-06, I would happily go forth and hunt everything up to elk with it. All I am saying is that especially with modern bullets, it is no longer the best cartridge, as so many traditionalist claim. Modern bullets, especially all-copper bullets like the Barnes and Hammer bullets have caused the 30-06 to be supplanted by the .308Win, the 7mm-08, the 270Win, and probably a few others. Such cartridges will kill an elk just as well with an all-copper bullet as the 30-06, and will do so in a smaller/lighter/faster/flatter shooting package and with less recoil. And, those cartridges will not be unnecessary overkill on smaller animals like whitetail deer and antelope. If a person prefers tradition over "smaller/lighter/faster/flatter shooting package and with less recoil", then that is their choice, but that is getting back to the "tradition over rational thought" point, and certainly doesn't make the 30-06 the best cartridge.
If a person wants to hunt big bears, then unquestionably there are many better cartridges than the 30-06. For a start, I think most experienced big bear hunters would say a .338WM is a preferable minimum. And the number of people who will actually hunt big bears is a tiny fraction of the hunting community. That the 30-06 can be pressed into service on a bear hunt with a good guide backing you up I don't believe is relevant to the majority of North American hunters, nor is it necessarily an indication of a great cartridge.
If a person wants to hunt with a 30-06, then more power to him. But liking a cartridge, or that it has been around over a hundred years, is not the same as it still being the "best" cartridge.
And for all those that are now going to line up to say a Barnes TSX/TTSX failed them on their last elk hunt, please note that there are plenty of failure of lead bullets, too.
