Certainly the 30-06 is a great cartridge and I consider it overpowered for much of the big game it is used on.
And I'll never understand why that is a negative?
I have been cogitating this a while. I've killed deer with 243s/6mms (223s were not legal for WT when I had one) -- and many cartridges up thru 8mm RM, or 35 Whelen depending on how you consider 'bigger or larger'.
I cleaned/dressed virtually ALL the deer I've killed + some others have.
FROM my personal observation -- the 8mm RM did NOT do noticeably any more physical damage than a 270 - 308 - 7mm RM - OR 30-06. That's probably because of bullet construction. I have made NO secret that I'm not particularly a fan of Speer bullets for deer hunting.
AFTER killing WT with the 8, I read that Speer designed that 200 Spitzer for Elk. I'd say they did a good job.
HONESTLY - I can NOT say that the 30-06 is excessively destructive > with proper bullets <. NOTE I have never shot a WT with a N P (Nosler Partition) or other premium bullets >. IM estimation, 99 % of the bullets I've used have been Hornady I Ls.
I have another question: Why would we seek to find the cartridge that does the 'minimum' fatal damage ?
That would lead us to be absolutely certain of only shooting under ideal circumstances. I'm not being sarcastic nor facetious, Can we kill them TOO dead ?
I choose to be overgunned. I read that somewhere? lol
