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?
And where did I use the word or imply it was negative? "Overpower" and "negative" are not interchangeable.
While I don't have a dog in this fight, I will make the observation that, from my experience, 'overpowered' and 'underpowered' are generally adjectives, as was the usage under discussion, denoting less than desirable attributes to the object they modify.
I agree that 'overpowered' and 'negative' are not interchangeable, but it is common to see people denigrate a cartridge as "overpowered' for a particular usage. In that manner, even a .22 Short can be called 'overpowered' for some applications. (I prefer one pump on my BB gun for mice.)
I personally don't consider a .30-06 to be 'overpowered' for any North American big game - there are simply too many off-the-shelf loads to make such a statement, from .22 sabots to subsonic and reduced recoil to 'standard' big game loads and 240g behemoths Handloaders have, of course, many orders of magnitude more options.
A lot of elk have been taken with a .243 Win and bullets 105g and under. Does that mean a .30-06 and 180g or heavier bullets are 'overpowered'? No. If a .30-06 is a good choice for elk, does that mean a .243 Win is 'underpowered'?
How about antelope? A .243 Win is considered a good cartridge for antelope. So is a .25-06, and .270 Win and a bunch of other cartridges in .308" and smaller., including a .308 Win. If a .308 Win is considered a good choice for antelope, how would one decide a .30-06, shooting the same bullets at essentially the same velocities, is not?
Case in point. Barnes lists 130g TTSX loads for the .308 Win going up to 3248fps using a 24" barrel. I load that same bullet to 3045fps in Daughter's .30-06. Daughter has used that .308 Win load to take a number of antelope. Barnes specifically recommends that bullet for antelope, for both cartridges. If the .30-06 is 'overpowered', then a .308 Win is equally 'overpowered' for antelope. How about a 7mm-08 with a 120g TTSX @ 3198fps? Or a .270 Win with a 130g TTSX @ 3173fps? A .260 Rem with a 120g TTSX @ 3027fps?
A .257 Roberts with a 100g TTSX @ 3152fps? a .243 Win with an 80g TTSX @ 3451fps? Or a .22-250 with a 77g LRX @ 3396fps?
Just where does 'overpowered', or 'underpowered' for that matter, kick in?
