I'm reading this, and I have to say that I find the answers fascinating.
Mind you, I don't think there's a wrong answer. What's fascinating is the changes I see over time. I've been here since late 2002, and many of the folks here at that time were fellow refugees from shooters.com, so my memory of these conversations goes back well before the turn of the millennium. A lot of those guys I originally met on the Coleman-sponsered AllOutdoors.com. I'd say my memories date from 1997 onwards.
I'm not going to say that 30-06 was never a choice. It just wasn't the top choice. If you go back 20 years, folks were talking about 308 WIN a lot more. It was in its ascendency and 30-06 was going in the other direction. Folks were all about short action vs. long action and 30-06 was the loser in that discussion. I was once called a booger-eating moron for saying still regularly hunted with a 30-06. That's how strong some opinions were.
My choice, 300 Savage was in there as well. It's funny, but I got the idea for trying 300 Savage from this forum. It was a buddy of mine who amended it slightly, saying that 300 Savage was on its way to being and orphan and to shoot for a 308 WIN with a less-than-MAX load. That's how I came by current #1 favorite, a Savage 99 in 308 WIN that is a bit of a thumper if I load it up all the way, but it a joy to shoot with a 5% off-MAX load of H4895.
.223 REM? It was considered near-criminal. That chambering has had the biggest turnaround of them all. When I joined here, few people would admit that they had hunted deer with it. When I asked about it in conjunction with a Mini-14, some castigated me for the idea.
30-30? 30-30 was close to the top. There were two schools of thought. One saw it as the ultimate deer round and another saw it as yesterday's news and anemic at that. This was a major bone of contention. I gave 30 WCF a try and gave up on it. I have since repented.
35 REM has about the same amount of love as it ever has. 358 WIN was a bit of a niche, but a strong niche. 35 Whelen was very popular in theory, but not too many people owned one. I got mine on advice from fellow campers.
270 WIN? I don't remember that much support as there is now. It was a popular chambering, just not a whitetail deer favorite. A very few thought that 280 REM was the better round.
7X57 did not have the popular cache that seems to have now among the campfire glitterati. If memory serves 7mm-08 was seen as a new up and comer.
Then you had all the Wizzzzms. A lot of guys thought you needed a fat cartridge. I never got that.
45-70? Folks would opine that it was a crew-served chambering and rifles needed to be fitted with trunions for it to operate safely.
Mind you, none of this has anything to do with the real performance of the chamberings. This is all just what I remember of other people's opinions.
