Back in the 70's I went to college in Colorado and hunted as much as I could on public land. As a poor college student, I had a well used military Mauser sporter rebarreled to 30 06, with Lyman 48 peep sights. Back then as I remember, a lot of hunters used the .270 win and the 30 06 with a bunch of different other military surplus calibers commonly showing up in sporterized rifles with the guys I hunted with, all poor. Several I knew used the M1 Garand rifle for Elk. In college, I do not remember one person I hunted with in the 70's that had a rifle scope. Conversations about them were generally centered around how unreliable they were.
Fast forward to 1988 when I could afford a guided hunt on private property about an hour away from Aspen. The property owner and guide had to have been 80 years old. One night around the fire after we had been searching for an elk someone shot with a 7mm Magnum which we finally found, he started telling us about all of the Elk lost or took a considerable of tracking to find that were shot with magnum rifles. He was not fond of Magnums for Elk. He said the highest performing rifles for Elk were the 30 06 and 8 x 57 Mauser
in his lifetime.
Last edited by FSJeeper; 08/06/23.
