I have been an Colorado "Out west" hunter since 1964. I guess I don't run with the big boys that Bob mentioned. I hunted with a .308 for a lot of years, then briefely with 7mm Rem mag and 7mm Weatherby mag. Then I switched to 30-06 and have been using that for a lot of years, probably killing as many elk as those others mentioned.
I got to thinking way back then why was I using 20-30 grains of more powder and beating my shoulder up when the .06 does just as good as job of killing elk and I saw no differnce in killing ability.
I run into a lot of PA, WI an MN hunters every fall. Buy and large they are carrying Remington 7400 or 7600 in .06 or 35 Whelen or whatever they hunt whitetails with in there own state.
I grew up in SW PA and the 30-30 Win 94 was the rifle of choice in the 50's . Now the few times I go back I see the same guys using 375H&H,300 mags, 308 norma mags and 7 mags for 150 pound whitetails
