Not too many years ago, it seemed like everyone wanted a bean field rifle and 7mm Rem. Mag. was very common in my neck of the woods. 30-06 was the deer cartridge with .270 and .308 following close behind. 30-30 was considered the minimum and 7-08 was a gun for kids and women. .243 was the gun for younger kids and was thought of like a .410; it's okay but one should endeavor to move up as soon as possible. Heck, .300 win mag was not uncommon for whitetails, but was acknowledged as overkill. Then came all the WSM and SAUM cartridges. Nobody considered 30-06 to be overkill.
It seems like now we are seeing the opposite trend. It's like a race to the bottom with everyone seeing how small and underpowered they can go. 6.8 SPC II and .300 AAC Blackout are all the rage and plenty of people are advocating 5.56/.223 for deer (where legal). I realize that some of this has to do with modern bullet design, more efficient cartridges and the popularity of the AR platform but it doesn't explain everything.
I've seen several threads lately where the venerable 30-06 is poo-poo'ed as "too much gun" for whitetails. I personally don't understand this. I don't want to rely on perfect bullet placement and bullet construction to make up for a lack of horsepower. I take only high percentage shots from under 300 yds so I'm not worried about poor shot placement, I just want to know that the cartridge is not going to be the weak link.
Dead is dead but light bullets that fragment or punch tiny holes and don't leave blood trails are unacceptable to me. I've killed deer with .50 cal muzzleloaders, 00 Buck, 7mm-08, .270 and 30-06. None of them wasted much meat and none of them was overkill.
It seems like now we are seeing the opposite trend. It's like a race to the bottom with everyone seeing how small and underpowered they can go. 6.8 SPC II and .300 AAC Blackout are all the rage and plenty of people are advocating 5.56/.223 for deer (where legal). I realize that some of this has to do with modern bullet design, more efficient cartridges and the popularity of the AR platform but it doesn't explain everything.
I've seen several threads lately where the venerable 30-06 is poo-poo'ed as "too much gun" for whitetails. I personally don't understand this. I don't want to rely on perfect bullet placement and bullet construction to make up for a lack of horsepower. I take only high percentage shots from under 300 yds so I'm not worried about poor shot placement, I just want to know that the cartridge is not going to be the weak link.
Dead is dead but light bullets that fragment or punch tiny holes and don't leave blood trails are unacceptable to me. I've killed deer with .50 cal muzzleloaders, 00 Buck, 7mm-08, .270 and 30-06. None of them wasted much meat and none of them was overkill.