In northern MN where hunting deer with rifles is allowed I use .30-06 with 180 grain soft-point. Rarely need to shoot greater than 100 yds there with heavy cover. In the southern 2/3 of state we can only use shotgun with rifled slug/sabot, bow or blackpowder rifle. They're afraid high-powered slugs in more populated open farm country will cause problems. There I go with 12g and sabot slugs, which seem very effective.

This was my first year to hunt Elk in NW Wyoming. Found my .30-06 was barely adequate for the range most Elk we saw were. But filled my tag anyway. Thinking of buying a .300 Win Mag if I'm able to go there again next fall.

You asked, "Does no one really shoot .45-70's anymore?" The fellow we hunted with in WY carried 2 of them in his truck. One a Marlin I think for Elk (along with a .338). The other a .45-70 revolver made by Magnum Research. It weigh 6 lbs, as I recall and he claims it doesn't kick as much as you'd think, due to the weight. He wore this in the back country in case he had an encounter with a grizzly, which they have around that area. Thank God we didn't run into any while we were there! :-)