Ever wonder how many "magnums" are sold to deer hunters who may, at best, be able to find the resources to hunt elk once or twice in a lifetime, let alone find enough spare coin to put a Kodiak hunt together?

Someone else said that the .30-06 is "jack of all trades, master of none". I think that pretty much nails it. If you have a .30-06, you have everything well in hand from deer on up through elk to moose. Yup, it might be a bit light for comfort on a charging grizzly (most often seen by hunters in movies and magazines), and it's on the heavy side for prairie dogs and coyotes.

If you own a .30-06 though, there's little need for anything larger on this continent. If anything, you'll want to fill out your battery with something smaller, like a .204 or .223. Guys will go into a gunshop yet and buy a .300-something-magnum and think they have the whole world covered, when in reality, they're not really any better off in the end than they'd have been with the simple, reliable, plain-jane, un-sexy, .30-06.

Otherwise, the singular prospect of having one rifle is very unappealing to many of us, regardless of the .30-06's many pros and few cons. Maybe that's why some folks don't like it - it takes away the excuse to go tell their significant other, "it's too (big)(little) and I need another rifle"?

Whatever. I own two .30-06s, as well as a .300-something-magnum, and two other calibers in three different rifles that do the same things the .30-06s will do. I have bigger rifles than .30 caliber. I like rifles. I like to have choices. But I certainly do not hate the .30-06. If I had to start my battery all over again, I'd keep just the .223, .243, .30-06, and .375. That way, I'd always have at least two rifles for every game or non-game species I wanted to pursue.