Originally Posted by homers brother

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.