I will subject myself to hoots and howls and jeers here. Are you ready?
I currently own a 30-06, a 270, a 25-06, and a 6.5X55 Swede that has been customized. I hunt whitetails in the woods, not as a sniper on the edge of grainfields. Most of the time, I use my Marlin 44 magnum lever action carbine with a receiver sight. If you put that 240 grain ball into the vitals of a whitetail, he ain' t goin' far. We kill them with arrows, don' t we? That little 44 is the most pleasant shooting, quick pointing, easy-carrying gun I have ever owned. And this boy ain' t gettin' no younger! The truth of the matter is....100 yards is a long way in the woods. The 44 can handle that yardage quite nicely. I guess it depends on your type of hunting: do you sit watch on meadows, or do you go out and stillhunt in the woods?

Clint