This post illustrates the "grain of salt" that I think has to accompany some of the advice that Ridge offers on here (and a few other users). This isn't at all a statement of criticism, but moreso one of jealousy/respect/admiration - guys like Ridge have VERY DIFFERENT demands for their rifles, so the advice they give is often skewed in that light.

Most of us average hunters will never become so capable behind a rifle to be so demanding that we can make assertions like Ridge's above. If all you do behind the wheel of a car is drive a few blocks uptown to the grocery store, then the horsepower difference between a V8 Mustang, a 4banger Honda Civic, and a 690hp Lamborghini Aventador, except the cost we pay at the pump. I ride a motorcycle that will do occasionally 160mph in a straightline with 140hp - incredibly fast and powerful for a guy that just toodles around the countryside, but it's NOTHING compared to the MotoGP guys running tracks over 200mph.

I'd never say a person shouldn't use a 300 eargenshplitezen loudenboomer magnum for hunting whitetails at 200yrds or less, any more than I'd say a person shouldn't drive a lambo or ride a Hayabusa to the grocery store - but a guy doesn't really need that much power to do such a simple job. For most of us, the 300win mag just costs more powder or ammo cost, and more recoil - but the deer/elk/bear at 200yrds or less on the other end isn't any more dead.

Equally, the 30-06 will kill anything in the world if well placed at the right ranges. The 300win mag has advantages for guys like Ridge or Jeep or a few others here that can weigh and measure the 30-06 and find it wanting. These same guys will have a short trip from the max of a 30-06 to reach the max of a 300win mag, but it's still further along the spectrum than they were before.

That said, I have a couple 30-06's and 300WM's in my safes. If I had to pick only one, it'd be a long barreled, big scoped 300win mag, simply because I'm working on learning to shoot like guys like Ridge and Jeep (and a few others).