RE: Benefits of short calibers?
The industry should invent a new term called " usable accuracy" Somehow it needs to be understood that a " hunting rifle" that shoots 1/2" groups isn' t any better than a similar rifle that produces 1 1/2 inch groups.
For a varmint rifle that is a bold face lie and for a bench rest rifle neither is adequate.
However if I' m hunting elk with a .30-06 or similar hunting rifle, there' s no way I can use the additional accuracy....there' are no benches in the mountains to shoot from. The thing that counts is my ability to use the accuracy the gun has and what we do on paper has nothing to do with these hunting conditions.
The .30-06 bests the .308 very marginally with 150 grain bullets, but move up to 200 grainers (as I like for bigger game) and the .30-06 can move it almost 300' /sec faster. This translates to energy that is usalbe. Accuracy (as long as it' s not BS....and a lot of it truly is!!!) of 1 1/2" (5 shots) at 100 yards is fully adequate to anchor the target all the way to 400 yards and very few hunters are capable of making that shot. At 400 yards the (assumably perfect) bullet is still within 3" of point of aim.
I' d be absoutely estatic if I could hit within 3" at 400 yards with a big game rifle.
This same argument happens when a guy wants to use A-Max bullets because they are more accurate than his Nosler Particians.....a very bad trade in most circumstances.