I' ve been watching this thread for a couple of days now, not deciding what to say. I think there are a couple factors involved.

One is pure competition. Over time, the seasons have become shorter and more hunters are compressed into this time period. People have come up with ways to take advantage of these shorter seasons. One person gets a new magnum, and then shows it to a friend, and then someone sees a way to improve on that and so on. After time, people forget that elk were once shot almost exclusively with 06' s and .270' s. People begin taking longer shots because they feel that their super cartridge is capable of it, when in reality it is hitting with the same power at that distance that a " standard" cartridge is hitting at 150-200 yds closer. After these people get these new magnums, they simply have no reason to go back to the " standard" calibers. I do feel that some people do go about this prematurely and buy this big magnum, but don' t have the knowledge or time to properly prepare the rifle and load for a hunt, making things slightly worse. This is not the norm, I' m sure, but some people would be better off staying with " standard" calibers and stocking closer.

As far as the number of animals shot with whatever caliber, these are not good numbers to describe how many animals are killed. This is only a small percentage that of animals that are killed, and unfortunately, there are no numbers to prove one caliber over another.

By the way, I shoot a .30-06.