The old '06 is an ingrained part of our hunting heritage as is the 30-30. It seems almost un-American NOT to own one if you shoot or hunt. You have to remember that these gun writers have to make a living. I usually take what they say with a grain of salt. I guess I can understand the method to his logic. There are a lot of good chamberings out there. But the versitility of the '06 or any .30 cal for that matter is unmistakable. Is the '06 a good hunting round? Yes. Are there better ones out there? That's your opinion. There are more 'specific' chamberings like the 22-250 for groundhogs; 7-08, 270, 280for deer; the 375 H&H for big bear; the .338 for elk, etc., etc. But for pure versitility with managable recoil, the old '06 is hard to beat.

I own a 06, a 270 and a new 300WSM. When i hunt deer size animals it has always been a 270 with 130 grainers. Nice and flat with plenty of knockdown. For my future elk, moose hunts the 300wsm will be my choice over my 06. I can even put 150's into the 300wsm and have a flatter deer cartridge with more knockdown power than a 270. The only thing i like about the 06 is its' histery and availability of ammo/price. My 300WSM is becoming my favorite. Recoil is actually the same if not less than my 06 and the gun is lighter.

I have to hand it to bigpapa. Over 1900 hits on this topic!

You have to hand it to our military for developing the 30.06. How many wars has it served in and how many families have been fed with it?

Just take some pain killers before you shoot so you wont notice the pain afterwords.-lol
I have a 30-06 and I will admit it does have some ass behind it, but I kind of like it.

The physics are simple, the harder you push something out the front of your gun the harder it pushes back. I feel that you should shoot the largest caliber you can while still being accurate. Once you start flinching or being afraid of what will transpire with the pull of the trigger, it's time to throttle back. This is when misses and even poor wounds begin to occur on the animal. I lift alot of weights and stay in great shape so I shoot a 300Wby Mag, and can do so without feeling the effects (except on my ears). The harder the rifle is pushing back, the harder it is going to be hit. I also never complain about the recoil while I'm standing over a harvested animal. Just something to consider!!

If I could only have one rifle it would be an '06 IMO the "heavy" recoil doesn't seem to show up till you get into the "hot" 150s and heavier bullets . Standard 150s are very manigable in a 7 lb rifle .

A 30-06 recoil is not that bad.The bigger caliber's open up a bigger hole and are harder hitting (more shock to the animal and damage from the interia or force of impact) then witha small caliber's like a 7mm-08.Both guns will kill a deer if you hit them in the right place.But for them times you may shoot a bit further back in the guts you will have a better chance of getting the deer to laydown than a little pinker caliber.I have seen many of times even with a large exit hole of a 30-06 you may get a piece of somthing plug the hole and the deer stops bleeding.If you have a bigger exit hole with a larger caliber gun you will have a better chance of that piece that may clug the hole up to pass.There are diffrent bullets that you can use to make a hole bigger on a smaller caliber but you will never match the capabilites of a much larger gun.It is kind of like taking a 7mm-08 on a moose trip your better bet whould be a much harder hitting 30-06.Once again small calibers can and have killed deer but you stand a better chance with a 30-06 over a 7mm-08.