Believe it or not, I have seen just as many deer run off after being hit with the 7Mag as I have with the 06 and 308. There is no earthly reason to loose an animal thats well hit with any reasonable size cartridge. Certainly not with rifles of 25 caliber and larger.

I agree. A well placed shot is what it is all about.

I'm afraid if it were a 6x6 or bigger the deer would of turned around and said put away the bb gun(30-06) cause that tickles my tummy. I don't mean to put the 30-06 down but its just not my kinda gun. yeah sure it has killed more big game than any other cartridge i'll give it that but from my dads experince if it couldn't kill a 4x4 buck at 125 yards what in the hell would it have done to an elk???

the 30-06 can easily kill at 125. that cartridge was used in by snipers up until the end of the vietnam war and kills were made out to over 1000 yards. did you ever think that the error of the deer not being killed may not have been the cartridge but the shooter.

about the elk. a man hunting elk in ky last year shot a huge 6x6 at 400 yards with his 06 and it went right down.

The example you used is as rare as chickens fangs. You will find darn few cases where the 30-06 has failed to kill almost any NA game. I have long ago lost track of the critters I have killed with the 30-06. I have yet to see ANY animal fairly hit in the vitals with a 30-06 that didn't give it up PDQ. In some rare cases strange things happen but it has nothing to do with cartridge size. How many people do you think in this country hunt deer with rifles way smaller than the 30-06? 243. 250 Savage, 260 6.5x55, 270, 280 7MM-08 7x57 Mauser, 30-30, 308, muzzle loaders and handguns? All these guns are smaller than the 30-06. Are you saying with a straight face that none of these are suitable deer rifles? Are you saying that nothing short of Mr. whiz bang Magnum + will take elk.? If so you better start doing a little research on hunting. Do you think that the entire buffalo herds in this country didn't die because the buffalo hunters didn't have any WSM's and Ultra Mags? Maybe they are all still alive just hiding in the bush laughing. Maybe all the big game taken with the 30-06 including Elk Moose and Grizzlies will come back to life and start kicking butt.

acctually i am quiet formiluar with the what kinda guns are used in wars and now 308 are being used as snipers B/C of its accuracy

to answer teh 1st bold ? yeah they are all sutible for deer but with experince that my dad had he never went back to the 30-06 again and he still says yeah it a good gun but not for him and he refuses to get me a 30-06.
(The second bold sentence) maybe......................... but i'm not saying it won;t kill an anmal like buffalos, elk or moose but what i'm sayin is what went threw my dads head well if that deer got away then what will happen to an elk if i get a long shot at it, b/c after taht he lost all faith in his old 30-06, yeah sure i will say he shot deer with that ol 30-06 but he lost all confidencein it,so what i'm sayin is that if you shot an elk3 times in the heart and lung area and you know that you hit it with all3 bullets and you never find that bull and you look at mountain say to the north of you and you see that same bull runing full speed uphill and you follow him for 5 miles, what are you going to say and are you going to be dissapointed, well yeah. but if you know for a fact that you hit him in his heart and lungs3 times your are going to blame it on your gun, so the next year you don't wanna have the same thing happen so you are going to bring something with a lot more punch. NOW I'M NOT SAYING THAT THE 300 WON'T KILL AN ELK I WAS JUST GIVING AN EXAMPLE I'VE SEEN WHAT A 300 DOES TO ELK AT 300+ YARDS.

Welllll....not exactly....it's used because it's a military cartridge.

some branches of the service are using the .50 BMG as a sniper rifle and some are using the 7MM Rem Mag.....

Start with a 378 Wetherby so the next time the gun screws up, you will still have room to go BIGGER and BIGGER and BIGGER. That would be the answer.The buffalo were wiped out by calibers like the old Black Powder 45-70 shooting at the Blazing speed of about 1300 fps. Of course they kept the range down to 300-600 yards,.

i didn't say currently. i clearly stated up until the end of the vietnam war.