There’s a reason that every new cartridge gets compared to a 30-06, 270, or 25-06.

I have eight 30-06's, I am on the fence if the cartridge is any good

Curious, how you ended with eight 30-06's?

I wish the 338 federal would have taken off instead of the 6.5 creedmore.

The 30-06 and 270 have survived this long because of a number of reasons. Familiarity, tradition, results are some of those. Plus, it helps that for years you could find a box of cartridges for sale almost any small-town USA if needed. Not so with a lot of other cartridges.
I have always had an aversion to the 30-06 for some unexplained reason, and still don’t use mine even though I have several.

I love my 06's but lately I have been loading/shooting/hunting an even more marginalized cartridge, 8x57, and loving it. The thing that makes these old war dogs fun is that all the powder development that makes potent tiny cartridges, unleashes a new level of performance from these antiques. And often with longer, heavier, and more slippery bullets. Sure these may not be optimal in every/any metric, but they have gotten the job done for a very long time and continue to improve with time.

-ww

Its a long story but my Dad started it and my son is carrying an 06 now too.

Each one is interesting to me and there are a couple more that have eluded me over the years but I am still looking.

Irrelevant? Like animals just quit paying attention to being shot with one and move on? Or just not as popular as the new whizbang? The ‘06 and its offspring are still more popular than just about anything else from folks I talk to, both in Texas and out west-if magnums are excluded from discussion. If you take a trip to the desert or mountains and forget your whizbang ammo you will probably be S.O.L.! The ammo you can find almost everywhere will usually include the ‘06 and it’s variants.

Got called away and absentmindedly hit ‘submit’.. Anyway, on a more serious note, it sounds like that family of cartridges are obsolete for YOU. The cool thing is we have so many choices! I miss my 7mag, never missed any of my .300win mags, and would’ve had more fun with the .338 if it just didn’t seem to sit around waiting for big stuff. I finally decided to stick with .243 for my SA although I also have a .308. If I was going long action I’d probably go 7mag again-I just liked it!

30-06 and .270 - No way
.280 - Probably close based only on sales and the number of manufacturers who offer it. Ironically, the .280 is by far my favorite of the three.

This thread is funny. It shows a total break from reality for some.

I know it will be very hard for some to believe but the 270, 30-06, 7mm Rem Mag, 243 & 308 are still probably the most popular big game cartridges.

Cheap cup & core flat base ammo with terrible BCs are probably what a vast majority of hunters use.

Most hunters use scopes with a duplex with with no exposed turrets that probably costs under $400.

It's amazing those ill informed dummies manage to kill so many big animals every year.

Your comment here is actually quite insightful. Modern equipment is so good that just about anyone who tries can kill a deer at 75 yards with off the shelf standard grade equipment. Some of the people on this forum forget that we're typical members of an atypical group. 98% of the hunting public just wants to buy something cheap and good, zero it once and then shoot a deer at 50 - 80 yards. The active posters on this forum tend to be members of the other 2% ...

I'm a 2%er!

Yes. Yes it is.

Rifle calibers are just an easy, interesting and fun subject to discuss. But you’re right - most of the time we are talking distinctions that don’t really matter much.

For example, millions of words have been written seeking to define the perfect “sheep caliber”. Truth is just about anything from .243 through .338 would work just fine 98% of the time. But it’s fun talking about the other 2%.

The flaw in that question is black vs. interior grizzly vs. coastal brown actually does matter - a lot.

^^This. Same reason most bullets get compared to the Nosler Partition - they work over a very broad range of situations.

Do they still argue about the perfect sheep round? Layne Simpson answered that question in 1979. There’s nothing else to argue about now.

That was my point, my intention was not to disparage anyone. To your point, we argue over things 98% of the hunters couldn't care less about.

There’s a lot of 30-06 and 270 ammo sold every year, someone’s buying it.

I never wanted any other caliber than 30-06 when growing up, still my go to when deer season opens.

Based on this forum I would assume everyone is shooting at deer from 600-800yards

This forum is heavily laden with a few who think everyone who doesn’t think in terms of handloading, BCs, dialing, long range, FFP vs. SFP, building rifles, and a bunch of other stuff is basically stupid and deserving of either pity or derision - depending on the mood they are in at the moment.

you are so right, this is the Texas Hunting Forum NOT the Texas LONGRANGE Hunting Forum, great point.

I do both but too old to get deeper into the techno stuff. I'll leave this to Brian Litz

Actually, the perfect sheep round is .270 WSM. But, since it doesn’t come in the perfect sheep rifle (Sako Finnlight) - I just bought mine in .270 Win. Close enough.

There's also lots of people that forget some of us hunt hogs and coyotes a hell of a lot more days than we deer hunt. Those animals are 12 months a year. I'm going on my first and last deer hunt, for the season, next week. Historically, for the last 8 years, no doe has been shot farther than 250 yards.

If they would get the twist rates and bullets right for the .270’s, you might be on to something.