And the winner is...

[Altjaeger]

You may be right. I know I have shot two M70s of the same design year and could not tell the .270 from the .30-06. I suspect that had you been shooting two rifles exactly the same except chambering few if any would.

[Altjaeger]

I will also say that to me my M70 .30-06 kicks less than my wifes M88 in .308. My wife says my '06 kicks more.

[Bushman]

It begs the question then, why are you guys shooting any of those other 56 cartridges? I'm guilty as charged and while I do have the 7mm RM and the .308, I turned a perfectly good .308 into a custom 7mm-08. That was back when ammunition was close to the same price and I wanted something a little different on a short action that didn't recoil as much. The .300 Savage ammunition isn't real common around here either, but that M99 is so sweet to carry and it hits nearly like a .308 I just had to have one of those too.

[swamp]

the 280 remington isn't a bad cartridge... 30-06 parent case necked down to .284... great BC with that 7mm projectile...

[Altjaeger]

Though I have never shot one I woul tend to agree Swamp, except that the factory loads are a bit lower in pressure in defference to the semi-autos chambered for it from what I read.

[Hi Ball]

I'll only say this much to any that plan on hunting out West, do not forget your ammo at home if your not shooting a .243 Winchester, .270 Winchester, 30-06, 7mm mag, or .300 Win mag. I spent a whole day once looking for some .338 Win mag shells in 225 grain, we hit every store within 40 miles of Jackson Hole, Wyoming that year.

[Phil T]

Bushman, I shoot a 30-06, a 257Roberts, a 6.5X55, or a Savage 99 chambered for 300 Savage, because I really like rifles! I have also used a 45-70, a 338WinMag, and a 22-250 for the same reason. Herne will notice that except for the extremes (45-70 and 22-250) they all have similar trajectories for moderate ranges. Learn one, and the others follow.

[Altjaeger]

Like you Phil gthe ones I use most are .30-06, .308, 7x57, 8x57 and .30-30. Except the .30-30 I think most would call those moderate.

[dave-t.]

I have my bases pretty well covered by three rifles, long range thumper, dedicated mild deer rifle, and short range carbine. The only reason for a different rifle would be for a stainless weather proof rifle that does what the wood/blue rifles do. Really though, I've had all three of my wood/blue rifles out in weather, and taken care of them after the hunts so that no harm came to them, so even with wet weather they can still get the job done.

Buying rifles after the first two or so is just a "want to" not a real need 99% of the time. But I don't hunt big predators or things that want to crush me either, and I'd prefer not to.

If I had started with a 30-06, .308 or .280, I would have had all of the bases covered for everything I've done so far, with one gun.

[GF.]

On the shelf were the following deer size cartridges:
.243
.30-30
.270
7mm RM
.308
.30-06
Six common chamberings for rifles in these parts..What makes any of those others better for your own deer hunting?

For deer only?

This is one of those where it’s probably easier to say why any one is “worse” than the rest than why it’s “better”…

The 7 Mag and the ’06 are over the top, power-wise. Most hunters never learn to manage the recoil well at normal deer hunting ranges, which renders the long reach of the 7 mag rather pointless and stupid.

The .30-30 is more than adequate – as a cartridge – for I’d guess over 95% of the deer shot in the US every year, but you can’t buy it in a good bolt action, and there’s really no better tool for the job than a well-made bolt with a good trigger and a better scope.

The .243 is (one might argue “has become”) a perfectly adequate deer round, provided that you buy good enough bullets… But given the cost and scarcity of such loads, you could find yourself better off with a number of cartridges that didn’t make the short list above. A 7-08, for example…

That leaves the .270 and the horrible, short, fat & dumpy .308….

For my own purposes, the .308 is probably the better option, because I don’t reload and practice ammo can be had cheaply. Also, the lower velocities of the factory loads give it a slight advantage in the tidy carcass department, which is helpful when most of your shots are taken at ranges that are well within reason for an iron-sighted, roundball muzzleloader.

Take the bullet up to 165 grains, and a .308 is still flat enough for Elk hunting at any range that I would be apt to consider without a rangefinder in hand. Whether it would be by any means “better” than a .270…

But for deer only, I’m still curious as to why we don’t have a popular wildcat for the .308 case necked down to accept a 130-grain bullet from a .270…