The 44 rimfire used to be pretty adequet
Then it was to small, they moved through a host of others, to the 30-30, but that's a super high velocity ray gun!, then came the '06 faster bigger better, then came the magnums, faster bigger better! Now the short mags.... See where I'm heading?
The old rounds still work, it's just salesmanship, and the "need" or "new gun addiction" that keeps the whole thing going.

Hmm I forgot to slide in the 280 Ross.

Remember the folk here are gun nuts like me. Most of our hunting can be done with very few differnt calibers, but that would be boooooring! If yoy had a 22Lr a 30-06 and a .375 and a 12/76 shotgun you could hunt and legal game on this planet. But if you like me are a gun nut, would you? Don't think so.

Johan

If I absolutely could only have one rifle, I probably would pick the 06. I think many of us in the shooting and hunting world probably cut our teeth on the 06. Some of us just wanted to shoot some different cartridges, for certain applications, but the 30-06 to this day is an awesome cartridge.

I have heard that the hides of deer and other such animals have been getting thicker over the centuries. My understanding is that this is a natural defensive evolution in response to getting shot, thus the need for more powerfull cartridges. If this evolution continues, we will soon have to use the .50 Browning round as a minimum for deer.

Gunnut, I know exactly what you are saying. If you read or listen to all of the "hype" from the gun magazines you'll go nuts! The companies have to come out with new products to stay in business. The "old" .300 Savage and the 30/40 Krag were considered plenty good for anything in North America up until about 1950,including grizzlies! I have nothing against the Magnums. The "latest" news nowadays is that you will never see a deer at less than 400 yards and every critter is a lot bigger and tougher than before, so you got to have the latest Magnum. The 06' is getting the same treatment as the .300 Savage, which means nothing! I'm sure that most of us would be quite comfortable using the 30/06 for all North American game except the big bears. For them I would use a .338 Win. Mag. After using my 06'for deer for many years I have changed to a 6.5x55. I just don't need the power of the 06' for eastern deer. The Magnums are very good, if, the type of hunting you do requires them.