Out here where elk can be taken from 30 yards, to 700 yards, flat-shooting magnums are popular, as are the latest "cool" calibers such as the 6.5 Creedmoor, 6.5 PRC, and 30 PRC.
My brother is an avid hunter and HAS to have the latest and greatest caliber. He went from the .30-06 to the .300 WM, then the .300 WSM, then the 6.5 PRC, to now the 30 PRC.
He's taken animals with all of them yet still finds some reason to move on to the next one.
I hunted for 20 years with a .30-06, then was was given a .30-06 Ackley Improved by my dad. He did load development that pushes a 180 grain bullet to 3000 fps. It's 2-3 grains over max load listed and uses a bullet you can't buy anymore, IIRC. I load it to more sane 2800 fps levels.
That is now my "big medicine" rifle and the .308 Ruger Predator rifle is my everything else rifle.
My brother has a ballistic table taped onto his stock so he can calculate shots out to 700 yards or so. Yet the elk he took a couple of years ago was point shot at 30 yards when it ran by him...
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