I don't doubt that you have a real need for that 300 Win Mag. You live in Colorado. I spent last weekend visiting family in Lamar. Enough said about wide open spaces. That you limit your use of your rifles to very few bullets is pretty understandable. Why not? You can afford several rifles.
Ron –
With the exception of Alaska, Maine, Vermont, and possibly South Carolina and Rhode Island, I’ve been to every state in this country. In every state I’ve visited I have seen places where hunters could take advantage of a flat shooting magnum. (We’ll ignore that some states, like Iowa where I grew up, do not allow hunting with centerfire rifles regardless of the cartridge, as a .30-06 wouldn’t work there, either.)
My point about the merits of the 30-06 is that 102 years ago the army hit a home run. They produced an accurate cartridge with enormous room to grow. I still think people would be hard pressed to find a cartridge with a broader range of applications. That is why it has stood the test of time.
The Army did indeed develop a great cartridge. Then they decided it wasn’t so great and developed the 7.62 NATO/.308 Win and deemed it “better”. Later they decided that wasn’t so great either and they switched to a 5.56/.223 Rem. Seems like they can’t make up their mind.
As I’ve said, though, the .30-06 is a great cartridge and I wouldn’t have three if it were otherwise. Wouldn’t have a .308 Win, either, if I didn’t think highly of it. If I had to reduce my rifle count to one, however, the .30-06 would likely NOT be the sole survivor. More likely I would keep the 7mm Rem Mag or .300 Win Mag.
Is the 30-06 best at anything? No, there are any number of cartridges (including lots of magnums) that are better for just about any particular task, but the 30-06's flexibility makes it a very valuable back up. That you can find ammunition for it in just about any backwoods store enhances its value. For a lot of folks the fact that 30-06 ammunition is relatively cheap is very important.
Cheap ammo is important to a lot of folks, but I reload and shoot premium ammo for the cost of mediocre .30-06 factory ammo. The cost delta between my .30-06 and magnum hunting ammo is primarily the difference in powder costs, about $0.03 per cartridge more for my .300 Win than my .30-06. Not only is such a difference unimportant in the extreme when I am shooting bullets that cost $1 or more each, I can always download the .300 Win to .30-06 velocities and reduce costs accordingly. Talk about flexibility, my 7mm Rem Mag and .300 Win Mag will both do everything my .30-06s will do, and then some. Can’t say the reverse is true. And I have yet to find a store selling .30-06 ammo that doesn't also carry .300 Win Mag and 7mm Rem Mag ammo. Maybe you run into that out east, but not around here.
I guess my point was that if I was going off grid for a year and could take only one firearm I would take my 30-06. My 870 Remington 12 gauge, a 30-30 lever gun, or a Ruger 10/22 might also be good choices, but on balance I think I would take my 30-06.
My choice would depend highly on just where I was going and what I would be doing. If you’re talking about a collapse of civilization my choice would likely be much different than if I was just going out to be a law-abiding hermit in a cabin somewhere. In the former case I might well choose a .223 semi-auto as I could carry a lot more ammo, could still make killing shots on big game, and wouldn’t destroy small game. Or I might choose a semi-auto in .308 Win. In the latter case of a temporary hermit, shooting would be for fun and rarely for hunting so the choice really wouldn’t make much difference.
