How much gun is too much?

[buckshot40]

That's a great question and will get a lot of deferent answers! For me...... Hands down 25-06 117 gran bullet! Me my wife and my little girl have shot many deer with this gun! By far the best caliber, every deer we have shot have fell in there tracks! There are not a lot of wasted meat, for me this was a big plus sense my family love deer meat! It has awesome recoil, we've shot deer up to 200- 250 yards away! Well place shots will put him down in his tracks! My biggest Buck an awesome 9 point 225 pound live weight 140 yards away fell right were I shot him!! There's no need for a bigger caliber! Good luck my friend

[tbonecpa]

I have shot an '06 since I was 17 and upgraded to a 300 WM several years ago. Neither are too much gun in my opinion. In fact when my youngest son was 10 he used my 300WM to shoot his first buck. Some of you may think that is child abuse but not when he was shooting Remington managed recoil ammo. They all used that ammo in both the '06 and 300WM until they hit 16, now they shoot the regular loads. Having guns for my young sons to use and having those same weapons capable of long-range and or Elk and Moose hunting is incredible utility from one weapon. My two cents.

[Wagguy80]

I shoot a Mossberg ATR in .30-06 it won't break the bank and is a fine shooter. It's a bolt however unless you want to spent over $1000 for a lever action Browning .30-06 you can hang up that idea. Remington makes a pump, and a semi as well. I would go pump it's not actually much slower than a semi, and much more reliable, and durable.
The .30-06 is an old tried and true caliber. There isn't 10 cents worth of difference between it and a 300wsm, or a rem 7mm mag. 3" drop difference at 500 yards, and 500 ft lbs worth of energy (all delivering well over 1000lb of force) all travelling between 1900-2200 fps. And those aren't hot loads or even Hornady loads. That's just standard loads.

Basically at 500 yards any of the 3 are hitting about like a .30-30 at 100 yards. I've seen elk taken at 300 with a .243 so really too much beyond that is excessive. However most people can handle a .30-06 recoil fairly well. Many cannot handle the Rem 7mag, or the .300wsm that well. I've got a buddy with a rem 7mag he can't stand to shoot it more than twice at the range. It just varies from person to person.