I hunt in a very diverse area. Heavily(dense trees), Open area(Long range possibilities), Elk at a dead run in the trees(snapshot), bedded down, hell I got one sleeping once. Some a .308 would have been fine. My last one I dont believe it would have been.
KAM
That sir isn't hunting and never should be mentioned. If someone publicly mentions that in my area then they are ridiculed and made fun of all the time. When a game animal is sleeping you aren't hunting it you are killing it for the heck of it; irregardless of whatever you are doing with the meat from the kill.
As for the .30-06; it is my favorite bolt action rifle of all time but I do hunt with a .280, a .308, a .30-30 and various others depending on what I am hunting. I have owned and still do now a couple of Remington Model 700's that have been produced at different times throughout their history and am comfortable taking them just about anywhere and making shots out to 450-500 meters with them; more than that and I can't guarantee a kill shot consistently. Kinetic energy doesn't mean a cotton picking thing when you can place your shots anywhere you wish on running game animals of various sizes.
For instance go rabbit hunting with an GAMO air rifle or .22 rifle...then come back and talk about how good a snap shooter you are when you kill 6 rabbits with 6 shots and all were in less than 25 yards and with shot times of sub 2 seconds for sight acquisition and trigger pull. I have never shot Elk before but I have made plenty of large white tail kills in thick hard woods, open fields, scrub brush, pine thickets, swamps, etc... and at ranges from 10 feet to 350+meters with the animals doing anything from standing dead still to running full speed. The only thing that mattered was placement.
