We live in an age where faster is better, more is better, or as Tim "The Toolman" Taylor would say, "More power."
We have magnums, super short magnums, and now ultra-magnums. Basically, all these "super" cartridges do is vastly increase powder usage and provide a small increase in power, with huge increase in recoil. Most of the time, the increase in velocity is about 10 to 15%, while recoil is increased 20% or more over a similar non-magnum cartridge.
There isn't much a 300 Winchester Magnum can do that a 30-06 can't. There are a number of older cartridges that can still serve a great purpose and are almost dead cartridges theses days. The .32 Winchester Special and .300 Savage are great cartridges. The 32 Win is often called identical to 30-30, but it uses heavier bullets. The 300 Savage is halfway in power between the 30-30 and 308 Win. It can take anything the .308 Win can with quite a bit less recoil. The 300 Savage has been used in the Savage model 99 for 100 years to take millions upon millions of deer. It's another great cartridge being ignore these days since everyone "needs" a 308 Win at minimum.
Other great, useful cartridges being neglected are the 22 Hornet, .257 Roberts, 350 Remington, and 35 Winchester. The 22 Hornet was the .223 of it's day. It is a small, fast and flat shooting bullet used to take multitudes of varmints. It uses little powder, has little recoil, and can be put into very lightweight guns. The 250-3000, aka 250 Savage is a great mid-power cartridge. It's very underrated for it's capability. The other mentioned cartridges are useful for the same reasons. Smaller, lighter recoil, and still offering plenty of power for doing anything needed.
Time to return to useful cartridges that do the job with plenty of power, but not overkill for everything.
