I like the 25/06 fine. It's not a popular cartridge in my area. And I have limited experience with it. I use the Grendel for depredation with 123 eldms and ssts and it excels at it. I had a blood dog and would get called regularly back in my younger days. I do not care for the 6mm cartridges. I developed a large distaste for them years ago and there are other cartridges I prefer to use. What I saw were long blood trailing jobs and poor blood trails. Also lost animals. I always shot a 270 then and did not have those issues. For regular hunting I prefer 65/06, 270, and 308. 7mms are good as well.
Can't really argue with another persons experience. I don't really like the .243 or any .22 cal for big game hunting either for these same reasons BUT will happily acknowledge the great success I've seen others have with the .243 in my neck of the woods. There's an older lady I know, small framed and has had shoulder surgery, has had no trouble taking many elk and moose over the years with her .243…she is a good hunter first and a good shot second, doesn't take shots beyond 200 yards and only pulls the trigger on broadside double lung shots…nothing lives long with both lungs taken out, simple as that. Plain old Winchester power points, 100 grain. For the longest time here it was the minimum legal big game caliber and that always seemed appropriate to me…yes a .22lr to the head kills things too but a sensible minimum should be a cartridge that can still deliver humane kills at ordinary hunting ranges with conventional broadside chest shots, not one that requires a CNS hit to kill fast. And the .243 can and does do this with the right bullet. I still don't like it and I even have one!
. It's just a lot less forgiving..,less forgiving of range, less forgiving of varying body mass on a given species, less forgiving of bullet choice, less forgiving of shot placement - this one is a big deal to me, every single thread like this there's always about a dozen people that just repeat the mantra "shot placement is everything" as if nothing else is important and give the matter no further thought.
Ima come out and say it:
Shot placement IS NOT EVERYTHING!!!! There I said it!!
Shot placement absolutely is THE MOST IMPORTANT THING, I'd never question the obvious truth that a well placed shot with a .22 creed is a more humane killer than gut shooting some poor creature with a .300 win mag, - and there's no doubt in my mind that the odds of gut shooting an animal increases when a person honestly can't handle or is afraid of the recoil of a given rifle, no need to be macho man and prove anything to anyone, shoot the biggest cartridge THAT YOU CAN ACTUALLY SHOOT WELL and be honest with yourself about that - I don't think anybody would question that (though human stupidity is amazing at times). But shot placement is not the only thing. Specifically, when you're shooting a bigger cartridge with more horsepower, wounding capability, a quality projectile, and penetrating ability, the amount of shots you can effectively take that would be "good shot placement" does in fact go up dramatically. There are absolutely shot angles on game sizes at distances that I wouldn't hesitate to pull the trigger with my .300 win mag and wouldn't even think about trying with my .243. Heck a lot of the old school ivory hunters piled up stacks of elephants by braining them with cartridges like .303 British and 7mm Mauser.,,,doesn't make those "elephant guns" anymore than head shooting a deer with a .22lr makes the .22lr a bonafide "big game hunting rifle".
So shot placement is obviously the most important thing, but not all cartridges offer the same viable shot placement opportunities. That's my take anyway.