agree dead is dead but even 30-06 does a lot of damage. I'm talking blacktails. used to have to remove a lot of blood shot meat if the deer was hit in the shoulder.
my preference would be:
.257 Roberts
.243 win
6mm Rem
7x57mm Mauser
my only motivation for using 30-06 is that I have hundreds of rounds my dad loaded plus whats left of a couple of wooden cases of M1 Garand clips my dad got from a national guard friend back in the 60's. They are armor piercing (black tip) and tracer (orange tip). he would pull the bullets and powder and use the brass for reloading.
I also still have my old J9 Mauser and his old 30-06 Remington 742 carbine.
Not at all! There's no such thing as over-kill! Dead is dead. It doesn't matter if it's a 600 Nitro or a 243.
Besides, there big brown fuzzy critters in the woods around here that tend to need more than a 308.
They do make 30-30's on up.