Well, as of this post, 64 votes total ... seems a shame to not try to make some sorta sense of the results ...
First 'n foremost, if I had it to do again, I'd split out .308 from the .30-06 group ... and all the rifles from the 12ga group ... and also list the pistol calibers twice ... once fer handguns ... once fer rifles ... oh well.
I think it's safe to say, most of the folks voting in the 12ga and pistol groups were voting based on the restrictions of the shotgun zone ... so I'll jest set them aside, fer now ...
I'll also set aside the leverguns ... if ya want a levergun, ya'll get a levergun ... nothin' to do with ballistics 'er such.
We're left with (23) .30-06, (8) magnum, (6) sub-.30 std, and (5) short-action (
'er similar performance).
Arguably, the sub-.30 std's have similar recoil to most in the .30-06 group ... but EVEN if I count 'em as "
less recoil", with the short-actions and sub-.30 milsurps, we end up with ...
31 - .30-06 and magnums
11 - sub-.30
If we were to put the sub-.30 based on .30-06 in with the .30-06 and magnums, it'd be 37 to 5!
I'm guessing ... most of the magnums are 7mm? That would make 7mm Rem. Mag and .30-06 among the top choices in Minnesota. (
probly most of the country where deer season's popular)
Ya, there's some .308's in that .30-06 group ... but not that many, I'd bet ... even still, I see a lot more heavy-bbl .308's on the rack than sporters.