"The .30-06 shares the head and rim dimensions with the 8x57. No matter what was the motivation for the change of the rifle/cartridge from the Krag/30-40 to the Springfield 30-03/30-06."

no wonder, it was a pure copy of the 8x57, just lengthened for the inferiour american nitro powder

and necked down for the .30 caliber. a better cartridge btw. is the 8x64 Brennecke!

"The FIRST Mauser smokeless designed cartridge was the great 7,65x53 (or 7,65x53,5 or 7,65x54)for the Belgian 1889 Mauser. By the way, in my opinion the 7,65 Mauser Belgian (Turkish and Argentine)is one of the best Military Mauser cartridge of that era, as modern then as now!"

excuse me, where do you coming from?

no, joke apart its a fine cartridge
dont know if there was a commercial hunting load before ww2?

today, the best cartridge from this big family is imho, the 308 Win.
nothing more than a shortened 30 06 loaded with then very modern ball powder to get close to 30 06 ballistic there are now 70 years developtment from every mayor ammo maker worldwide in this cartridge.