.308 vs 30-06

[Duck'n N Buck'n]

What are your thoughts comparing the .308 Win to the 30-06 caliber? Never shot a .308 and was wondering what the major differences were.

[nitro5x6's]

What are your thoughts comparing the .308 Win to the 30-06 caliber? Never shot a .308 and was wondering what the major differences were.

About 100-200 FPS. Depending on the load. 30-06 is a great cartridge no doubt. I like the short action cartridges and favor the .308 Win.

The real life, practical differences are not enough for the animal you shoot to feel the difference.

I love the .30 cals.

.308 Winchester is possibly the best Whitetail cartridge there is. I love my .308s.........

[rp]

The 308 may be inherently the most accurate cartridge made but that is only up to a certain point, like 600 yards. The 300 Win Mag takes over from there out to 1000. And it depends on the shooter, the gun, the weather....

Seriously, the 30-06 had all records until the 308 came along. And a deer won't give a rat's ass if it is shot with a 308 or a 30-06. Some folks say the 30-06 is better for elk but the last elk I shot in SC was with bow & arrow.

[scduckhunter79]

.308 is good enough for USMC snipers...good enough for me

[BigBrother]

I shoot a .270, and my next caliber will be .308.

[dcmbsc]

.308 is what the military snipers use... I think they have done their homework.

I love my .308.

[britton40]

Had a 308. Easy to shoot, accurate, but nowhere near the knockdown power of a 30-06 180 grain boat tail bullet. Looks comparable on paper, but if your hunting out to 150 or less 30-06 is the way to go. I've expierenced a big difference in knock down. I'm sure someone will say if you hit a deer perfect every caliber will drop them. I have or had most of the popular calibers. I use 30-06 and 270.

[Swamp Rat]

I honestly don't see a bit of PRACTICAL difference between the two - sure, there is a slight advantage to the '06 regarding velocity. But there is also a theoretical but somewhat validated potential accuracy advantage to the 308, due to the shorter cartridge case and all that. Any deer we are likely to encounter in South Carolina can be killed just as effectively with either, out to (and beyond) any distance at which we should be ethically attempting to do so.

The reason the 308 Winchester is the load of choice for US military snipers (and other countries) is, in my opinion, that 308 (or, rather, 7.62x51mm NATO) is the standard battle rifle/general purpose machinegun caliber as well. Has been since the 1950's for the US, when we adopted the M-14 rifle and the M-60 machinegun. So, for the military sniper, it makes logistical sense to issue a rifle that is chambered in a cartridge that he can, in a pinch, scrounge on the battlefield (even though standard "ball" ammunition is not the preferred loading...). Special ops units have some leeway now in what they can use. The 308 truly needs to be used with the M-118LR (175 grain) load to be effective out to around 1000 yards - the old 168 grain load goes subsonic before that, and, thus, becomes unstable and less effective. As RP mentioned, the 300 Winchester Magnum is gaining favor for longer shots. The 338 Lapua and some other calibers are also in use.

I own two 308 Winchester-caliber rifles... a Remington 700 SS "Mil-Spec" (5R) and a Tikka T3 Lite Stainless. Neither have been scoped or shot yet. Both will be put to use on deer next year.

[300WINMAG]

Swamp, I thought I had read an article somewhere that it was stated the 308 could be loaded to higher pressures than the 30 06, thus making it a more versatile cartridge than the 06. Found that interesting considering the case of the 308 is smaller than the 06.

[Swamp Rat]

SAAMI pressure max's for the 30-06 are set at 60,000 CUP. The 308 is set at 62,000 CUP. While this theoretically indicates a SLIGHT pressure advantage to the 308, you'd be better not approaching 60,000 CUP in either to stay safe. That's a lot of pressure.

(That's the pressure standard for piezo measurement, not crusher...)

[Mergie Master]

I've killed most of my deer with the .270. But I just scoped a .308 that I bought recently so I should see what it will do with deer next season. I have yet to get to the range with it. I wish I'd been able to find the time so I could have used it these last few days of this season.

[rp]

One of my thoughts is that it seems that the 308 may have been one of the first Ultra Mags or Short Mags out there. They took the 30-06 caliber and loaded it into a shorter case with a slightly different shape and the rest is history as pointed out above.

[FLS]

The 300 Savage was the first of the short fat cases. The 308 was developed from it. They did away with the sharp shoulder and gave it more body taper to eliminate feed problems in automatic weapons.
The ONLY advantage the 06 has is case capacity. When you load anything over 180 in the 308 case your taking up valuable powder space.
Brtitton 40, explain your post, because with similar bullet weights and constuction, you would see no performance difference between the two.

[CWPINST]

I honestly don't see a bit of PRACTICAL difference between the two - sure, there is a slight advantage to the '06 regarding velocity. But there is also a theoretical but somewhat validated potential accuracy advantage to the 308, due to the shorter cartridge case and all that. Any deer we are likely to encounter in South Carolina can be killed just as effectively with either, out to (and beyond) any distance at which we should be ethically attempting to do so.

The reason the 308 Winchester is the load of choice for US military snipers (and other countries) is, in my opinion, that 308 (or, rather, 7.62x51mm NATO) is the standard battle rifle/general purpose machinegun caliber as well. Has been since the 1950's for the US, when we adopted the M-14 rifle and the M-60 machinegun. So, for the military sniper, it makes logistical sense to issue a rifle that is chambered in a cartridge that he can, in a pinch, scrounge on the battlefield (even though standard "ball" ammunition is not the preferred loading...). Special ops units have some leeway now in what they can use. The 308 truly needs to be used with the M-118LR (175 grain) load to be effective out to around 1000 yards - the old 168 grain load goes subsonic before that, and, thus, becomes unstable and less effective. As RP mentioned, the 300 Winchester Magnum is gaining favor for longer shots. The 338 Lapua and some other calibers are also in use.

I own two 308 Winchester-caliber rifles... a Remington 700 SS "Mil-Spec" (5R) and a Tikka T3 Lite Stainless. Neither have been scoped or shot yet. Both will be put to use on deer next year.

+1 The difference in terminal performance between the two is negligible. A SC deer will never know the difference. Remember that in some loads, you can see a 75-100fps variation (which is a lot, but not uncommon with factory ammo) from shot to shot with the same ammo. In other words the two rounds can nearly overlap in performance.

[rp]

The 300 Savage was the first of the short fat cases. The 308 was developed from it. They did away with the sharp shoulder and gave it more body taper to eliminate feed problems in automatic weapons.

I had forgotten about the 300. The 308 pretty much put it out of business.

[Mergie Master]

Had a 308. Easy to shoot, accurate, but nowhere near the knockdown power of a 30-06 180 grain boat tail bullet. Looks comparable on paper, but if your hunting out to 150 or less 30-06 is the way to go. I've expierenced a big difference in knock down. I'm sure someone will say if you hit a deer perfect every caliber will drop them. I have or had most of the popular calibers. I use 30-06 and 270.

The difference you're seeing is probably due to bullet construction.

[ftroop82]

The difference is that you can go into any mom and pop store, general store, hardware store, and they will more than likely have a box of 30-06 over .308., it's been around for a long time, also you have more of a choice for bullet grain size in 30-06. That said... both are great rounds.

[tradorion]

i'd bet you can find 308 in any store that carries 30-06....

but i will agree on the wider range of bullet weights.

[rp]

For what it is wort, little rp dropped 2 does this evening with a 308. He is a small 12 year old that almost weighs 80 pounds soaking ass wet. Not a word from him on the recoil. These were deer numbers 2 & 3 for him this year. I will bet a 06 would have given hiss ass whiplash and a nose bleed.

[Swamp Rat]

Not with Remington Reduced Recoil ammo it wouldn't. I think the recoil difference would be modest anyway, in the same bullet weight.