.308 or 30-.06?

[Rustypipes12]

You are getting GREAT answers. Only thing I perceive is you may not need, want or understand that.

You read like you never shoot far and only shoot deer. That's a nothing and either one would be fine for those needs. People talk about target. You don't do that. Non-issue.

Answers dealing with energy and bullet weight, surplus ammo (available for both), action length, bullet speed etc. are also probably not relevant. You might not have a need to understand the minor differences.

As soon as you mentioned "cheek weld", I had a red flag thrown up. To me that means you want to push your head into some kind of tight stock position that probably feels comfortable but also puts pressure on the gun that make it harder to repeat holds for accuracy.

I say use what you like. It will make no difference if your knowledge and needs are limited to 200 yard deer hunting. Enjoy both rifles.

You are correct in that I use my rifles primarily for deer hunting and I live in the Northeast. Unfortunately there are no ranges over 250yd.s near by me that I'm aware of.My gun club has a 250yd range that both guns shoot pretty accurately in. I just started playing around with loads again as I was just shooting150gr. Hornaday SSTs over Varget powder for both guns. I now have some 178gr.Amax coming and will try out the new ELD bullets. I also just broke down and bought a new Savage111 in 25-.06 and a Dillon press. As for the cheek weld comment, because most of my hunting shots don't afford a bench rest I like a stock that lines my eye up with the scope immediately when I bring the gun up.
My longest kill shot on a deer was approx. 350yd.s with my 1974 RugerM77 30-.06. I used to shoot woodchucks out to about 600yd.s with my old Remington25-.06 off my dad's porch down in PA. Where I live now you don't even see chucks anymore probably due to coyotes. I'm building my own 500yd. range on some land I just bought and I plan on doing some predator hunting there.

 

[Rustypipes12]

Do not worry about what you may gain or may give up between 308 and 30-06. Where one shines the other does not but the +/- columns usually total up about even.
IF you have hunted with a 30-06 for the last ten years you should be completely familiar with its diamonds and stones; enough so that it wouldn't get me to give it up for anything else.

Thanks, I wouldn't give it up under ANY circumstance (it was my dad's gun). As for the .308, I won it and it shoots fine but I don't really live where the distance is that great for a shot. So I don't see a difference at the range with either gun. I just finally got around to glass bedding the action on the .06. My go to gun for distance was always my 25-.06 before it was stolen about 10years ago. I just broke down and bought another. I was thinking about a 6.5 Creedmore but I already have the reloading equipment for the 25.

 

[Berger.Fan222]

I prefer the 30-06. Most .308 Wins have short magazines that restrict OAL to the SAAMI spec. In Rem 700s and others, the long magazines in 30-06s allow bullets to be loaded much longer. For loads at 1000 yards, you want heavy bullets and as much powder capacity are possible.

Even in lighter bullets for deer hunting or shorter range work, the 30-06 will have a 100-200 fps advantage.

 

[Jeremy(WI)]

I saw that same statement somewhere and wondered if the new powders and bullets improve the 308 performance, shouldn't they do the same for the 30-06?

I have a 7400 Remington in 30-06 that I bought in 1989 and I bought a Bushmaster ORC in 308 a couple years ago. The bushmaster gets better groups with my reloads than I have ever got with the 7400 but if a giant whitetail buck showed up, I would rather be shooting the 30-06

 

[chevytruck_83]

The 308 to me is a great caliber for lots of reasons. In a good gun it will perform better then just about anyone starting out. It can be used to hunt most game and also used for target shooting at the same time. It is quite possibly the easiest caliber to find quality ammo to do both as well. Not just for reloaders. On top of that it's short action and the bolt face is correct for most calibers that someone would choose to upgrade to. So in my eyes it's way more versatile. Does it perform as good as the 30-06? No. Of course not. I have read articles on here recently that 06 die hard are really seeing the benefits of the added case capacity due to better powders, brass and bullet selections. So it's more what's best for you. There's no universal answer.