Which would you pick for deer and elk out to 450 yards? Why would you choose one over the other? Both would be shooting a 180 grain nosler accubond
I use neither today for the game mentioned,but this is mostly because I really don't care for 300 magnum recoil anymore, and decided15-20 years ago that I didn't need the fuss and bother so just continued using a 7mag of some sort for the same things......
That said, a few years back when I wanted a 400-500 yard elk rifle,I built a 300 mag;I actually built several in 300 Win Mag,300 Weatherby,and 300H&H;hunted them all,but my favorite was a H&H-length 300 Winchester with 24" Krieger SS barrel and Brown Precision stock that weighed about 8 pounds all up.With perfectly safe loads it gave 3125-3150 with a 180 gr Partition;and about 3250 with 165 Bitterroots.It was light enough to lug in rough country;recoil(then) was tolerable;it shot flat,and killed elk with impunity.
I also had a 300 Weatherby that would do 3200 easily with a 180...
Bout the same time I had 30/06's and I read of those that would break 2800 with a 180 and safe loads,but never owned any....in any event I could not see the sense in it as I just simplisticly figured ...."why fight for 2800 with an 06 when I could easily get 3100-3200 from a 300 magnum?"
Back then we had no range finders and had to use scope reticle subtension,our instincts, honed through lots of varmint shooting and pacing-off shots,and hours on the range,to determine distances.We became pretty good at it,so we zeroed these flat shooting loads at 300 yards, and (from actual shooting out to 600 yards,not reading bullistic tables)we found that 300 magnums left the 30/06 in the dust with any bullet weight clear out to 600 yards.From a 300 yard zero,these loads were down 8-9" at 400 yards,and 2 feet at 500.....at 600 the bottom post was your aiming point in a fixed 4X scope,where the bullet dropped 4 feet.
Yes Matilda, we could actually kill them that far away without dots,B&C reticles,rangefinders,and other paraphenalia,mostly because we could shoot, knew our rifles,and shot a lot.All this meant was that we were still on hair at 400 yards,and "no" we did not miss them at 70-225 yards because of silly mid-range issues and other trivial nonsense(I never heard of such drivel till I started hanging out on the internet).
(BTW figuring 8-9" of drop to 400 yards is not "holding high and guessing". It is actually rather simple to hold a high shoulder aim point and have the bullet drop handily into the chest cavity.This is simple stuff and requires nothing with a properly zeroed and accurate rifle.There is no "guessing" involved except for the unknowing.....)
So trajectory was important back then(as it is today;I suspect some on here would go apoplectic if the ol' Leica did not give the range reading down to the final inch....many would not know what to do...), and we compared these combo's to lots of others and the big 7's found most favor....everyone dumped the 338's and they became dust collectors and safe queens....in the field I never saw a difference between a 300 with good bullets and a 338.....I left those to the Elmer Keith disciples and just continued to kill stuff, near and far,with the 300's....
I suppose an 06 shooter might get the same things done,but he may have to go to the dots quicker than a good guy with a 300........he will likely kill them just as dead.
