Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Long Range Hunting Best rounded .30 Caliber?

I will start with, I have no interest in getting any of these at this time. Excluding the price of brass, which do you think is the best performer? Looking at a balance of recoil, accuracy, barrel life, and range. As easy at it is to say .300 UM or WM, I got to shoot an UM not too long ago, and even though the recoil wasn't as bad as I thought, I can't see shooting 5+ rounds through it being 'fun'. On the other side, the 30-30 is very low recoil, but it's performance isn't near its fellow 30 cals, except in heavy brush. The 30-06 is great, but it's performance isn't really as good as i'de like either. I personally think the .300 Win Mag and the .308 Norma Mag are the best rounded, but, some say the Norma has better performance, some say the Win Mag, so assuming they have identical ballistics, what are the other features? Identical recoil, 300 Win Mag has one extra grain of powder from what i've read but gets no performance boost from it, the only noticeable difference is the neck length, with the Norma's slightly longer. But is being able to seat bullets slightly deeper really a noticeable advantage?

I really enjoy learning new things about these kinds of things so anybody's input would be appreciated. I know I left out alot, the WSM, SAUM, 30-338, etc. but those are still easily contenders in my books. On a side note, I was doing some random exploration on google and found a wildcat, the 30-404 Jeff. If anyone knows anything about it i'de love to know, information on it is scarce. Although if I had to guess the barrel life on it would be horrendously short. Thanks for reading!

Lonie at Hornady has proven beyond doubt that shorter necks cause barrels to wear faster. Maybe twice or three times as fast. With that being said, I would recommend the .300 Weatherby. It uses less powder than the RUM and can easily get more velocity than the .300 WM.

I will start with, I have no interest in getting any of these at this time. Excluding the price of brass, which do you think is the best performer? Looking at a balance of recoil, accuracy, barrel life, and range. As easy at it is to say .300 UM or WM, I got to shoot an UM not too long ago, and even though the recoil wasn't as bad as I thought, I can't see shooting 5+ rounds through it being 'fun'. On the other side, the 30-30 is very low recoil, but it's performance isn't near its fellow 30 cals, except in heavy brush. The 30-06 is great, but it's performance isn't really as good as i'de like either. I personally think the .300 Win Mag and the .308 Norma Mag are the best rounded, but, some say the Norma has better performance, some say the Win Mag, so assuming they have identical ballistics, what are the other features? Identical recoil, 300 Win Mag has one extra grain of powder from what i've read but gets no performance boost from it, the only noticeable difference is the neck length, with the Norma's slightly longer. But is being able to seat bullets slightly deeper really a noticeable advantage?

I really enjoy learning new things about these kinds of things so anybody's input would be appreciated. I know I left out alot, the WSM, SAUM, 30-338, etc. but those are still easily contenders in my books. On a side note, I was doing some random exploration on google and found a wildcat, the 30-404 Jeff. If anyone knows anything about it i'de love to know, information on it is scarce. Although if I had to guess the barrel life on it would be horrendously short. Thanks for reading!

Baloney......you might want to call George at GA precision and tell him his 7 WSM is about 2000 rounds over due

If you fired 350 rounds one right after the other I could believe it, but most here aren't building a comp rifle, and Competition rifles in 7 wsm last 1000 + rounds of great accuracy, I just don't buy it.........!!!