Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game "The 30-06 is obsolete!"

Well, it's obvious you've made up your mind, but the reality is that you CAN do what a .300 H&H mag does with a .260. My original point had more to do with the .308 being a ballistic twin of the .30-06, but comparisons across calibers are informative too. The typical .300 H&H factory load is a 180gr premium bullet with a velocity of between 2800 and 2950 and a G1 BC between 0.45 and 0.5. Top SAAMI hunting load in the .260 is a 160gr Weldcore at 2750 with a BC of just over 0.5. The H&H has a bit of an advantage in velocity and cross section, but a minor disadvantage in BC and a HUGE disadvantage in sectional density and thus penetration. The .260 will keep that bullet in the manufacturer's velocity window out past 400y at sealevel, farther at altitude. There aren't a whole heck of a lot of ethical shots that come up past that. And I know from substantial experience that 160gr .264 premiums give better performance on elk+ sized game than 180gr .308s do.

Now, lest someone get huffy, yes I hot-rodded the .260 and left the .300 H&H at it's usual performance level. The point here is that the difference between careful loading and generic loadings is bigger than the differences between cartridges.