Now just in case we have a few inexperienced people out there reading this forum information etc., I just want to say that in hunting elk is one thing but shooting them far away is a totally other subject, especially when your speaking of magnum caliber ok.
Like I stated before, I grew up reading the likes of Bill Jordan, Jack O'Conner etc. and while it might be the "macho" thing for a man to want to shoot a big magnum caliber, it takes a lot more time and practice to be as efficient with it as it does a 30-06 or even a caliber that is lesser in energy production and recoil.
The 300 Winchester magnum is a wonderful hunting tool for hunters who can tolerate it's recoil and master the skills to hit things with it down range. To be more exact, a 30-06 when shooting a 180 grain bullet will have the recoil of around 24 pounds of energy in recoil to your shoulder and the .300 Win mag will shoot that same weight bullet at around 30 to 32 pounds of energy. Now a jump up in just 5lbs of recoil energy, is very noticeable to most shooters. Another level or step up the ladder you might say and that could be the straw that broke the camels back in terms of down range accuracy.
This is something many hunters don't think about when purchasing a hunting rifle in a particular caliber, not until they have a certain level of experience with guns behind them. More recoil usually generates less accuracy the further down range one shoots.
One of the reasons that the Army phased out the 30-06, in favor of the 7.62 (.308) back in the 1950's, was "lesser recoil" in the form of 5lbs, which let green troops be more accurate down range when shooting. I can still remember those purple colored shoulders of many in my barracks during boot camp who met up with the steel buttplate of the 30-06 M1-Garand combat rifle.
The 300 Win mag shoots a 180 grain bullet faster by some 300 plus feet a second but there is also a price to pay in the form of recoil and one must learn to master that recoil to be able to master the extra range a magnum this magnum caliber can give you.
Oh, bye the way, I once saw a hunter kill an elk at over 440 yards with a 30-06, using a Nosler partition 180 grain bullet, so don't think you need magnum power only to take down large game at 400 yards. A hunter needs "marksmanship skills" first! Not everybody is meant to shoot a big magnum and lesser calibers like the 30-06 are capable of killing most big game down range.
Last edited by Tonk; 04/17/09.
