Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Help me decide 30-06 vs 300 wsm

.280AI twisted right will do anything you need it to

I’ve been back and forth between 30-06’s and 300WSM’s for years in multiple platforms. There isn’t a lick of difference in how they kill. I’ve come full circle to the 30-06 and find it easy to shoot as much as I like. I use less powder and since I’ve gone to a scope that allows me to shoot as far as I want, the MPBR zero advantage of the WSM is a non issue. They are both great calibers! Built up a scary accurate load with 155 Scenars at 3150 and it will be my mule deer/Elk load for the coming years.

Scotty, he may be like the rest of us and needs to find out for himself. One of my buddies started out on the 06 (like I did), when he was 12. Then decided to give the 308win a try (in 2009) and loves it. He says it kills just as good as the 30-06. His poor old sporterized 1903 just sits in the safe now. Then about 4-5 years ago, he says he wants to try a "magnum". He says he wants to keep it a 30 cal, since he's thinking about getting into reloading. My best suggestion at the time was 300WSM. He's still using that rifle and that's the one he takes to the range most of the time. It's a winchester extreme weather and he's had a rough time with the rifle. It used to be a copper fouling biotch, but now it's settled down to a sub moa shooter. He took a nice cow elk with it in Idaho last month and still thanks me for suggesting the 300WSM. I don't know if he's going to revert back (like some of us do) to the 30-06, now that he has his 308win and 300wsm????

Good post. I know there are a few of us here that have reverted back to the 06 and accept it for what it is...

I would go .30/06.

If you were going jack rabbit hunting.. I'll agree.. BTDT too...

For jackrabbits nothing smaller than a .460 Wby,you know that,BSA.

I've got one in a Browning BAR with a synthetic stock that I retired to the safe because of the recoil. It was a gift from my dad, so I can't sell it. You'd think it wouldn't be bad in a BAR. A few shots, no problem. But I sat behind it on the bench a few times and put 20+ rounds down range and it was brutal. As a result, I started flinching, so it went in the safe and went back to my 280 REM. I will say the synthetic stock on the BAR is horrible and I couldn't find a good recoil pad that would fit it. And I never considered myself recoil sensitive but maybe I'm getting soft in my old age.

Well I used a 29-2 a lot, loaded with 240gr. hp's.... Furthest shot on a running jack was 200 yards... You really had to lead the sombitches, at that range... I always packed my 30-06 for backup too...

I could not hit a rabbit with a handgun at 20 paces,standing still too boot.

That's what the .460 is for.

I have a Model 70 FWT in 300 WSM cut down to 23" bbl and in an Edge stock with a Swaro Z3 on top. Perfect handling rifle that I wouldnt change. I got it for a close handling elk and mountain type rifle. It really is not that bad off the bench. Its a hunting rifle that I dont shoot a lot at the range. It has never bothered me and I really dont find the recoil that noticeable with factory Nosler 180 NABs. Sure, it pushes but it is expected. Technically, it probably does have more recoil than an '06 but if that was the deciding factor, I would probably choose a much softer recoiling cartridge than either a 30-06 or 300 WSM.

No contest....30-06

How does that work with everything else being equal ( bullet weight, velocity, rifle weight etc)?

I had a wood stocked BAR in 300 Win Mag for a while. That rifle ended my fascination with the cartridge. Even in that heavy of a rifle, it kicked me like a young mule. Maybe it was stock fit, because it kicked worse than the Rem 700 that I traded for it. I knew if I'd kept it, I would have developed a flinch that I'd have had a tough time getting rid of. I have a BAR Longtrac in 30-06 that's not bad at all.

I've also owned on 300WSM and used it to kill the first and largest buck of my like. I just couldn't warm up to the cartridge and eventually traded it. My hunting partner owns it now and enjoys it, but did tell me it's the only rifle he's ever shot that showed a tremendous difference in recoil with different bullet weights. He refuses to shoot 180s out of it, 150s aren't bad at all.

Is the blue stocked rig a Winchester Coyote Light? That's the platform I'm considering. I'm not a fan of the factory Bell & Carlson stock... any idea what I could sell if for?

Copperking, the rifle with the blue stock was a 2008 limited edition with an extreme weather barrel. I'm not sure about the value of your b&c stock. I did sell a factory b&c from an ew for $150...

Gotcha, thanks! Somewhere around $100-150 is about what I figured it would fetch.

Id say recoil is more towards 300wm. I like the 06. I had a 300win mag and the recoil wasn't horrible, I wasn't able to concentrate as well as I could with the 06. Sold the Win mag eventually. Id pick a 30-06 over WSM but it's subjective.

I've hunted with 30-06 since 1975. I started using 308 about 10 years ago and really like the round. Modern 308 loads beat WW-2 era 30-06 loads by about 100 fps. I'll never say anything bad about 30-06, but just don't see me going back. My 6 lb 308 has exactly the same recoil as my 7.5 lb 30-06 and my 7.5 lb 308 has 25% less recoil than my 7.5 lb 30-06. My 308 will kill anything I'll ever hunt out to at least 400 yards. My 30-06 or a 300 WSM will do the same thing farther, but about 400 is as far as I can shoot.

I did run across a deal on a Winchester 70 Classic in 300 WSM several years ago. I REALLY liked the round and if I didn't have such a sentimental attachment to 30-06 would probably say it is the better round.

You can push em faster, but I got best accuracy with my 300 WSM and 180's at about 2950 fps. That is only about 50 fps slower than typical 300 WM loads but about 150 fps faster than my most accurate 30-06 loads at about 2800 fps. About 250 fps faster than typical factory loads. Yea, I know some people push all 3 faster, but this is where I found best accuracy.

While the 300 WSM was closer to 300 WM performance I calculated recoil right down the middle. Both my 300 WSM and 30-06 weighed 7.5 lbs scoped. Assuming a 300 WM at 7.5 lbs as well I got:

30-06 22 ft lbs recoil
300WSM 26 ft lbs recoil
300WM 30 ft lbs recoil.

I've owned 300 WM in the past and can say that I noticed the 8 ft lbs difference in recoil between 30-06 and 300 WM. But I honestly never noticed the 4 ft lbs difference between 30-06 and 300 WSM. I know it is there, but I honestly never noticed it.

How much a different rifle weighs, and how hard you push loads can make things different. But those are the numbers on my rifles.

While I really liked the rifle, and 300WSM round I just found that I rarely took it hunting. I'd pretty much decided on 308 as my go-to round and just didn't need it. When I had a chance to sell at a profit I let it go. But if I were a younger hunter, with no sentimental attachment to 30-06 I'd probably keep a 300 WSM over 30-06. I know I'd take 300 WSM over any other 300 magnum.