ORIGINAL: eldeguello
ORIGINAL: bigbuck13754
Which is a better deer rifle 30-06 or 7mm mag?
For game no larger than deer, it's pretty much of a tossup. If I were going for elk, moose, or grizzly I'd prefer to use the 7mm Mag. with a Nosler 175-grain Partition bullet. But I would not hesitate to use the '06 on these critters either, if I could use a Nosler Partition 200-grain bullet at 2600+ FPS!!
The 180 grain 30-06shell in several types of bullets (the two I've used are Swift Scirocco and A Frame) is an excellent moose cartridge. The most recent moose camp I was at with 5 long time moose hunters (read average of about 20 years each hunting moose) hadthree '06, one 7 mag and one 375 HH (a bear hunter who owns one gun). The guy with the 7 mag said he'd not buy it again, but would go with the 300 mag if he wanted something more than the '06.But really neither gives you anything meaningful that is going to affect moose success in a 250 or even longer shot.
Neither a 7mm mag or a 30-06 is known among bear huntersas an optimal brown or grizzly gun.
The only guy I know who hunts elk every year - both he and his sons use 30-06. But they're not making 350 yard shots because of the multiple risks involved no matter what gun you use.Only point I'm making is that the above about the advantage of the 7 mag is just an opinion which my personal experience doesn't agree with at all. Don't get me wrong, it's an excellent gun, just not a practical improvement over an '06 from what I've seen in the field among experienced, conservative hunters.