Originally Posted by
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http://www.chuckhawks.com/recoil_table.htm
According to Chuck Hawes, who is a widely accepted expert on firearms and ammo, the felt recoil energy of a 308 Win with a 150 gr bullet is 15.8 foot pounds. In a 30-06 that goes all the way up to 17.6 foot pounds. A whopping difference of 1.8 foot pounds of energy. I offer the humble opinion that if 1.8 foot pounds of energy affects you that much you should spend some time in the weight room making your shoulder stronger.
Bottom line is that anything a 308 can do a 30-06 can do just a little better. And you can literally get 30-06 ammo anywhere in the world.
As always, feel free to disagree.
I do agree that the .30-06 offers a bit more velocity.....about 8% with most loads. I also agree that 15% more recoil doesn't seem like much. What I don't agree with is that the .30-06 can do anything "just a little bit better" than the .308 Win. Here's why:
The very same Chuck Hawks also states that 15 ft lbs of recoil is about the maximum recoil most shooters can be comfortable with and that anything over 20 ft lbs causes most shooters to develop a flinch. With this in mind, that 15% more recoil can indeed mean something, as the .308 sits right on the threshold of the comfort level, while the extra recoil of the .30-06 puts it pretty clearly over the comfort threshold and even starts inching it towards the flinch level.
That is why I don't agree that it does it "better" than the .308 Win. Because of where this extra recoil falls on the Chuck Hawks recoil scale, I do believe that 15% can make a difference to quite a few shooters, which means perhaps for 8% less velocity, the .308 might be "just a little bit better" for enough folks that there is no clear-cut better choice between the two. Just one better for some, the other better for others.
I've always found it interesting that these two cartridges, always and forever linked and compared to each other, just happen to be the two that fall right on the recoil threshold lines.