Originally Posted by
flags
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 may be inclined to argue that, many times, aerobic fitness is more useful than stronger shoulders. If we were all called to create the "perfect hunter", my suspicion is that more would call for endurance than shoulder strength.
Let us pretend that we are all guides and charged with the success of inexperienced groups. Groups with specialized athletic backgrounds however. I would certainly prefer the endurance athletes over the strength athletes.
Noted that hardly anybody called for a caliber exceeding .30. Recoil almost has to be a part of their reasoning. My .375 H&H, with 270 grain bullets, makes me flinch pretty hard without some padding. My .338/.378 does not have that affect per memory. I suspect the effective muzzle brake provides the needed difference. My .50 BMG is so heavy with such an effective muzzle brake that shooting is almost a pleasure. Too bad buying the ammo is not.
Muzzle brake additions are not always the answer. A friend had a gunsmith add "a slot" to his highly accurate Parker-Hale. Somehow destroying the accuracy. I wonder if that gunsmith swapped barrels.