I was just wondering, my cousin has a 30.06 and I have a 7mm both of them are by savage arms. I think the 7mm is more powerful but he thinks his .06 is. which one is truly more powerful?

7mm what?

Just look up the ballistics of each on any manufacturers web page, like remington or winchester.

And I agree with Rebel, you would need to know which chambering in 7 mm, there are a few different one. Some being less and some being more I would guess. I never looked them up though.


Paul

Assuming the 7mm Rem mag is what you have it would be the more powerful of the two. It has starts out faster, retains more velocity and has more energy to all ranges than the 30-06 does with any given weight bullet.

The 7mm Rem Mag is more powerful than the 30.06. It does have more energy and speed but it does blow the 06 out of the water. I always thought it was a ton more powerful, but it actually isnt alot more they are pretty close with the magnum having the advantage. The 7mm outperforms the 06 in penetration though. The 7mm has a long slender bullet compared to the short stubby 30 cal bullet. This means the longer 7mm bullet doesnt fully mushroom leaving a stem behind the mushroom to push it deeper, whereas the .30 cal bullet becomes basically a ball and slows down quicker. I shoot a 7mm rem mag and love it, i also had a 30.06 and wouldnt go back after getting my magnum.

Dave

The best available 30-06 factory ammogenerates 3361FT/LBS of Kinetic Energy at the muzzle this actually exceeds the available ammo from any 7 MM Remmington Mag factory load I have ever seen. Actually there are 7 different factory loads that have 3300 or more FT/LBS of KE from the 06. These are "High Energy" loads with higher energy powders that operate best in 308 and 30-06 cartridges. The 7MM was always on top but with these recent cartridges the 99 year old 06 is currently in front.

PS: The 06 is also shooting heavier bullets with these HE loads than the 7MM and the LBS of Momentum is where the 06really has the edge.

Take a look at these 06 loads and you may reevaluate the 7mm / 06 comparison

Weight Velocity KE
1653015 3330

180 2900 3361

Sorry, bumped the enter key.

I also wanted to address the preconception that the 7mm bullets have better BC and therefore have better downrange energy. See if this does not change your mind:

165 Grain Barnes BC .505
180 Grain BarnesBC .552
200 Grain Accubond BC.588

The BC of 30 caliber bullets are as good as they get in hunting weight bullets it is only when you compare the light 30s vs the middleweight 7MMs does the 7MM appears to have an edge.

Also when it comes to handloads the 06 can deliver over 2000 LBS of energy at 450 yards with the 180 Grain XLC bullet @1000 ft abovesea level. I am pretty confident that is better than any 7MM handloads energy at that distance.

Ok Scott lets compare apples to apples here. Given similar weight bullets (180 grain for the 30 and 160 for the 7mm) the 7mm will have better BC and SD. It is a fact that can not be argued with no matter how one tries to manipulate the numbers. Besides that no one factory loads the 200 grain NAB for the 30-06.

If you wanted to compare a 200 grain 30 caliber bullet you would need to compare it to the 175 grain 7mm bullet. The 7mm bullet will again have better BC and SD. Sierra matchking 200 - 30 cal has a BC of .565 yet the 7mm 175 grain matchking has a BC of .608. When comparing the same bullets of similar weights for their bore size the 7mm will almost always have better BC and SD.



Federal published data

180 NAB - 30 cal - .271 SD and .507 BC. MV of 2700 at 500 yds 1903. ME of 2914 at 500 yds 1448.

160 NAB - 7mm - .283 SD and .531 SD. MV of 2950 at 500 yds 2127. ME of 3093 at 500 yds 1608.


Yes there are a couple of factory high energy loads for the 30-06 that do give an edge to the 30-06 at the muzzle. However there is a 175 sierra game king load from Federal that has the 7mm rem mag back on top in energy levels between 150 & 200 yards.


The 7mm Rem mag is still the more powerful cartridge.

Those high energy loads are not everything they say they are. Ammo boxes lie cronographs don't.