RE: 30-06 Vs 308
 

The long actions have been around longer and are more powerful. So what if there's more -06 cartridge shooters than -08 cartridge shooters? Just shoot what you have and shoot it well.

RE: 30-06 Vs 308
 

The '06 has been around for over 100 yr's. That upstart .308 has onlybeen around for about 50 yr's or so. Folks are still getting used to it.:) Besides the '06 has always had a reputation for being accurate with a wide range of loads and bullet weights.

RE: 30-06 Vs 308
 

I love both these cartridge and have shot a zillion rounds through each. Big Bulls comments are pretty much on the money but it wasn't strictly about .308 being smaller than the /06 and thus a soldier could carry more...albeit not a great lot more. The .308 (or 7.62 Nato) was the result of a big political battle between the US and it's NATO allies after WW-2. Everyone realized it would sure be nice ifall of usshot the same ammo. That was the main consideration. But most countries had their own idea about which cartridge and caliber everyone should use. Some, including England, wanted to get away from .30 caliber altogether. But America was really hung up on .30 caliber. In the end we had our way with the compromise round of the .308. It's a smaller round than the /06, obviously, but it also has slightly less recoil and can be built into slightly smaller and lighter rifles if desired and the thing is built with a nice case design with suitable neck for machineguns. It's obviously a very nice high powered military rifle cartridge and everyone finally bought into the idea and so the 7.62 NATO was born. Shortly after the US twisted everyone's arm and convinced them to adopt our .308, Viet Nam came along andAmerica jumped ship and adopted the 5.56 as our rifle. Something of a doublecross to our allies but in the end I think the reasons made sense to most. But anyway...........

To claim the .308 will do anything the /06 will do simply flies in the face of facts. It won't and never will and the heavier the bullet, the more edge the 30/06 has. Where the .308 shines is with the medium and light weight bullets...which is what most people hunt with in it. The fact the factory doesn't load heavier bullets than the 180 should speak volumes about the .308s capabilities...or lack of.

The fact the 30/06 is over 100 years old does not diminish the simple fact that it has proven to be the best all around and most versatile cartridge designed and the vast multitude of cartridges running around today can really trace their ancestry back to the /06.............including the .308 itself. The .308 is little more than a slightlyshortened /06. I hope when the .308 is a 100 years old people won't be pointing at it and wondering why it's still around. The .308 carries on the legacy of the 30/06 and is spawning it's own series of very fine wildcats and new cartridges.

As I said in the beginning, I love them both. Perhaps the best way to think of the difference between them is the 30/06 is a cartridge you CAN go around the world with and have a fairly good chance atgetting home alive. Certainly it's way light for a lot of things but if one of usof had to try this, I don't think anyone would be reaching for their .308.

Happily this is not something any of us have to try. So the fact remains the .308 and the 30/06 are both superb rifle choices and I hope they are BOTH still here 100 years from now.:)

RE: 30-06 Vs 308
 

If you need the really heavy bullets like the 200 and 220 then the 30-06 will out perform the 308 because there is more room for powder. In the 308, the longer bullets have to be seated deeply robbing powder space. The differemce will start at bullets of 180 on up.

RE: 30-06 Vs 308
 

Isn't long range shooting competition done with 308's ?

RE: 30-06 Vs 308
 

The 30-06:
It is old,
It is great,
It has nostalgia,
It has a wider range of versatility,
It better handles the larger bullets that big game (not deer) deserve.

BTW, 308 was adopted by the military due to its shorter length cycling better in auto weaponry.
Humans by no means compare to big game. They kill easy. Thus gov't was simply matching tools to the job; IMHO they went too far with the 223, a 243 would have been much better.

RE: 30-06 Vs 308
 

The .308 is popular in many long range shooting competitions, Pat, but I wouldn't read a lot of meaning into that. Before the .308 came along, the 30/06 had already won almost everything there was to win so the .308 is never plowing new ground. The old /06 has been there and done that for about anything we can think of.

What we have to keep in mind when thinking about the .308 is the enormous boost in popularity ANY cartridge gets when it's adopted by the US Military. It's almost instant immortality status. Americans are still salivating over the old 45/70 cartridge our army once used. Plus the military is a huge sponsor and supporter of shooting competitions. As such, our military supplies free of charge tons of free ammunition for our military shooters. Prior to the .308, these soldiers got all the 30/06 ammo they could shoot. When the 7.62 Nato round came along, the /06 rifles disappeared and everyone was handed a .308 and all the .308 ammo they could shoot. So it naturally follows that this is going to be the new darling of shooting events.

And the effect of military adoption don't stop there. When the military picks a cartridge...other cartridges wither and die on the vine. The 300 Savage was a competitor for the same spot the .308 was awarded. Since the .308 was picked, the savage has almost died out...regardless of its merits. It's pretty much a doomed cartridge.

Same story with the 5.56/223 cartridge. The day this was adopted both the sweet little 222 and it's big brother the 222 Rem Magnum were doomed. Many shooters today have never even heard of the 222 Rem Magnum and wouldn't know it if they saw it...even if it's a very slightly better round than the 223 which has virtually terminated it.

Being adopted by the US Military is becoming the annointed one and normally carries the kiss of death to other cartridges.

The 30/40 Krag was something of an exception. It was a lousy rifle in many ways and whatever merits it and the cartridge ever had didn't much matter as none of them were widely used.

Two interesting exceptions have been the 30/06 and the .45 Auto. The 30/06 led tosuch a quantum leap in rifles and weapons that it will be around forever, I suspect.

The .45 Auto is really even more interesting story than the 30/06 IMHO. When the .45 was our military's sidearm, many people did nothing but bitch about it. Too much recoil. Small magazine capacity. Slow bullet with terrible trajectory. The guns felt "unnatural" and didn't point right.....yadda, yadda, yadda. The only concession anyone would grant the .45 auto was that it was damn good at stopping people.

Then along came the Barretta Model 92 in 9mm. This pistol should have shut up everyone who bellyached about the .45 auto. Many people expected all Model 1911's to be melted down and turned into manhole covers. Even America's police departments began rushing to the alter of BIG MAGAZINES. But very quickly the whiz kids began discovering that the 9mm lacked and will always lack the one thing that really matters in a gunfight. It's a piss poor people stopper. None of the rest of the crap really matters. A great percentage of our soldiers HATE the Model 92 and cry when they think about the good old 1911.

Rather than dying out, the .45 has in many ways come back stronger than ever! Heaven only knows how many variations of 45 automatics exist today. It is STILL the pistol to settle an argument fast.

Rather than the .45 dying and blowing away, I feel fairly safe in predicting it is the 9mm that is in danger. Either the .45 will return in some form or one of the several new contenders like the .40 and 10mm will supplant the 9mm. But I think it's living on borrowed time. The military would have already dumped it if they considered hand held weapons very important. Many police and government agencies have already dumped the 9.......and so the story goes on.

Some guns are just wonderfully eternal and both the .45 and 30/06 deserve the honor. Neither one will let you down.