Soilarch

lets hear people opinions. My next rifle will be one of the two. I'm torn. I want extreme versatility and extreme availability in both ammo and gun choice. From coyotes to black-bear at 50-500 yards (NO, im not shooting a black-bear at 500yards!!!)
Im just trying to convey the idea of my "everything gun" which i realize will never REALLY exist. I just wondered if there where pros and cons. and why the .308 is just as popular in sniper when they seem to be big brother little brother cartridges....should've little brother be often overlooked?

Bloodnativ

I'll be the first to step out on a limb here. If you're looking for one rifle that would cover just about everything at just about any conceivable range then go with a .375 H&H. It will handle anything in North America including all the big bears and will easily handle most everything in Africa and other parts of the world. Although it's a little expensive, ammo is fairly easy to find.

My next choice in a "do-it-all" rifle would be quite a step down but would be a .300 Win Mag.

If you handload the 30-06 will do well though. However I personally wouldn't shoot at anything much over 300 yards with it and 400 would be an absolute maximum. The 375 will be good at that range and them some if you are able to accurately compensate for drop and drift.

As far as why the 308 is so popular with sniper groups is that snipers aren't concerned with killing a 400 pound bear or 1000 pound elk or even a 200 pound deer (though the 308 would work for all of those). They are only concerned with the effect on a human being. A 200 or even 300 pound man is a lot easier to bring down that any wild animal.

I hope this helps. If my only 2 choices were the 308 or 30-06, I would take the '06 any day and twice on sunday.

diyj98

There's not a lot of practical difference between the .308 and 30-06. 100 fps to 200 fps with most loadings. The .308 is more popular with snipers because of it's use as a standard military cartridge, as well of it's slight accuracy advantage. Some folks are going to argue the accuracy thing, but it's been pretty well been proven to have a "slight" edge on the target ranges. Check the number of 30-06's versus .308's at places like Camp Perry and other rifle ranges.

I generally prefer a .308 because it allows me to use a shorter action. The accuracy edge is just a bonus. I've got several gun safes of rifle to chose from, but I use a .308 for 90% of my hunting from varmints to deer.

Moose_Maximus

I'd say .30-06, but there's nothing wrong with a .308, and ammunition is certainly cheaper (if you like FMJ).

I find that the older I get, the more I appreciate "traditional" firearms (a Marlin 336 vs. a Bushmaster, just to pick a random example), so a whippersnapper cartridge like the .308...

James B

They are both great cartridges. I own both and have for 30 years. For deer hunting its about a toss-up. For bigger game, the 308 can not quite ever match the performance of the 30-06. This simply comes down to powder capacity and a little more room for longer bullets. For deer out to 400 yards(which to my idea is at least 100 yards to far) there isn't much difference.

zekeskar

I'd buy whichever one you happen to find that seems to have the best value of the package overall (e.g. included scope, gun shop followup service, type of stock, brand) - whatever factors are important to you and whichever gun in either caliber you find seems to be the best value considering your particular criteria. The differences between the two cartridges are so minor for the stuff you're thinking of that it's the other factors that should drive your decision. JMHO, of course!

Prarie_Boy1

I own both a .308 and 30-06 and in my mind they are a wonderfull calibre. I use both of them for whitetail. Being from Saskatchewan we can get some pretty harsh weather and snow, so if the weather is misserable and snow is very heavy I turn to my .308 because it is slightly lighter and more portable. If it is a mild winter i usually choose my 30-06 because i have it outfitted with a bipod and prefer it for longer shots. I have also used my 30-06 for elk and moose it works well with the right load, recently i have been using my .300 mag because it packs a bit more of a punch and can reach out further. But back to the original talk i beleive the .308 and 30-06 are both a fine choice for mid size game.

Nomercy

Diyj, While the .308 cartridge design itself is inherently more prone to accuracy than the .30-06, there are a great deal of other aspects important to target shooting...for example, the .308 fits in a short action, so your lock up will be more solid, it's much more shootable from a recoil standpoint, I can shoot 100 .308rnds before I get as sore as I would from 50 .30-06's, and it's cheaper to shoot since it uses less powder (brass is usually cheaper too, for some reason, I would assume just a volume of sale thing). The military switched to the .308 because it's every bit of the killing power of the .30-06, but with less overall weight and powder consumption.

If you're considering moose or big bruins, or basically anything that might dictate that you use 180-220grn bullets, the .30-06 is the choice, it handles heavier bullets better than the .308. Up to 165-180grns, they're pretty evenly matched, but beyond that, the .30-06 starts to pull away, until anything over 220grns at which point either of them turn to crap (shot a box of 300grn .30-06's one time, TERRIBLE!).

Personally, I don't think you could go wrong with either, I've got three of each in the safe right now, guess I REALLY couldn't make up my mind. (No two are really alike: .308's=Ruger compact, M-1A, and Remington 700PSS, .30-06's=M-1Garand, Ruger standard M77 and Ruger No.1, I've also got my fiance's .308 M98 customized/sporterized Spanish/German Mauser, I'm glad she lets me shoot it whenever I want!!!)

handloader1

.30-06 Sprg. Good luck.

Portage

Hard to beat the 06 for versatility. However, I prefer the 308 and if more is needed step up to a 300 or bigger. If I were truly looking for a 1 gun battery, it would be a good CRF bolt in 300 Win Mag.