Survey: Your Favorite .30 Caliber

.308 Winchester in pre 64 Model 70 Featherweight.

Factory ammo is Hornady Super performance 165 grain.
 
.300 Wby. in a classic action

Anything, anywhere, anytime. The caliber of choice of golden age one-rifle-worldwide-hunters (e.g. Elgin Gates, C.J. McElroy, etc.)...

165 gr TTSX or A Frame for all around load for those who want to benefit from same performance as 1960's to 1990's era 180 gr bullets, but in a lighter bullet that retains 95% weight, flies faster and recoils less. Genuine "anything" 350 yards load...

180 gr TTSX or A Frame for all around load for those who want to shoot the "traditional" weight. 20 yd additional MPBR over .300 Win...

200 gr TSX or A Frame far deep penetration on large tough game (Eland, Moose, Grizzly, and would be quite OK for buff too if allowed). Hits harder than .338 Win...

130 gr and 150 gr TTSX for Tiny Ten or Western US Pronghorn etc. 130 gr shoots as flat as .257 Wby. Not a faint praise...

Only one load at a time in the field for sanity sake, but completely OK to change load from one hunting trip to the next depending on what is in the package.

Win 70 .300 Wby.JPG

.300 Wby New Haven made Winchester 70 Classic Stainless limited run, with Schmidt & Bender 1.5-6x42 scope. The epitome of the American one rifle for all.

CZ 550 .300 Wby #2.jpg

.300 Wby full custom rifle built on a tuned-up CZ 550 action, with Leica 2.5-10x42 scope. The epitome of the African plains game one rifle for all.

PS: An R8 barreled for .300 Wby would also be nice...
 
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No doubt the .30'06. I have killed my best elk and w/t deer with it using 180 grain Nosler bullets. Although now days I seldom need the full power of the .30'06 so I load 150 grain bullets around 2600 fps (.300 Savage anyone?). My usual hunting ground is so thick I load flat point bullets meant for the .30-30 at 2300-2400 fps so I don't loose too much meat from being bloodshot. Yes, a .30-30 would serve me fine but, none of the rifles/stutzens I really like to hunt with are chambered so.
 
As the Good Major Khan is asking what my favorite Hunting .30 is I guess it would be fair to quantify that for my regular kind of hunting (Bushveld) where I would use a .30 ( small to medium sized game say up to Wildebeest) it would have to be the .308 Winchester.
If I hunted in Alaska my answer may have been different.
 
30-06. Hunting wise, jack of all trades master of none, It just gets the job done in a dependable way. You can buy ammo in most small towns across the country. Handles bullets from light to heavy without punishing recoil. Lots of history WW1, WW2, Korea. Bottom line is it just works.
”...jack of all trades master of none..”
Probably the best description I’ve heard for a 30 odd six!
 
Maj Kahn sir, if I had to choose one it would be the 300 H&H, but since I don't have that caliber, I'll have to say the 300 Weatherby with 180 grs TTSX bullet. I can hunt anything with it here in the US, with the exception of maybe the big bears. :) Why, because it's a Weatherby and I think they are cool & unique. (y)
 
My favorite without question is the 30-06 with a 180 grain bullet. At close range or long range, with cup & core or premium bullets the grand old 06 is all ways at home.
 
The results will be interesting. The .300H&H gets many mentions. A cartridge i know very little about.
An Aussie @BenKK is. Fan of it I believe. Pretty sure it was him who raised it in another thread and gave me some insight when I asked.
The more common .300wm will do me but it’s great to see people keeping classic cartridges alive and well.
.303 would have been very popular in Australia once simply for availability and economy I’d nothing else. Many went with .30-30 lever actions when sporting rifles became more affordable and readily available and now .308 is likely to be the most Common .30 in Australia I think.
 
Huge romantic appeal with the .300 H&H, and it feeds like melting butter, but ballistically it does not offer much (2,800 to 2,900 fps with 180 slugs) over modern .30-06 loads (2,700 to 2,800 fps with 180 slugs), and it requires a magnum-length action. It stands squarely halfway between .30-06 and .300 Win (2,900 to 3,000 fps with 180 slugs). I am a bit surprised at how many folks "prefer" it but I would in fact be curious to see how many of those who listed it, actually own a rifle so chambered?

The .300 Win is what it is: the result of Winchester going for the concept of "short magnums" with their .264, .300, .338, .458.

Their big selling point was/is that their shortened .375 H&H cases fit in standard length actions.

Their big challenge is that they are not quite what they could have been on a full length .375 H&H case (200 to 300+ fps faster).

Some think they are plenty good enough, some go to their full length cousins. These fly faster and farther, and hit harder, but recoil more, so they represent a different compromise point along the spectrum of performance vs. shootability.
 
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Huge romantic appeal with the .300 H&H, and it feeds like melting butter, but ballistically it does not offer much (2,800 to 2,900 fps with 180 slugs) over modern .30-06 loads (2,700 to 2,800 fps with 180 slugs), and it requires a magnum-length action. It stands squarely half way between .30-06 and .300 Win (2,900 to 3,000 fps with 180 slugs). I am a bit surprised at how many folks "prefer" it but I would in fact be curious to see how many of those who listed it, actually own a rifle so chambered?

The .300 Win is what it is: the result of Winchester going for the concept of "short magnums" with their .264, .300, .338, .458.

Their big selling point was/is that their shortened .375 H&H cases fit in standard length actions.

Their big challenge is that they are not quite what they could have been on a full length .375 H&H case (200 to 300 fps faster).

Some think they are plenty good enough, some go to their full length cousins. These fly faster and farther, and hit harder, but recoil more, so they represent a different compromise point along the spectrum of performance vs. shootability.
One day
A properly loaded 300 H&H will give a,300 Weatherby a run for its money and shake up a 300 win mag. It is still not loaded to its full potential by companies.
There's no flies on a 150 grain TTSX at over 3,400 fps out of the old girl. Check out some articles on loading the 300 H&H it will surprise you.
Cheers mate Bob
 
Agreed! I was referencing factory loads :)

3,400 fps with a 150 gr TTSX must be a pretty hot load for the .300 H&H. Barnes lists 3,244 fps for the maximum charge at 70.5 gr of IMR 4350, and they list 88 gr of IMR 7828SSC to get the .300 Wby to 3,446 fps...

Are you sure you are not referring the .300 Wby for 150 gr TTSX over 3,400 fps?

Admittedly I get 3,560 from the factory load with 150 gr Nosler Partition in my rifle; 3,705 from the 130 gr TTSX; and 3,450 from the 150 gr TTSX, but these are all .300 Wby loads.
 
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Have one 30 caliber rifle. My Dads savage 99 in 300 savage. Load 165 grain sierra. 1 1/4" groups at 100 yards. Works good on Antelope, Whitetail, Mule deer and Black bear.
 
If I were only allowed one to cover as much as possible it’d be 300 Win Mag. I prefer a smaller lighter rifle so my 308 gets more use these days. My 30-06 is a reasonable compromise and has worked well for multiple generations.

Final answer would have to be the 30-06. It’ll do everything I ask at ranges I’ll shoot.
 
Mine is the .300 Win Mag.

  1. It offers a big power gain over the 30-06 and 308.
  2. The recoil is still mild enough, almost anyone can learn to shoot one accurately.
  3. It has won a multitude of 1k yard competitions.
  4. It's active in the military where it is preferred most times. Heck, even Chris Kyle favored the Three Hunnad Winnie.
  5. Easy to reload for, the ole belted beauty is not hard to make accurate.
  6. It can kill anything in North America (definitely use a 220gr Interlock or Partition for Brownies)
  7. Factory ammo can be found almost anywhere. So if you are going hunting out of state, and you remember your ammo is still on the dresser, no worries! You can buy some when you get there.
  8. I'm sure I could tell you more, but I'm stopping here as I'm very sleepy.
 

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