.308 or .30-06?

[Stuart1970]

Almost identical balistically at shorter ranges, 30-06 is flatter shooting and more knockdown power at longer ranges, the big difference is the selection of bullets for the 06. Heavier grain bullets can be found and purchased for the 06. Our outfitter discouraged the .308 for game we selected, 30-06 had no problem taking Zebra, and believe me they are rugged, we also took .338 win mag and that took one shot kill on Oryx at 250 yds. Bottom line is shot placement shot placement shot placement

 

[Velo Dog]

Almost identical balistically at shorter ranges, 30-06 is flatter shooting and more knockdown power at longer ranges, the big difference is the selection of bullets for the 06. Heavier grain bullets can be found and purchased for the 06. Our outfitter discouraged the .308 for game we selected, 30-06 had no problem taking Zebra, and believe me they are rugged, we also took .338 win mag and that took one shot kill on Oryx at 250 yds. Bottom line is shot placement shot placement shot placement

Zebra, the armored car of plains game.

 

[Stuart1970]

That's the truth of the matter Velo Dog. I lost my first one, hit him hard, he dropped, upon moving towards him he popped up and ran off. We tracked him for a day and a half, he went to water several times. Blood pattern showed thru and thru high on shoulder. Possibly stunned spine causing drop and fast recovery, retraced steps and found broken branch at impact point, expensive lesson, shoot your downed animal again, or its an expensive blood letting

 

[Velo Dog]

That's the truth of the matter Velo Dog. I lost my first one, hit him hard, he dropped, upon moving towards him he popped up and ran off. We tracked him for a day and a half, he went to water several times. Blood pattern showed thru and thru high on shoulder. Possibly stunned spine causing drop and fast recovery, retraced steps and found broken branch at impact point, expensive lesson, shoot your downed animal again, or its an expensive blood letting

Totally agree.
One of my friends took a .270 / 140 grainers to Namibia on his first safari.
Most of the critters he took required but one shot each.
However the zebra he took required 4 shots.
My friend now uses a .35 Whelen / 250 gr bullets for Africa.

 

[AZDAVE]

I find the little rounds useful and have both. Since you didn't specify what you intended to hunt what I have found in my two rifles is that the 308 shoots the 168-175gr very accurate and are good antelope rounds to 300. and the 06 shoots the 190-210gr with about the same trajectory and just effective on a bit bigger game. My vote would be to sell the 308 to pay for the 06 to be re-barreled to a 9.3x62 and you have a solid rifle for all african plains game and entry into dangerous game in some countries.

 

[Velo Dog]

No animal will be able to tell the difference between the two.
Also all that is needed in either is a 150gr bullet of proper construction to do the job. Or if one insists a 165gr bullet. Nothing heiver.

Without trying to sound overly smartassed here (mildly smartassed is what I'm trying for at the moment), I would bet you that any one ton eland bull, quartering toward you, could definitely tell the difference between the 150 gr .308 and the 220 grain .30-06.

Not that I would select (for myself) any .30 caliber rifle for this particular angled shot, on such heavy game.

I expect that a .33 caliber, with 250 grain bullet is a better minimum for such as this.

 

[enysse]

Without trying to sound overly smartassed here (mildly smartassed is what I'm trying for at the moment), I would bet you that any one ton eland bull, quartering toward you, could definitely tell the difference between the 150 gr .308 and the 220 grain .30-06.

I think it would be a huge problem...potentially.

 

[SAFalconer]

Which is cheaper to reload?

 

[AZDAVE]

The cost difference is almost a wash. The 06 will use give or take 10 gr more powder than the 308. So using the same primer and premium bullet you will get approx 120 30/06 and 145 308 rounds of reloads per pound of powder. The 06 is better with heavier bullets. Would just concentrate on getting a rifle that fits. and Practice ALLOTTT as bullet placement is paramount to clean harvest vs a long tracking job. One last thing to think about is if you plan on moving up to a 375HH at any point it has the same trajectory as the 30/06 so you don't need to relearn drops for a bigger punch.

 

[SAFalconer]

Thanks for the info .