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Old September 1, 2009, 06:38 PM   #1
Firepower!
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Should I buy 30-06?

I have choice between 30-06, 7mag and 270. I am looking for a rifle to perform well of targets at 1000 yards.

Please advise.
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Old September 1, 2009, 06:44 PM   #2
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Three-Oh-Eight!
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Old September 1, 2009, 07:14 PM   #3
kiwi56
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Choice

There is relatively little difference between to 30-06 and the 270. The 270 will will be slightly flatter shooting but this will only become noticable out past 300 yards. 7MM Mag will have the legs on both at the cost of extra noise and recoil and cost whether reloading or buying factory ammo.
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Old September 2, 2009, 07:42 AM   #4
Waterengineer
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Lets see.

30-06 if you want a bigger bullet, as in say 180gr for Elk or something.

270 if you want a VERY flat shooter for, oh, speed goats or those far away mulies.

308 if you want to kill paper at 1000 yrds.

See you need a copy of each one.
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Old September 2, 2009, 08:06 AM   #5
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Like the others.... if your just hitting paper.....308... if your going to go for anything else with it anytime....ive always been a big fan of 30.06.... simply for the wider range of bullets than the other calibers.
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Old September 2, 2009, 08:22 AM   #6
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IMHO the 30-06. It will do everything the other two do and then some. Some people say it's not as accurate as the 308, bull pucky!! I shoot my savage BVSS at 1000 yards and whip 308's butts. I shoot a 190 grain Sierra and a full charge of H4831sc. That bullet hits with authority at 1000 yards. The 308 can't handle that bullet weight with any kind of speed.

No it's not as flat shooting as a 30-06. Look at the charts to qualify that. At any reasonable hunting range there isn't enough differance to make a differance.

If I fire a Hornady SST .277 bullet at 3000fps and have a 500yd zero the height at 300 yards is 16.8 inches. A 165 gr SST fired at 2900fps with the same zero has a 300 yard height of 18.4 inches. Unless you are shooting at ground squirrels you will never see the difference of 1.6 inches. The energy of the 165 grain is higher, if you buy that KE crap I only use it as compairison. For me and a lot of other hunters, give us bullet weight.
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Old September 2, 2009, 08:31 AM   #7
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Best caliber for 1,000 yards?

Ditto on what Waterengineer said:
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Old September 2, 2009, 09:11 AM   #8
slashsplat
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308. Works for me at 600 yards in competition. Federal Gold Medal Match 168gr are VERY consistent and highly regarded. Or handload.
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Old September 2, 2009, 09:12 AM   #9
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No on what Waterengineer said. The fact is that if you take your time and fit the 30-06 just like the 308, go with loads befitting modern rifle, the 30-06 equals or wins at 1000yrds. Not many use it for sure, but shooters are a bunch that go with fads. What rules today won't even be talked about tomorrow, even though it's every bit as good as the current fad. Tell me the 222rem can not rule the 100 yard BR game, it can just like it did, it just fell out of fashion.

The fact is the prefferance for the 308 is because the military has used it as a sniper round for so long. If that round would have been the 7x57 it would hold that reguard.
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Old September 2, 2009, 09:43 AM   #10
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I would go with the 30-06 or 7mm for hunting and the 270 or 308 for targets. My $.02.
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Old September 2, 2009, 09:58 AM   #11
Waterengineer
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Garry:

Don't be so serious. Find the humor. I was making a funny.

As you were.
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Old September 2, 2009, 10:08 AM   #12
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Of the three, the 7mm. mag.
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Old September 2, 2009, 10:27 AM   #13
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Firepower, knowing that you live outside the United States what will be easier for you to get components for.

What configuration the rifles are in will make a big difference as well, are they hunting rifle or target? A hunting style rifle wouldn’t be my first choice to reach out 1000 m/yds. What you need is a rifle with a very rigid stock and a long barrel of 26" at a minimum and a slow burning powder with a long bullet with a high BC (Ballistic Coefficient).

Bullet selection the .30-06 and 7mm will trump the .270 as much as I hate to say it. There just are not any good bullets with the BC needed IMO to get to 1000 m/yds with a .270. Yes it will get there but the other two diameter bullets will do it better.
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Old September 2, 2009, 10:30 AM   #14
garryc
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Quote:
Garry:

Don't be so serious. Find the humor. I was making a funny.

Ok, point taken. Stiil, the '06 is as good as the 308 in all areas and better in some. It gives nothing to the 308 in ANY meaningfull aspect.
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Old September 2, 2009, 10:35 AM   #15
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Much as I like the .308, if 1,000 yard/meter targets are your goal, I'd give the edge to the .30-06. The .308 can do 1,000 (from my albeit limited experience, 175 gr bullets do better than 168s at that range), but it really shines at 800 or less. I'd go with the .30-06 because of its greater case capacity.
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Old September 2, 2009, 11:15 AM   #16
garryc
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Quote:
Much as I like the .308, if 1,000 yard/meter targets are your goal, I'd give the edge to the .30-06. The .308 can do 1,000 (from my albeit limited experience, 175 gr bullets do better than 168s at that range), but it really shines at 800 or less. I'd go with the .30-06 because of its greater case capacity.
Exactly!! Generally I'll use a 223 out to 300 yards, a 308 out to 800, a 30-06 out to 1000-1200 and a 300mag out to 1300-1400.

The 308 175gr matchking load, at full power, will go sub mach at around 1100 yards. My 190 grain sierra MK load, with 60gr H4831sc, goes sub mach at about 1235. The 300mag 190 grain load, using IMR 7828ssc, goes sub mach at around 1435 yards.

As the bullet passes through the sound barrier the airflow and shock wave around it changes. As the bullet passes this barrier it cants and yaws off it's axis causing it to either leave it's line of flight or completely tumble.

Many people treat mach as a hard number, it isn't. Mach changes with air density. The disturbance on the bullet does not occur at exactly mach, but in a region around mach speed, which it is said to be transitioning through mach speed. Up through or down through it doesn't matter because the aerodynamics change in either direction. So what you want is for the bullet to stay above mach by a margin. That margin is determined by the bullet it's self, but destabilization always occurs to some extent.
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Old September 2, 2009, 11:25 AM   #17
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Why has nobody suggested the 7 Mag at 1000 yards? Seems like it can push similar BC bullets a little faster than the '06. What's the catch?
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Old September 2, 2009, 11:37 AM   #18
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7mm Mag for my .02

A 162gr BT @ 3000 will trump any .06 or 270 at 300-1000.
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Old September 2, 2009, 11:40 AM   #19
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.308

But the 06' isnt bad either..

People can go on for days about the .308 and the 30-06..
Either one is fine and will do the job unless your looking to
hit some game out that far.. then the 06' probably has the
advantage on the hit power.. But i doubt you'll need to hit
anything that far if hunting.. so the .308 should do u fine but
the the 30-06 wont hurt you hurt either.

Last edited by CK_32; September 2, 2009 at 12:09 PM.
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Old September 2, 2009, 12:04 PM   #20
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Garry:

For a non-engineer (I'm guessing of course) you have a pretty good grasp of fluid mechanics.
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Old September 2, 2009, 12:10 PM   #21
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Compare bullet weight to bullet wieght before you say 270 is faster than the 30.06. The 30.06 has a extremely large bullet variety. I love both these rounds.
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Old September 2, 2009, 01:37 PM   #22
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Apparently someone did win the long range championships, once with a 7 mm Rem Mag, but it must have been a fluke. No one now uses the thing, regardless of ballistics. As a target round, must have been an evolutionary dead end.

1000 yards is a long way. Still, if you want to shoot 1000 yards, the 30-06 can use 190's and 200 grain bullets, push them faster, than a 308.

In the hands of a Palma shooter, maybe they can see a difference.

I like the 308 and 30-06, have many, but I think the 30-06 ability to shoot heavy bullets makes it more flexible. the 308 and 30-06 will also shoot 110, 125's very well.
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Old September 2, 2009, 01:51 PM   #23
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To choose a new sniper/hunting rifle I recently developed a spreadsheet of ballistics info from Federal (Fusion, Power-Shok, and Hi-Shok), Remington (almost every model round), and a few Hornady rounds in 7mm Mag, 308, 270, and 30-06 and in weights from 120 to 180 gns. I compared energy at every stop from 200 to 500 yards and trajectory from 50 to 500 yards. And I'm kind of scratching my head why most LEO/Mil sniper rifles are chambered in 308. Across almost all categories at almost all ranges the 7mm Mag smokes all the others. Higher energy, flatter trajectory, etc. Can someone enlighten me as to what we may be missing about the 7mm? Even the 300 Mag doesn't really better the 7mm by enough to justify the (very much) stronger recoil and time back to target. I can't quite figure this one out. The only agency I have every heard of using the 7mm mag is the Secret Service. Any idea why it's not more widely used? I'd take a 7mm mag or a 30-06 over a 308 any day for any application.
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Old September 2, 2009, 02:00 PM   #24
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BTW, the US Army is finally wising up and moving from the 308 to the 300 Win Mag for line doggie snipers (not SOCOM, they use all sorts of stuff already). Seems the Marines lead the way in sniper training and equipment, and always have. They have many line units deploying the Barrett already.
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Old September 2, 2009, 03:17 PM   #25
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Yea but you cant always base your thoughts off of the military and other government shooters to a point they probably take some of the top end performance but it all comes down to the guys in the chairs and all that other politic bull about what contracts and what they all work out from behind the desks then more so of them having the best or the best to protect and serve.

But i say for him the .308/30-06 shouldn't make a difference because i doubt he's a sharp shooter and wouldn't even be able to tell the difference just starting out at 1000 m/yrd. shots.. Just go with what you feel comfortable with because in all if you can hit the target that far in the first place you get some pretty decent props by me no matter what the size bullet.. Ill give you a dam bazooka if you want and if you still hit it out that far ill shake your hand.

A 30-06 might go a little farther an have a harder hit but not by all that much to make you look down on the other shots.. But i think until you can hit the target time after time at that range just do with what you got with either because they will both make it but that far it really just comes out to your ability to even hit the dam thing.. Not saying you can but if you can hit it with a 30-06 you can hit it with a .308 most likely.

So just go out there and do your thing the .308 and 30-06 should do you just fine either way.
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