308 Win. vs. 30-06

[Ben]

20 heavy barrel match rifles , premium match ammo, high grade optics.
Ten rifles chambered in 308 Win., Ten of the same identical rifle chambered in 30-06.

Now take 10 long range championship shooters who have proven their ability to shoot.

Have each shooter fire 10 rounds from each rifle off the bench @ 200 yards and record the group size.
When the shooting is over will the 308 Win. shoot tighter groups than the 30-06 ?

Ben

 

[fiver]

no.

 

[Brad]

I highly doubt it.

 

[RicinYakima]

The issue is: nobody loads target quality 30/06 ammo anymore. There is tons of .308, .300 Win Mag but no 30/06. Check the internet, lots of hunting stuff, no high quality target ammo. At 200 meters it will depend upon the shooter and the barrel. IMHO, Ric

 

[Pistolero]

I can't imagine that there would be any difference that is actually attributable
to the case rather than chamber being accurately coaxial with the bore, proper throat,
proper stock and bedding, and general barrel quality.

Launching a pair of identical bullets with a slightly different shape of pressure curve
behind them is pretty much what it comes down to, and can't imagine that being a
crucial issue - maybe a particular pressure pulse waveform may drive a particular
barrel to a node at the muzzle, but that wouldn't be the case for ANY version of the
large case vs small.

Bill

 

[Ben]

Some say that because the 308 Win. has a shorter powder column that it will out shoot the 06 ' ? ?

I own both and have never seen one edge out the other.

Ben

 

[Rick]

I doubt there would be much of any accuracy difference at only 200 yards. I used a worn out M-14 to 500 meters to fire rifle expert while a guest of uncle Sam's Marines. To me the only real advantage of the 06 would be longer ranges while hunting to make use of the minor velocity advantage of the 06. But accuracy? Would take a huge amount of repetitive testing that would most likely conclude with . . . Two peas in a pod.

 

[fiver]

the key to accuracy is a good barrel and a good bullet.
those two things are 95% of the sum total.
the rest is just making things a little better or a little bit worse.

think about how many times we have picked up a new rifle and was excited about playing around with it only to find the first thing we tried was sub moa.
do we pat our self on the back for being such great loaders or do we tell everyone about how good brand XXX rifles are?
well savage figured that one out and bailed themselves out of solvency.

 

[Ian]

The '06 is plenty efficient, just different. If you want to see all that "efficiency" of the .308 choke, stuff a 200-grain bullet in it. The sharp shoulder and small-capacity, straight case don't work so well with the slower powders. Stuff the same bullet in an-'06 with the right powder and it comes to life. If the barrel and bullet are good, and the bullet ogive is shaped to fit the '06's throat, then it will shoot as well as any other "system".

The 300 Winchester Magnum is also a very efficient cartridge with nearly straight case walls, large diameter, and fairly sharp shoulder...but look at how large the internal volume is to effectively burn the large payload of extra-slow powders needed for best performance.

 

[Rick H]

If put into the same actions....no advantage.....however.........you can build a 308 on a shorter stiffer action. Do you ever wonder why no bench rest winners build long action rifles?

Point 2:
Bench rest shooting depends every bit as much on the shooters ability to read conditions on the range as the inherent accuracy of the cartridge rifle combination. Miss a minor wind shift and you lose, period.

To test the rifle/cartridge differences you need to fire in a controlled condition range....like the underground tunnels some ammo manufacturers use.

I guess what I am saying is one can build a more accurate 308, but the differences are less than the differences between shooters and minor condition changes during shot strings.

 

[Ian]

Another reason no benchrest winner uses a long action is simply because it isn't necessary for the sort of cartridges they use, at least not for the games inside 300 yards, anyway. It would take one heck of a shooter to convince me of the action stiffness advantage IF firing a traditional rifle, shouldered, from bags or bipod, but easy enough I'm sure on an F-class rail gun.

 

[Intheshop]

One of the tradeoffs,not mentioned in th OP BTW,is whether we're loading single shot or running them up through a mag.... further,not defined is what discipline. Yes,it indicates "bench use" but is that purely target or hunting?

Off a bench,money is no object,loading single shot.... give me the 308. Just about,anything else, make it an '06. There, clear as mud.

 

[RBHarter]

I pick things apart . I've picked apart the 308/06'/300 .........
There are a few things that matter a lot to these and they are more important to the 308/06' . Taking in identical rifles I would make the presumption that each would be tweeked for optimal target use .

Old school M73 (or is it 72 ) Match ammo I give the edge to the 308 conditionally .
If the load steps up to the 186 gr from the 178 the 06' gets the edge .

With more modern ammo choices it comes to the the efficiency of the 500+ yd target . With many of the modern choices in bullets and powders if we want apex loads or just over apex I think the 06' will have a slightly longer edge than the 100-150 fps would seem to allow . Of course all of this really only works with 175+ gr bullets where a 10 twist comes in to play .

If we're playing in the 12 twists' realm below 175 gr it becomes more of a dead heat . The 150-168 gr bullets just don't get enough difference between the 2 to give a real edge . Getting into more the varmint weights below 150gr I think the edge might shift back to the more heavily to the 06' in favor of the larger case .

Overall , if you aren't going to go into 175-210 gr bullets or exotic VLD types in the 165+ a 308 will do everything you need . There's no significant change in barrel life between the 2 .

Action selection might make a difference . A 60° , 3 or 12 lug vs a more traditional 2-3 lug action might show up on target with it the 4-5 decimal place potential for bolt face angle difference from the short to long actions . Of course that wasn't included in the op under 10 each identical rifles . In addition to that potential there is also lock time , mass movement , and probably 40 other micro details for the LA vs SA .

 

[freebullet]

@200 they shoot about the same for me. I choose 308 either way.