3006 or 7mm

MCgunner said:

You've chronoed this load? Very optimistic. My best 7 load, attenuated in the interest of accuracy and using RL22, shoots a 150 Game king out at 3200 fps and the gun is capable of 3300 with that bullet. Most ONE FIFTY grain .30-06 loads are below 3000 fps, though some factory stuff like Hornady's "light magnum" will push faster. They use a process, a drop tube thing, that's hard to duplicate and load REAL slow powder for the 06. A 165 at 3100 is a bit over the top, though. I might accept it possible for the light magnum Hornady load, but I'd wanna read the chronograph before I believed it.

I haven't worked with the .30-06, but it's not a magnum and I've seen a lot of test data on it over the years iin articles the writers of which used Ohlers for their numbers, not reloading data from a manufacturer.

A caveat, barrel length does make a difference. My 7 is a 24" tube, many are 26. Most 06's now days are 22". A longer tube will boost velocities. Remington could have been using a 26", even a 30" test barrel for those velocities. I'd come closer to believing them from a 26" or longer tube.

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Pushing a 150gr 06 over 3k is not nearly as hard as you think, it is called RL19. Just so happens that is also the most accurate load I have ever shot in my 06. At it's upper limits the 30-06 is a beast, too much so for deer hunting.

Pushing a 150gr 06 over 3k is not nearly as hard as you think, it is called RL19.

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Yeah, but the bullet weight in question was 165 grains and he is getting 3100 fps. But, the answer was in the barrel length. 26" is long for a .30-06. Most guns in .30-06 have 22" barrels, but Weatherby loves the longer barrel lengths. This explains it to me.

Yes, some loads in .30-06 are too much for whitetails, especially Texas whitetails, but you don't have to push ANY cartridge to its limits. But, I know, for a guy like me that's always been about horsepower, that's hard to avoid. These higher velocity loads make more sense out in the open desert and the mountains, though. Still, I've taken whitetail past 300 yards with the lowly .257 Roberts. One does not need a cannon for deer, whitetail OR mule deer. I bought my 7 when I thought I was going to get an elk hunt. I felt the .257 a bit light for elk. I wound up shooting mulies and whitetails with the 7. Then, I won a .25-06 BDL in a gun show door prize raffle, traded it for my .308, and I've been a little infatuated with THAT gun since then.

It don't have to be a cannon to hunt whitetail, but I guess the OP is lookin' at whatever he's going to run in to in north America. Either of these cannons can do the job in North America. I just really like 7mm bullets. BCs and SDs are excellent and they have a little more meat than the 6.5s which offer even better SDs and BCs. If I couldn't have found that M7 in .308 (which I wanted), I'd been perfectly happy with a 7-08, another fantastic cartridge that takes advantage of the 7mm bullet selection.

Really, what it comes down to is personal preference. Either gun will do the same jobs. The 7 just gives me a bit more and, hell, I mean, you HAVE to own at least ONE belted magnum, right?

Yup, but kicking each other around respectfully seems to be what hunters do, seeking to challenge others' posts as to their authenticity, versus just hot-air posts. Besides, back when I was professional in Taekwondo, I got kicked around much worse. Sad part was I seemed to enjoy it, and kept going back for more, for years.

Thanks for the reloading input on the 7mm Rem Mag.

Geno

MCgunner said:

It don't have to be a cannon to hunt whitetail, but I guess the OP is lookin' at whatever he's going to run in to in north America. Either of these cannons can do the job in North America. I just really like 7mm bullets. BCs and SDs are excellent and they have a little more meat than the 6.5s which offer even better SDs and BCs. If I couldn't have found that M7 in .308 (which I wanted), I'd been perfectly happy with a 7-08, another fantastic cartridge that takes advantage of the 7mm bullet selection.

Really, what it comes down to is personal preference. Either gun will do the same jobs. The 7 just gives me a bit more and, hell, I mean, you HAVE to own at least ONE belted magnum, right?

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Yep the 7mm-08 is a fantastic little cartridge, much more pleasant to shoot then any 7mm Mag, don't have enough hunting experience with it yet to vouch for it as the ultamate deer hunting cartridge as some have done, but the ballistics are impressive for such a small cartridge, packs alot of punch for it's lack of real recoil, my A-Bolt synthetic weighs just over 6lbs and has a nothing of a recoil pad and it is very pleasant to shoot even at max loads, 120gr Pro Hunters at 2950fps (my most accurate load) have mild 243 level recoil.
There are long barreled 30-06s that special edition Winchester 70 and the Ruger #1 both come to mind, I also like longer barrels to a point, I always have thought 24" barrels are superior to the 22" barrels for 30-06, 270 Win, 25-06, 280 ....etc. I think Kimber has it right 22" tubes on short action 308 family cartridges, 24" on 30-06 family cartridges and 26" on belted magnums, that makes alot of sense to me.

Look at the ammunition available on the shelves of a couple of country stores as part of your decision-making process.

A closing statement to be lauded for its extreme accuracy!