I have five.
Calling one caliber "better" then another is tricky, one could say that the 300 Ultra mag is "better" then a 308, and it does shoot further and flatter for sure, but when you consider the amout of powder burnt, wear on the barrel, nasty recoil, and ear piercing muzzle blast the 308 would be a heck of alot nicer for 95% of all situations. For one caliber to be "better" then another it would have to be superior in all or at leased the vast majority of messurments. For example the 30-06 is better in every messurable way to the old 03. I would not go as far to say the WSM has the potential to be "better" then the 06 because the 06 will always have a few advantages due to it's exterior design, slimmer and smoother shoulder means it will always feed a little smoother and always have a higher magazine capasity for a given size, now that does not mean a hill of beans to me, but I am sure that there are plenty of riflemen out there that love that about the 06 vs hard shoulder magnums.
But wait -- suppose we promote the .300 WSM as a "green" cartridge, get a $100,000,000 government grant for our company to sell more .300 WSMs, drive the stock up, sell it and get out with the proceeds?
Point, but as I said before alot of handloaders don't like mixed bag brass, different thickness and material cause them to shoot differently so alot of us like to stick to one kind of brass for a given caliber. I like Rem brass for my 270 WSM and Prvi brass for my 6.5x55. If you don't shoot past 300 yards this is probably a mute point because the fps spread does not make a noticable difference at close range.
Too true, the 06 has a completly adaquate trajectory even for long range hunting, and the punch to drop most American game when it gets there. The improvement that magnums give is splitting hairs. Throwing heavy controled expansion bullets is more important to taking big game then having 3300 fps and a zillion ft lbs of energy. Putting a bullet through the vitals with a reasonable amout of expansion is the name of the game, kenetic energy and fps are a distant seconday to this, and the 06 does this very well since most .30 cal bullets are designed for 06 impact speeds.
By my reloading manuals the 308 comes under the 06 by less then 100 fps in both 150 and 165gr loads. The difference does not become noticable until 180gr and even then it is only about a 150fps difference. Now if you want to talk 200 and 220 gr sure the 06 ownes it outright. The difference between the two in powder charges is very noticable. According to Nosler a 308 can drive a 180gr bullet to 2718fps with only 44gr of IMR 4064, for the 06 to duplacate that it would require a minimum of 54gr of powder, and for it to get that extra 150fps it would take a whopping 61gr of RL22, which is well into 300 WSM territory as far as powder charges go. (both were messured in 24" barrels w 1:10" twist) BTW with the same 61 gr charge (N550) the 300 WSM is quoted at 2976fps vs the 2872 for the 06.
