30-06 or 7mm Mag

As hunting cartridges, there is probably not a dimes worth of difference between them.

The 7mag was the first magnum rifle cartridge that I began reloading, back in '76. The 7mag operates at higher pressure and likely will have shorter barrel life if you do high volume shooting.

I grew up shooting 30-06, my father, career military, before his second trip to Nam came home one day with back bumper of our '58 Chevy wagon dragging the ground. He must have had 10,000 rounds of surplus 30-06 in the back. It was loose in GI ammo cans. All mixed, ball, AP and tracer. He soon bought an Interarms MKX, in 30-06, a bargain rifle at the time. I was 12, this was in 1965. I never hunted with that rifle, but my father did and always seemed to bring home meat. I hunted whitetail in South Mississippi once with the 7mag and took a 60 shot on a smallish buck with Speer 140gr Jsp, which did so much meat damage at that range that I took my 30-30 after that.

I think that a reloader might find the 7mag a little more satisfying, but either 7mm or 308 has more bullets available to the reloader than any other caliber that I can think of.

With a decent recoil pad I never found either to be offensive to shoot in that respect. I dont think you can go wrong with either one if you learn to shoot it well.
 
Both are great but I like the '06

If you don't reload ammo is cheaper

Plus you get to call it your aught six! :cool:
 
I love both and either will take any animal in the US. To me it comes down to where im hunting. If the ranges will be under 300 yards Id usually be with an 06 and if shots could come out past 300 id rather have a 7mag with me.
 
Id go 06, I think the 7mm really needs a 26" barrel and handloads to make the most of it. Id just get the one you want, probaly not going to be any differance in the field.
 
If ammo cost is a factor, the 30-06 is a whole lot less expensive. That said, either one will do very well and there's not much difference in their performance, the 7mm having a slight edge at extreme ranges.
 
my brother has a 7mm rem mag that he's hunted with for years. my first time out hunting I watched him actually knock a 120-ish pound doe off her feet at 300 yards, he and a buddy went down while I "guarded the truck" and they came back with nothing but the rear quarters, nothing else was salvageable.

a buddy brought his new 3006 out to my place last weekend and we shot at a 1 inch steel plate, it doesn't have quite the penetration of the 7mm rem mag so I would more highly recommend it as a multi purpose hunting rifle, the 7mm is more suited to elk sized game and larger.
 
I like Bamashooters idea the best, get one of each:D If you have to choose though the 30/06 is really hard to beat for an all around one gun hunter.
 
tahunua, tell your brother to quit shooting deer in the eating part. That's generally indicative of a poor level of skill in shooting. :D

7 Maggie vs. '06? Six of one, half-dozen of the other for performance. But, since the '06 is plenty good on Bambi on out to 500 yards if you know the distance and trajectory, I've always stayed with the '06.
 
I'm pretty much everyone else. The .30-06 is cheaper to shoot, especially if you don't reload. The 7mm Rem Mag is going to shoot flatter, which could be a factor if you plan on distances farther than 300 yds.

I recently very seriously considered replacing the .30-06 with a 7mm Rem Mag as a dedicated elk gun, but it just didn't make sense to me to spend money for basically no real world gains at typical hunting ranges. And I'm one of those guys that doesn't need much of an excuse to want a new gun and caliber, haha :)
 
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