300mag. or 30/06 for moose?

M

Magnus

Inactive
Hello

My late grandfathers hunting team invited me for the upcoming moose season back in Sweden. They all hunt with 30/06's and now I'm faced with the confusing task of purchasing my first rifle. Since I reside here in the US I would like to purchase the rifle asap and start practicing on the range.

After a bit of reading the 300 mag. seems to have all the characteristics of the tried and proven 30/06 but with a flatter trajectory and a little more knock down power. Seems like I could use every advantage I can get since this will be my first hunt ever.

Several of my friends that hunt deer and elk here in the US swears by the Remington 7mag, and claims it will do the job for a moose just fine. -That seems to be a bit small of a caliber. . .

I would really aprechiate any advice I could get. Thank you,
Magnus
 
Have they not given you any guidance on this? I would go with the 300wm personally its a nice round and will give a clean kill on what is a large animal anyway. I have a budyy thats been there several times as his wife
( deceased) came from there originally. He has told me all about his trips and one thing I do remember is you have to qualify before they let you shoot live game. I seem to remember 100yds off hand 4" circle 300yds off rest and 75 or 100yds at running target must be in the main heart lung area. I will be talking to him this week sometime on the phone and will ask him again as I am not sure of the detail. I will pm you with info. He used my 300wm on the last trip, previous ones he used a 8x68 jrs which is a european cal. He got two with mine so I was pleased for him with that.
 
I have both a 30.06 and a 300wm . eather one will take a moose ,However , the 300 has you know has a little more power . But power is not everything . Bullet placement is far more importent . The recoile on the 300 my be a little stiffer than the 30.06 ,but not a lot . If this is the only rifle you plan on owning ,I would get the 30.06 . It will take anything in the the U.S except the big bears . You said the men you will be hunting with use 30.06 . There you go . they know best .
 
If you do get a 300 make sure you buy a minumum of 180 grain bullets for hunting, and they HAVE to be premium bullets to hold up to the impact velocity of a 300. On deer and such it isn't as big of a deal, but on large tough animals the bullet must be very well constructed to do it's job. The higher the velocity the harder it is for the bullet to stay together.

I would not recommend a 300 for a first rifle. Recoil and ammo costs make it a poor choice. I think the 30-06 is PLENTY of gun for moose, ammo is cheap and the lower recoil will allow enough practice to gain competence in its use.
 
Personally, I'd vote for the 300 Win Mag.

Somewhere I read that you may be able to take a rifle out of the country but have a heck of a time getting it back in. Something about being a military caliber. I dunno. Just seems like I read something like that a while back. You might want to check around and see what kind of regs apply to gun travel.
 
I also would not recommend the 300WM as a first rifle. It will have stiff recoil and could induce flinching or overall bad shooting techniques. The 30-06 is in no way a sissy gun and does have some pretty solid recoil itself. The 300WM is going to kick more and is better suited for a more experienced rifle shooter. I would say the difference in recoil between the 30-06 and 300WM is kind of like shooting a very hot 9mm load(30-06) vs a standard power 357Mag(300WM) in a service size handgun.

Personally if I could only have one rifle it would be a 7mmRM, 270Win or 30-06. There is only about a .017 or 1/2 a mm difference in caliber between a 7mmRM and 30-06. If I could only have 2 rifles for medium and big game I would take a 25-06 and 338WM. I can hunt almost anything on earth with these two rifles.
 
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Personnly i like to use my Daisy Red Ryder 17 cal bb gub on mooses, (MEESES?) shoot them in the butt and run !!! Thers alot of meeses in Texas ya know, :D
 
Thanks to all of you for your quick replies.

I think the 30/06 it is. . . -Since this will be my first rifle I will need to spend some considerable time and ammo on the range.
I can always upgrade to a 300 mag. later once I learn to handle the 30/06 and become proficient enough to go for the longer distances.
I'll give the daisy red ryder a thought as well for the off season physical conditioning training.
Happy hunting,

Magnus
 
Moose calibers Sweden

I personally would go 30-06 since up here in Northern Ontario its the most common cal. with 300win close to it. When I was in Sweden they often used the 6.5x55 as they were familiar and you have to pass a bullet placement test before you can get a license. I personally have killed Moose with my 1903 Mannlicher in 6.5x54 and 160gr bullets. best of luck and SKALL!:)
 
I say the 100 year-old .30/06 is the way to go. You can get almost 5 boxes of surplus ammo (100 rounds) for practice for that test to one box of flinch inducing .300 WN (with and without the muzzle brake). When you are good enough switch to your hunting load (180-220 grn. SP Premium ammo) and practice with that. You should be good to go.

kjeff50cal
 
Can't go wrong with the 30-06 using premium bullets.

When comparing a bullet's energy in a 30-06 versus a 300 Win Mag, if you put a premium 180-gr. Nosler AccuBond bullet in a 30-06 at 2,750 fps MV and compare it to a plain jane Winchester 180-gr. Power Point in a 300 Win Mag at 2,960 fps MV, the 30-06 AccuBond will have an amazing 104 ft. lbs more energy at 300 yards: that's right - 2,005 versus 1,901 (Source: Winchester's 2005 Ammo Catalog, p. 10 - 13).

So you see the 180-gr. AccuBond with a BC of .509 easily makes up for and passes the 210 fps velocity advantage the 180-gr. Power Point had because of its much lower BC of only .349.

In this case, the 30-06 180-gr. AccuBond outperforms a 300 Win Mag 180-gr. Power Point at 300 yards.
 
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