You guys that have .300 Magnums like the .300 Weatherby or the biggest .30-378 wby Is the effect better with them on game than with a .308 win or 30-06 (?)

One thing is strange to me.. When you shoot birds with a 22lr solid bullet. It is just a little hole in them. But if you shoot them with a .222 Remington then the hole is as big as my fist

But I dont know the effect on bigger game like deer and moose. The .308 Win is like the 22lr and the .30-378 Wby like the 222 Rem (?)

Thanks!

//overkill

There's an awful lot less difference between a .308 and a .30-378 than there is between .22 LR and a .222!

Mighty few of us really "need" a Magnum rifle, and calibers like the .308 and .30-06 have long been successfully used and widely recommended by the "experts" for any game in North America with appropriate bullets and loads. The Magnums give a bit of an edge for longer range shooting and for use of heavier bullets with more knockdown power for big, tough animals. But the recent crop of "experts" seem to think that even the .300 Weatherby Magnum isn't enough for deer hunting anymore. This kind of fashion in guns and cartridges is driven mainly by the gun companies' need to convince us to buy new equipment, when we already have a pretty well saturated market with equipment that, with good care, can easily have a 100 year useful life. So they pay off the gun writers to keep convincing us that the guns and cartridges we're familiar with just won't do the job anymore, or that there's some huge new advantage to an Ultra Mag, or a Super Short Mag, etc. What they don't tell us is that it's really all about how you hit them, not what you hit them with.

Oh, yeah: I do have a .300 Weatherby, as well as a .30-06 that I had before. Do I think the Weatherby's got a big advantage? Not really. Why'd I get it, then? Because the gunwriter's marketing hype made an impression on me when I was a kid, and I just had to have one of the big'uns!

If your looking for... "overkill" in the .308 calibers 300Rum will fit your satisfaction level of want 30-378 is a waste of money barrel life is short. 300Rum can shoot those 240gr bullets very nicely as well as accurate beyond 600 yards no better .308 caliber Id rather have then 300Rum at long ranges.



As for power and overkill scale in the 7mm range the 7mm Rum is probably worse then the 30-378 weatherby as towards barrel life but performance on animals long range is amazing anything within 100 yards is stopped in its tracks.

Comparing the 30-06 308 to the 30-378 is silly they will be left in the dust.

Increased speed of a projectile definately means and increase of energy. But the argument begins with whether or not the bullet will transmit the energy to the animal. So without getting into a big explanation (and this topic always starts arguments) you have to use bullets that are tough enough to stand up to the extra velocity.

Bottom line though as just an example---a 300 wby at 300 yds with a good bc on a bullet will be travelling about the muzzle velocity of a 30-06.

And yes--I am a believer that speed causes some form of hydrostatic shock and it does kill better--especially on medium and light game. The effect might not be the same on something like a cape buffalo or some huge animal like that.

great debate to come here... first and foremost its WHERE you put the shot... at some point the flatter trajectory comes at the expense of accuracy via recoil management... (assuming is a field rifle and not a 12lb bench-special).

I KNOW I can shoot an -06 well... not so sure on the bigger boys yet. therefore, I hunt with an -06.