.300 Win Mag v. .338 Lapua

[Skunkabilly]

Hi,

What's the difference between
.300 Win Mag
.338 Lapua
.30-06
.308?
And what the heck is a 9.3x62?

Thanks. I wanted a big rifle (because .223 selection sucks out here in CA) for reaching out and touching things.

------------------
Jeff More
Irvine, PRC
All your AR-15 are belong to us!

[FB3]

The 300 WM, 30-06, and 308 all use .308 diameter bullets - 30 Caliber.

The .338 Lapua has a slightly larger bullet.

The 300 WM is a very popular hunting and long range target round. It uses a belted case.

The .338 Lapua is a more powerful round and is used in some tactical/sniper applications.

The 30-06 has been around forever and is still quite popular, but does not have many choices as far as loads and bullets go. It is not a real long range round.

The .308 is a shorter round than the others, and therefore is fired from short action rifles. This is a very accurate round and is quite popular for medium to long range target shooting and some hunting applications.

I don't know what a 9.3 x 62 is.

My recommendation for a medium to long range hunting/target rifle would be to get one of the newer and ballisticaly superior calibers such as the 300 Rem Ultra Mag, 300 Rem or 300 Win Short Magnum, the 7mm STW, or 7mm Rem Ultra Mag. All of these cartridges will give you a wide selection of bullet types and weights and are very accurate and flat shooting. The short magnums give 300 WM performance in a short action gun. If you reload, your options become almost limitless.

There are a lot of very good off the shelf rifles available in all of these calibers. Don't let someone tell you that the recoil from any of these rounds will "beat you up".
The rifles with the classic straight stocks (not a Monte Carlo) in all of these new calibers have very little more perceived recoil than the 30-06. I once had a .270 Win rifle with a Monte Carlo stock that felt as if it kicked twice as much as a 300 WM.

Anyway, you have a lot of choices available and it mostly depends on how you plan to use the rifle. Shopping for it is half the fun. Good luck.

[jpwright]

A 9.3x62 sounds like it might be an obsolete military round. That's .366 caliber, which is a fairly strange bird.

FB3, I'm not sure what you mean by saying that the .30-06 "does not have many choices as far as loads and bullets go". As you noted, the .30-06 is a ".30 caliber" round. That means it will take any .308 bullet you can get your hands on. It's a bottle-neck case, meaning it will live happily with a wide variety of powders. So the choice in handloads is immense. For off-the-shelf ammo, Winchester and Remington both offer 16 different loads. By contrast, the majors offer six or eight different loads for the popular .300 Winchester Magnum. The .30-06 is, rather than being limited, perhaps the most versatile of all rifle calibers.
Except for the 9.3 round, none of the cartridges you listed would be a bad choice, Skunkabilly. I might fudge a little on the .338, since that is more gun than is necessary for game the size of deer, black bear, or smaller stuff. It's a great elk gun, though.
Half the fun of a new gun, for me, is shopping. I envy you the chance to browse the data and browse the gun racks, then buy something and shoot it for the first time.

------------------
If God didn't want us to own guns, why did He make the 1911?

[Jim Watson]

Come on, guys, the 9.3x62 is a 286 grain .366" bullet on a case about the same size as a '06. A common European-African caliber for big but not dangerous game, similar to the .35 Whelen but much more popular overseas. Not a particularly long-ranged round.

What do you really plan to shoot at, Skunk? For medium game up to 250 or maybe 300 yards or targets to and beyond 600 you will have a hard time beating a good .308.
Magnums are for big game (elk, bear) or 1000 yard targets.

The .338 Lapua is substantially a .416 Rigby necked down to shoot 300 grain .338 bullets about like a good .30 caliber shoots a 180. Intended for sniper and extra long range target rifles when you just don't want to carry along that .50BMG. Much bigger round, gun, and budget than the .338 Win Mag as commonly recommended for hunting elk, etc.

[FB3]

jp,

Not knocking the 30-06, but due to the smaller case capacity it is not really suitable for anything over 180 grain bullets, and even these will be coming out at a comparably sedate 2700 fps and drop like a rock and lose energy quite rapidly when compared to the newer 30 caliber magnums.

I load everything from 140 to 220 grain bullets for my 300 Rem Ultra Mag. This round is very good for anything from hogs, white tails, elk, and brown bear. Lots of choices here.

I use Swift 150 grain Sciroco bullets for my 7mmSTW. Chronographed at 3200 fps. I can hold right on anything out to almost 300 yards and be in the 5" zone when sighted 2" high at 100yds.

Anyway, while still quite popular, the venerable 30-06 is
very outdated and does not have nearly the versatility of the newer cartridges. Just my opinion.

[Powderman]

Ah, but I must respectfully disagree.

The '06 and the .308 are quite probably the most versatile cartridges in existence. Loaded with light bullets, you have good velocities, some above 3000 fps with the 125-130 grain bullets. A good varmint round in the '06 and .308 uses the 115 grain bullet usually used in the M1 Carbine.

In the normal velocity range, you can take almost any big game on the North American continent.

Loaded with match quality bullets, both calibers are used in 1000 yard matches. The Palma match specifically calls for the .308 round, loaded with a 155 grain bullet. Loaded with the same bullets, these cartridges become the calibers of choice for police and military snipers.

You can even load these cartridges down readily for use with cast bullets--even low enough to use indoors, shooting into a few sandbags!!!

Bottom line--the hyper-velocity cartridges have their place--but the two .30's are by far the most versatile, IMHO.

------------------
"Be not afraid of any man, no matter what his size;

When trouble rises, call on me and I will equalize."

[shane45-1911]

Moving to "Ammo Can" forum...

[h4444]

If I can't kill it with a .300 Win Mag I shouldn't be hunting it.

For what I hunt, there are plenty of loads developed so I don't pay the premium for the newest/latest greated ammo.

[ginosz]

As far as the 30-06 being outdated, I believe that it is first or second in popularity as far as ammo sales go. I think it's a very versatile caliber.