yes as a matter of fact I have just swopped the 30-06 on my ticket for Deer for a .308. Still have the 30-06 of course but it's no in the collectors bit and not the shooting stalking bit. Confusing yes but that's Lincs Firearms licensing for you. Fact is with proper loading, i.e not the weak American ones the 8mm Mauser uses a slightly larger diameter bullet and a very similar velocity. For instance the Seller & Belliot 196 grain SPCE loading has a velocity of 2600fps if memory serve me right. Now checking with Speers #12 manual the highest velocity they achieved safely in the longer 06 case with a 200 Grn bull is 2554. bear in mind that's a hand load and they are often higher than factory loads. It's a pointless exercise to compare Speers 8x57 loads as they're an American company of course and the 8x57 is a political cartridge. if they loaded it to it potential it would show up the home (copied) sorry grown 06 so they deliberately down load it.
So you like the 3-06..fine it's a fine cartridge but I'll wager than many know nothing of it's history nor that the 8x57 is a bit better. Actually you should be thanking Paul Mauser because without him you would still be shooting Round nosed bullets all the time as it was his developments that lead to the Spitzer bullets I think you'll find and chances are the rifle you shoot has a lot of his ideas in it too. The US had to pay royalties to Mauser for bother the .30 Springfield cartridge and the Springfield 03 rifle. Twas only The Great War (WW1) which stopped the US paying them. The 30-06 is in fact a shortened 30-03 cartridge which used a 220 grain bullet. The original 8x57 Mauser cartridge used a 227 grain bullet of 0.318" diameter so what is known today as the 8x57 is properly the 7.92mm which uses the 0.323" diameter bullet.
Now as a collector of sporting rifles yes I have an interest in this and do try to pass on some of the information and it's quite sad really how many shooters have very poor knowledge of the cartridges they are using.
I have not used the 7.92mm in the field as yet due to the stupidity of the firearms licensing department in this county as they listed it for collection only
I had only just acquired hte rifle and the ammunition when the move came up.. But a slightly larger bullet at the same velocity has to hit harder and transfer more energy on impact due to increased frontal area. of course it means slightly lower sectional density but one cannot have everything
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Wow. That's quite a dissertation! largely accurate, indeed, but I have a few bones to pick, Brit. I mean, as life long 30-06 shooter I must chime in.
The 30-06 is officially the "Ball Cartridge, Caliber .30, Model of 1906." The moniker "Springfield" is a bit of a colloquialism. Winchester stamped their Model 1895 Lever Action "30-Govn't-06" and no arms makers I know of refer to the cartridge as 30-06 Springfield.
I believe that the royalties paid to Mauser was for the rifle, not the cartridge, tho I am not absolutely certain of that. The switch from the 30-03 and the 220 grain Krag bullet (at 2300+ fps) was due directly to Germany's adoption of the 154 grain spitzer at 2800 fps. (Frankly, the use of the Krag bullet in the 30-03 was probably just the US Government being
cheap! They had a lot of Krag projectiles!)
Lastly, the down loading of the 8x57 in US reloading manuals has NOTHING to do with that cartridge "showing up" the 30-06 ballistically. It is due to the huge number of .318" bored 1888 Commission Mausers that were sold nationwide for a few dollars each at one time, and the reluctance of any bullet or powder maker to end up in court when some idiot blew out his eyes stuffing a full house charge of powder in behind a .323" projectile. The same deference to antiquity is evidenced in 30-40, 45-70, 7x57. 32-20, 25-20, and 6.5x55 to name but a few. The 30-06 is also a cartridge that is loaded in deference to old weapons with an SAAMI rating around 50,000 PSI. When loaded to 60K in a modern rifle?? Who knows?
Look, I love the 8x57 (as you well know) but I doubt it there is an argument that it is "better" than the 30-06.~Muir
PS: I have maybe six or seven 30-06 rifles currently and have about as many 8x57's.