300 Win Mag vs 308 Win

[john9]

I was looking at the ballistic charts at Federal web site. I was surprised to see IMO how litte the 300 Win Mag offered over the 308 Win at 500 yards.

With the same 180 gr Barnes MRX bullet

308 Win has 1414 lbs of energy at 500 yards and drops 49 inches

300 Win Mag has 1872 lbs of energy at 500 yards and drops 37 inches

So the 300 Win Mag has 458 lbs more energy and drops 12 inches less, does this matter?

Lets say someone is shooting a deer at 500 yards, (not like I think this is a good idea, but only to make a point) Given equal shot placement, would not both the 308 and the 300 be just as deadly? Sure the 300 has more power, but does it matter? In my mind, 180 gr bullet 1872 lbs of ke into vitals = dead. 180 gr bullet 1414 lbs of ke into vitals = dead. What am I missing here?

[Strut10]

The difference, quite simply put, is 25%.

I ran Barnes' own reloading data for the two rounds. It produces very similar numbers to your Federal data.

At 500 yards, the difference is that the .300 Win Mag carries 25% more ft/lbs and drops 24% less. It's basically the same differnce as between the .300 Win Mag and the 30-378 Wby. to put it into perspective.

No. It would not matter to a whitetail at 500 yards whether he was shot through the ribs with a .308 or a .300 Win. If it wre a quartering shot, it could very well matter. However, the difficulty of hitting him would be higher with the .308. Bullet drop, wind drift, time of flight........all come into play and all are about 25% less with the .300 Win.

[stevemonahan]

All ballistics jargon aside the real difference is price and practice You can shoot tons of 308. ammo at a fraction of the price of a 300

[Strut10]

All ballistics jargon aside the real difference is price and practice You can shoot tons of 308. ammo at a fraction of the price of a 300

Yep. About 25% (there's that figure again!!) less if you reload.

Guess sometimes you really DO get what you pay for.