Later on this morning, I will be picking up my first real bolt action rifle (well, besides my mosin nagants). I am going to pick up a 700 SPS and I am torn on what round to get. I am mainly buying this for deer. I am seriously considering the 30-06 or the 308. Would the 308 be adaquate(sp?) for white tail? I have been looking at the 30-06 due to current available surplus rounds on the cheap, but started thinking, this stuff wont be around forever (the cheap stuff that is), but the mil is still using this stuff, so there should be surplus for this round for a while. I have heard that the 308 has a softer recoil but similar characteristics to the 30-06. No, I dont have my mind made up, what say you?

ive taken elk with a 308 remington 700, it'll do white tail deer with no problem

As far as factory rounds go, 30.06 and .308 are pretty similar, the 308 is just put into a shorter package. Now, if you were hand loading you would have more projectile options with the 30.06, but i prefer the .308 for several reasons. Higher quality mil surp is widely available, and i always find a wider variety of commercial .308 on the shelves. .308 will fuck up a white tail like you wouldn't believe. As far as hunting white tail with commercial ammo goes, the extra case length of the 30.06 wont really do anything for you. You could get heavier slugs, but even the lightest .308 slugs will drop a white tail bang dead.  

The difference between a 3o/06 and a .308 used to be 150 fps.  With more modern propellants the reality is the difference to more effectively handle bullets in the 180-220 grain wight range.  

The longer bullets just tend to intrude into case capacity in the shorter .308.  However, the short action rifles are handier in the tripods and boxes of Texas, and will kill everything from a whitetail to an Oryx deader than yesterday.  

At first I went with the .300 Win Mag and then I got a press. I can reload to 30-60, .308 and more.
I wouldn't use surplus in a hunting rifle. You should use good factory loads designed for your hunting needs.
But all you really need for deer is a .270 Win. I later picked up one myself and I enjoy perfer it more for deer.

Quoted: At first I went with the .300 Win Mag and then I got a press. I can reload to 30-60, .308 and more. I wouldn't use surplus in a hunting rifle. You should use good factory loads designed for your hunting needs. But all you really need for deer is a .270 Win. I later picked up one myself and I enjoy perfer it more for deer.

+1....I wouldn't use milsurp in my hunting gun....not that it couldn't handle it, buy why take a chance?

.308. Wide variety of hunting rounds available and more rounds on the shelf.