Recoil 308 vs 300 Win Mag?

[elkfins]

Put a break on it and most all recoil is gone. My 300 rum bounces like a 223 and is a pleasure to shoot.

My experience as well.  I have a Winchester model 70 338 win mag with a BOSS that kicks way less than my old Ruger M77 30-06 does.

[N7XW]

One thing I did not see mentioned is practice. I am pretty insensitive to recoil, but after not shooting big guns for awhile (a couple months) I found myself anticipating and flinching after a few shots. Once I recognized this I found I could turn off the flinch and shoot well again. As long as I shot a couple times a month I was good to go.

Heavy recoil can be managed with lots of practice.  If you shoot enough, it won't even be noticeable after awhile.  You just get used to it.

[MAVsled]

I have experience with both calibers. And taken many bulls in the past 51 years.

make no doubt about it, the 300win mag is going to thump you good....but I love my 300WMag on elk and long distance mule deer hunting.

[coachcw]

For sure a good composite stock will help . that being said I feel that the wsm has less felt recoil than the wm. I have gone to brakes on pretty much all of my guns even my 308. my go to gun is a 6.5x284 pushing a 140 vld at 3147.....the elk dont know the difference between dead and deader ! confidence and shot placement are the keys .

[Gentrys]

I own and shoot a 308, 30-06 and 300WM.  Not much difference between the 308 and 30-06 with recoil.  Big dfference with the 300WM.
No reason IMO to jump up to a 300WM if your shooting at 300 yards or less.
308 and 30-06 are great calibers for elk with a good placed shot.
If you do go up to a 300WM and you fear the recoil, then shot placement will suffer and you'd be better off with smaller caliber.
Muzzle breaks do greatly help with recoil if you don't mind it sounding like a cannon every time you shoot.  It does make them loud.