I do not understand why someone would buy a 308 and down load to 300 Savage velocities. Why not take advantage of the full potential of the cartridge. a 150 gr bullet can easily be loaded to 2900 fps, and a 165 to 2800, and both as accurate as the 2500-2600 fps loads I see some guys bragging about. Other having bad shoulders and avoiding the recoil I don't understand it. Someone please enlighten me.
My experience with the .308 has been that it seems to have a lot of bark, for its bite. Kind of like these fellas:
� and a Savage 99.
I shoot them sometimes but really like them when someone tells me they are not bothered by recoil.
They hurt more than a 300 short mag in a light stock.
plainsman, glad you said that. i shot a remington 798 mauser in 308 that whipped my ass. i can handle a 270WSM and similar with no issues but something about that 308 was just unpleasant. maybe just the shape of the stock or something.
I have one 308 WIN, and it is my favorite deer rifle. It is a Savage 99, and I download it to 300 Savage levels.
I have 9 30-06 rifles. Most of the time, I shoot them with a load that is slightly downloaded to 308 WIN levels.
The result in both cases is a fairly dramatic reduction in recoil. I am not adverse to recoil; I'm a walking landform. However, I figure that I need not put up with it when I don't have to. I also am hunting places only 800 feet or so above sea level with less than 200 feet of altitude. A little extra weight is not a problem.
For my taste, I prefer the 30-06 over the 308 for the simple reason that, when loaded to near-MAX levels, the 308 Win seems to have much sharper recoil than the slightly downloaded '06.
I, too, had a Savage 99 in .308, and it had even been retrofitted with a decent recoil pad. Still, I was surprised by the jab that sucker gave me when I mushed the trigger. A 700 MR, similarly chambered, was little problem from a recoil standpoint, but I still noticed that the cartridge made sure it was heard.
My other experience with the cartridge was last year when Ready had me
slummin' a Blaser R8 with a Zeiss Victory 'round the GDR. That stock was much better at directing the recoil to where I best tolerated it, and the extra weight obviously helped, too. We also wore hearing protection, so I wasn't bothered by the report.
On the other hand, I picked up a 722 in .300 Savage here, and that thing is more fun than a bucketful of bouncy blondes. It barely whispers when it goes off, and I have to tell my shoulder that I just fired a shot. And yet it sends 130 TSX's awfully close to 3K fps, and they will neatly snap the neck of a hog. I find it provides a goodly amount of killing for the jab & bang.
For me, If I've gotta eat more recoil & endure more muzzle blast, I'll step up to a .300 WM. But for most of my hunting, thankfully, I don't have to.
FC
