Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Long Range Hunting The .308 Winchester

Still hanging in there and running strong!!

http://bulletin.accurateshooter.com/

308 Win is my all favorite big game cal for deer

Deer and I've killed elk with no problem!

And with today's bullets and powders, it IS everything the 30-06 was when it proved itself.

Does that mean the 30-06 is a 300 win magnum now??? Sounds like some 5 foot tall guy imagining he was a 6' too... Typical bigstick syndrome..

Maybe, if the 300 win mag was only 75 fps more than a 30-06. What a dumb statement.

Read his statement again there. He's right.

Those look like perfect hunting rifles to me....

That's exactly where the 308 belongs.

Yup. The '06 started with 150s at 2700 or so. That's what Teddy and Stewart took to Africa, I believe. Later, the advertised velocity was bumped to 2960 or thereabouts, but who knows what it really was. The Hodgdon manual shows lots of .308 150gr loads at over 2900. CFE223 gives a 150gr E-tip 2990, in a test barrel of course. Not too shabby.

The '06 can always go higher, of course, but the point really is that a .308 can do all the original '06 was capable of, with medium-weight bullets anyway.

Those guys are shooting 200s at 2660 out of the 308. Not bad! IIRC, they are shooting about a grain less Varget than my 155 Scenar load. Stout load with a 200.

You hit'em kinda hard with that one...

You got a laugh out of me...

The .308 will never match the '06 with heavy bullets and the '06 will never be a .300 Win Mag.

But, the .308 is a great, proven round and I really like mine.

Like my '06 and my .300 WM, too...

DF

He didn't hit anything, having missed the correct meaning of the quoted post.

And I'm 6' 2" too.

I quite enjoy the 308 win for efficiency, accuracy, and good recoil to kill power it is hard to pass up the 308 win! I went hunting in Vermont and found a old lady that used a 308 win. She had no issues taking deer, moose, and black bear with the 308 win. That's all she ever used according to her and she was quite successful at harvesting game year after year.

Easier to read now?

I have killed 90% of my big game with a 308 win. Started with 180 gr round nose. Then went to 165 gr poly tips. If I do my job it definitely does it's job.

I"ve posted this link before. Will post gain as it shows how versitile the .308 is with new bullet options, new technologies with both powder and projectile.

http://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/10719100

DF

Those that knock the 308 typically have little to no real BG experience with it...

Exactly....

My father designed a machine gun and the gov provided many crates of belted 308 ammo. Every 5th round was a red tipped tracer.

So our father bought us brothers a 1969 Sav99 308 used in 1973.
I still have the Sav 99, the crates of ammo are gone.

I was building 308 FAL rifles in the 1990s.

I bought a 308 Reamer in 2002 and started converting surplus Mauser rifles to 308.



Used my 308 reamer again.
Yesterday I finished building my "low budget rifle"
$45 +$5 tax pawn shop Arisaka 99 orig 300sav springfield barrel, I converted to 308
$17 delivered bipod from Amazon
$3 delivered rings from Ebay
$2 + $2 for Weaver #45 and Weaver #47 bases
$6 delivered Allen ammo pouch Amazon
Synthetic foam packing material under pouch to make cheek rest from garbage
Steel recoil lug abutment I milled from scrap steel
Steel rear pillar from 3/8" steel tubing on hand.
I drilled and tapped (4) 6-48 holes in receiver with tools on hand.
Devcon steel putty around pillars and scope bases, from material on hand.
Uncle Mike's swivel studs from material on hand
Simmons 2.8x10 scope from rifle take off junk pile
Leather sling from rifle take off junk pile
12 ounce doggone rear bag from rifle take off junk pile
Pachmayr recoil pad from rifle take off junk pile
Slip on limbsaver recoil pad not attached, not a line item
---------------------------------
$80 invested
Whatever I shoot with it in 2016, the tag cost more than that.

Yes and read too much on the Internet and marketing in magazines, etc.....

Sums it up pretty well.

So, all of you proponents of the 308, what would you say is the best bullet weight for general field hunting?

It depends on what you want to use it for. For a one-load-does-it-all, I would say a 165 Ab, or Part.

Personally, my .308s are deer killers and my 7 mags get the nod for elk. That being said, I use 150 Hornady Interlocks exclusively in the .308-1/2 moa in both of my rifles.

155gr Lapua Scenar...

Those are the two I have used, antelope to elk.

No use for anything lighter than a 168/165 TTSX for me, though I run a lot of 185 bergers but will be bumping up a bit in the berger line up next.

Never liked light bullets....

Though I suspect that a 150ish X type would be decent too.

Eileen and I have primarily used a bunch of different 150-168 grain bullets in the .308, and all worked fine on animals up through elk-size. One of the several virtues of the .308 is moderate but sufficient muzzle velocity, allowing a wide range of bullets to expand nicely on big game.

Don't know what the "best bullet weight" is,but I use a 180gr interbond.Works great for everything.ymmv

Nosler 155 ETip for a monometal.

Just goes to show how versatile the .308 really is.

For food plot WT's, where 200 yds is an exceptionally long shot, not the rule, I like the 130 gr. Hornady. I get full penetration with chest shots, good entrance and good exit wounds, blood flowing both ways. Most have been DRT.

The 130 gr. Ralph Council bullet is exceptionally accurate. It's a custom BR type bullet, haven't tried them on game but Ralph says they work great on critters.

I've been impressed with the 135 gr. Cutting Edge Raptor. I haven't tried these loads at longer range, have too many other options.

I've heard it said, beware the man who has one gun, he probably knows how to use it. Seems I'm on the other end of that spectrum...

DF

I've posted this one before. A killer and accurate. Not a bad combo...

Haven't tried them beyond 100yds.

DF

How much are you leaning on the press handle seating those long bullets on top of 47 grains of Varget?

Easy to seat, the Varget does get crunched a bit; not a big deal.

They need to be seated down to the driving ring which you can see on the right bullet.

These bullets are very precisely made; the rounds are very concentric. I was actually surprised how accurate they are. Now, the gun gets some credit, a Kimber Classic with a 24" SS Broughton 5C, bedded by me...

But, even that gun needs quality bullets to shoot one hole groups.

This bullet opens up, fragments, causing considerable destruction, then leaves the scene with a nice exit hole. DRT's so far with chest shot critters. It would probably do a job on a shoulder...

DF

I never liked light bullets either UNTIL.....I started shooting the Sierra 155 Palma bullet!

It made a liar out of me!!

.308 stunt shooter...



Another cow from the same herd.. same stunt shooting .308..

I LOVE the .308!

It's the big brother of my absolute favorite, the 7mm-08.

120gr NBTs for antelope and deer, 140gr TTSX or 140-150gr Partition for elk.

What more could you want?

A 280 Remington

.260 Rem w/ 1:8" twist.

Honestly the 155 Scenar pushed by stout loads of Varget does so well that I really don't bother with much else.

Between the .223, .308 and .300 Win, all my centerfire needs are easily met.


The older I get, the less I want to fiddle with a bunch of different cartridges. Time is limited, and I would rather be in the field shooting/hunting than dinking around with load development and such.

True, but you should live a little and buy yourself a new camera, The faces in your pics are always out of focus.

The only BG I hunt is white tails and hogs...at ranges as close as a couple yards out to 200 yards...a little longer on rare occasions.

Pretty much any bullet in the 150 - 165 gr weight will work. I've had good success with Hornady 150 gr spire point, and Seirra 165 gr. BTHP.

I have pretty much settled on the 165 gr. Sierra BTHP. I use it with both 308 and 30-06. I have not been dissatisifed with its performance in ether chambering. It is curently my go-to bullet.

Hard to beat the .308 for target shooting or hunting game. I am shooting three-a guide rifle with 168 TTSX's, a VSF with 155 Scenar's and a LTR with 168 A max's.

This is my nephew shooting the LTR at 700yds


We had to shoot from the truck to clear a slight rise and tall beans in the field

ET and I both scored with a borrowed 308 on our reunion speed goat hunt with eh76 a few years back.The kill shots were between 350-420 yds respectively with some very old saved gunship 7.62 cases loaded with 150 TTSX. Don't think it'll go away anytime soon...

It is a smudge on the camera lens..

I have shot a BUNCH of those, and can attest to both their accuracy and terminal performance on mule deer and elk. The only thing I did not care for was the fact that due to their profile they really get blown around by the wind past 600 or so, as compared to some other projectiles.

For a 500 and in bullet though, they are seriously G2G.

This dog was dumped right at 500 (lasered) with us shooting off the top of a hay stack. The wind was really blowing, and the field had just been cut, wind was hard to read, so my wind call was off.

He ended up taking a round in the guts instead of the chest. He expired immediately, so oh well.


165 grain HPBT Game King.

I like to see pics of does for a change. They are some of our favorite meat.

Meat is meat. Can't eat the horns.

As the Chou brothers(mentioned in the original post) know, the Berger 200 hybrid is a fantastic bullet for F-T/R.

This is an electronic target screenshot from this weekend at Camp Atterbury in Indiana. I had a couple leak out due to elevation, but I'll take a 198-10X any day. Convertible sighters were part of the program, so I took the 2 10's to start the match.

For those not familiar with F-Class, the X ring at 1000 yards is 5", and the 10 ring is 10".



It was a bit damp.

This. Although having both shoulders operated on makes by stable look like 223, 243, 308.

My buddy just killed a 10" mountain goat with his .308. Worked just fine.

That is really SHORT!

He could have hidden behind a Rockchuck!

With a 308 Bart Bobbitt shot a 3.2" 20 shot group at 800 yards in 1997 and Krieger put an ad in a magazine saying he used a Krieger barrel.

With a 308 I shot a 0.97" 5 shot group at 100 yards in 2009 with a Parker Hale sniper trainer bull barrel.
I currently own (13) 308 rifles. I am planning to hunt with one of them this fall.

.97" at 100 yards? Congrats?

How about ten shots, 1/2 moa, guided by a 6x scope?

You're a machine.

Wow! The guys at Camp Perry wouldn't stand a chance against the 24HCF guys.

Yes, I'm a 308 devotee.

I hope that's dust and not rust...

Hunting on a motorbike and things can get a little dusty.

Damn SKane, that's just mean......

I didn't think so.

mathman,

That wasn't a knock - I couldn't do what you did.
Friend Clarkm just seems to have some savage99 happening. *grins*

I've shot a couple of groups like I described but they weren't with sporter weight rifles, and there's no way I can say "all day long" either.

My son with the buck I got in Kansas 2014. Saw at least 25-30 bucks last season but never pulled the trigger! I guess you could say I'm a 'head-hunter'! Grandkids can kill the meat!

Brandon Mulhern with his Dad's 2014 Kansas whitetail buck. by Sharps Man, on Flickr

150 gr. Nosler AccuBond ahead of 46.5 grs. Varget/F210 primer. This one went 20 yards and piled up!

I'm pretty certain I met Bart years back either at Ben Avery north of Phoenix or at the Palma Events at Raton, New Mexico! Good guy...and a damn great Palma shooter as well! Wherever he is....I wish him well and a BIG HOWDY!!

I have never met Bart. I have read hundreds of his posts on the internet, both the old usenet rec.guns in the 1990s and the newer www with forums.

He used to make fun of other guys for having a "wallet group", five shots that would fit under a dime, cut out and put in the wallet to show off. From looking at his 1997 20 shot 800 yard 308 group, it looks like it has been in his wallet:)