Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles The highly overrated 308 Win. - accuracy wise

The forum is slow these days, might as well kick the hornets nest.

I am working on loads for my 5th 308 Win. and was talking with a bud about it. We both kind of agreed it is overrated in terms of accuracy. I really like the chambering and think it is tied with the 270 Win for the best best NA hunting round for the average hunter. Not hard to get MOA groups, but I've never had a real smoker. For a tack driver, I'd bet on a 6.5 Creed any day.

if you're getting MOA and you're talking about hunting rifles, WTH is the problem with accuracy? Creedmore may be a tack driver, but I'll take a 308, 270, or 30-06 for hunting any day. Yep, you kicked the hornet's nest of the unrepentant old guy who despises Creedmores.

The Creedmoor has the advantage of better chamber/throat dimensions standardized by SAAMI. In particular, the SAAMI min spec throat diameter for the Creedmoor is a half thousandth over bullet diameter. The corresponding dimension for the 308 is two thousandths over bullet diameter.

All the homework has been done on the .308 for decades, regarding reamers, bullets, loads, rifle blueprints, etc. and that counts for a lot in some folks' eyes. Used to be that when a big name accuracy shop or tactical shop put up promotional pics of 10 round groups from their rifles, it was generally either going to be a .308 or a 6mmBR / 6mmPPC.

Any particular reason?

And it's a solid bet their 308 chamber reamer didn't have a .310"+ throat diameter.

Bet you are right....

I have owned a number of 308s over the years and moved on to other more "interesting" cartridges but I finally found my way out of the wilderness and back to the 308 almost by accident. I was building a rifle in 6mm CM and at the last moment, decided to buy a suppressor. With that in mind, the only 20" Proof pre-fit barrel available was in 308 so the decision was made, 308 it was going to be. After shooting the 308 again after being away for year, I'm convinced it's the most well balanced short action cartridge available, it does everything well with little fanfare. It has become my go-to hunting rifle and don't see that changing.

Holy smokes! Might as well take a picture of yourself whizzing in a box full of .222Rem brass while you're at it.

Love the 308 Winchester. Does everything I need!

No argument here. I, like you will shoot whatever I damn well please..

At least the OP didn't criticize the 30-06.

This is the right answer.

Cut a .308 Win with a .3085 diameter/.175 long/1 degree freebore in a good barrel and it will shoot to the limits of the shooter.

I have owned a bunch of 308's , a bunch of 270's , and a couple of 6.5 Creedmoor's , both the 270's and the Creedmoor's on average were more accurate than the 308's

I agree with you and the OP. I've had many 308's, some have even been frustrating, where my 30-06's best them. The last 2 308's I'm keeping are very good shooters though. I'll be hanging on to them for a while. A couple months ago, I did a side by side comparison between one of my 6.5 creedmoor's and my latest 308 winchester. Tit for tat, the creedmoor kicked its azz.. I actually had high hopes for the 308 that day!!

My custom Schultz and Larsen heavy barrel model 54 target 308 Win is likely just as accurate as any 6.5 C. It's more accurate than me. My best 5 shot groups at 100 yds are in the 0.3" which is basically a ragged hole. It's better groups are easily repeatable. My local range has a 300 yd berm, so for a shorter range target gun I'm not looking for more accuracy and don't need the advantage of. 264" over .308"

Another thing that makes my Schultz a better short ranger is the old school 1:14 twist. It loves 155gr and 168gr, but won't stabilize more than 180’s

I think I'll quit right here.

Again, I like the 308 and it's been my main hunting cartridge for years. 2 Factory Rem 700's, a Tikka, a CVA, and 1 custom with a Douglas with a 'match' chamber.... I've never had one that was a real tack driver. Seen a lot of factory rifles in 6.5 Creed not need custom work to outshoot about any 308 Win I have seen. Still believe its rep as to accuracy is a bit overstated.

You are like me. All of your rifles shoot good. "I'll quit right here".

Well, I can't stop right there. The most accurate 308win I've seen is one of my buddies. He's a member of the local SWAT. He asked if I'd shoot it, "to see what it could really do". Funny thing is it's an old Tikka that his dad gave him recently. "Dad never shot it, just stuck it in the closet about 10 or 15 years ago", according to my buddy. Anyway, a stainless T3 varmint.

5 shots on target:

I did not take that target home and try to measure it, since it was my buddies rifle. This is as it was stapled to the backer board. My buddy took a pic with his phone that has a ballistic app that measures groups. It said ".110" or something like that. I told him it was fos and probably closer to 1/4". Because of my buddies great shooting Tikka, I had to pull mine out and start messing with it:


Mine is also a T3, but a stainless lite. Not a damn thing wrong with these older T3's, after you replace the aluminum recoil lug and the bolt shroud. I also put this one in a new T3X stock, added a bolt stop from a 6.5 creedmoor and also run creedmoor mags, so I can get the bullets out close to the lands.

It's a great shooter:


Then my latest buy was a Winchester model 70 Heavy varmint model. Love the rifle and it was a damn good deal. I recently sold my AR10 308 target rifle, and found myself with almost 1,000 pcs of 308 win primed brass. Most primed with BR2's, so buying another 308 was the right thing to do.


Now, to be fair, after shooting a roughly 3/4" group at 400 yards with it,

I thought it was ready to take on the creedmoor, that is the backup to my competition rifle. Wind conditions sucked that day, so it was a great test. Not being partial to either one, to be fair, I set out to see which one prevailed as winner:


The 6.5 Creedmoor:

As you can see, both rifles were wearing identical scopes. None had an advantage in that department. That's why I left the competition rifle at home!!

Here are the results from 2 very similar rifles:

6.5 CM:


308 Win:


I have respect for the 308 win, but there's no denying how good the 6.5 creedmoor really is.