Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Who Uses a 308 Win as Their Primary Hunting Cartridge?

Kimber 84M Classic. Shoots everything well but really likes 150 NP's and 165 Hornady Light Magnum. My old 700 loved the 165 SGK and HPBT. Can't imagine being without a .308 even though I like to flirt with others once in a while.

I grew up with a 308 and have hunted with since I was a kid.

Don't have one atm but I have been considering a Hawkeye in one.

I'm down to three .308's, seem to be accumulating 7mm's recently. I started with a .303 British when I was 15, upgraded to .308 a couple of years later, and have not had a need for anything else since. Wants are different than needs! Since the beginning I have used more powerful rounds, and flatter shooting, but never noticed that they killed critters any deader. I like efficiency.

To be honest, I never much cared for the .308 when it came out. No real rational reason other than I figured it was just a 30-06 wannabe.
Then a job transfer put me into so very good Mule Deer country but hunting at 8 and 9 thousand feet MSL was one hell of a change for a seal level type who was a thre pack a day chain smoker to begin with. That 9 plus pound old 30-06 was killing me up where the derr liked tp play. so, I started looking for something with less eight. Preferable a hell of a lot less weight. That something turned out to be one of those butt ugly Remington Model 60 in .308 Win. The first thing I figured was that ugly stock had to go. I put a Fajen mannlicher style stock on the gun and it was kind of pretty at that, considering my lack of gunsmithing skills at the time. Still, it must have been fairly well bedded, no tack driver by any means, but it would do 1.5" at 100 with ammo it liked. In this case it was a stiff load of H-335 with the 150 gr. Sierra Pro-hunter. With that rifle, I took and made the longest shot I ever made on a deer, 425 paces. The der had been wounded by one of my humting buddies and it was a case of stop it before it got away, That's when I finally started to respect the .308. Now I have several rifls in .308 including one of my real pets, a Ruger tang safety RSI. It's a really fine carrying rifle. I still have that old 660, but now it's in an early H&S Precisin stock made when they still had their plant in Prescott Arizona. IIRC, I go that stock in mid 1980. I recently found a 1909 Peruvian Mauser marked Oberndorf
that someone made into a sporter. I just had it rebarreled to, you guessed it, a .308 Win. A quick preliminary shooting session tells me this one might be a good shooter. We'll see. Right now the only cartdige that gives the .308 any competition for my favoer is the 7x57 Mauser. The older I get the more I appreciate cartridges that do not kick the snot out of me.
Paul B.

men, thanks for the replies thus. seems the old war horse 308 still commands some respect.

You bet it does. See plenty of use for shooting Taliban in Afghanistan in special applications. That fact doesn't seem to discourge or get lost on the 308 shooters neither....our beloved soldiers that are doing their job so we don't have to do it over here. Thanks guys...we love you for it. Did I mention they make a great deer round too?

I like the .308 also. I have a Tikka Laminate/SS.. grew up in Minnesota using a Remington 742 in .308 and over the years tried many different calibers. Came back to the .308

I have hunted deer over the last few years with a 7mm'08. Just bought a Savage 308. Right out of the box with Hornaday bullets it put a 3 shot group (100yds) in the same hole. Can't wait to hunt with it. Its is surely moving up the list as a favorite.

rej

So what does that rig weigh?

i'm a wood/blue guy. does anyone shoot a mk2 or a hawkeye in 308 (for their general hunting rifle)? thanks

I started with a 308 when I was 13, 25 years ago, yikes. Since then I have added others, as well as a couple more 308's. And the 308 is still my number one choice for whitetail, and if I ever hunted anything else short of brown bear, I suspect it would get the nod then to.

7lbs even, with a sling, no ammo...