Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles .22-250 vs .308 Win

Posting this to help my brother out, and kinda settle a bit of an argument. So don't crucify me too bad........LOL!!!


Basically he's looking for his kids first deer rifle. He's set on a .22-250 cause in his mind a hyper velocity lightweight premium bullet of 55-75gr is better than a reduced velocity .308 of say 110-125gr wherein they would have equal recoil.

I'm in the .308 camp myself simply cause of the far more vast versatility of the .308 once the kids grow up. Also, that a reduced recoil round will not be nearly as loud to the ears. Which to many young shooters (even with hearing protection) is just a big of a factor as actual recoil.

But, it did get me to wondering a bit. For deer sized game under 200yd, given the same recoil levels..........what is the better choice? Say a 62gr Barnes TSX @ 3500fps or a reduced load 110gr .308 @ 2600fps???

22-250.

By a mile...





Travis

.308. At some point he might want to shoot something other than deer size game at 200 yards.

Can we throw the 243 in the mix?

No. Everyone knows a .243 will not kill stuff.

I really like 308win, but in this case I'd go 22-250 with a good bullet.

Started out my son and nephew with a reduced load in a 308 (H4895 & 150gr Rem. CLKT bulk bullet at 2400) seemed to do just fine on deer and pigs.

They have since moved on to the 30-06 and the other still uses a 308 WCF.

SC

Seems we always want to talk about later down the road when kids grow up. Topic at hand now is kid wants to shoot deer. When said kid grows up and hairs over he can buy another gun if he wishes.

260, might as well throw it out there....

308

223 Montucky. You've the twist and the COAL,along with ergo's,balance and handling. It's an unequaled rugged/reliable platform,that'll last generations.

I'll always take a 22-250 over a 308 and a 223 over both.

Connecting dots is ALL about round count and FUN and I'm never not amazed at how hasty folks are,to forget that. Though of course...most folks don't shoot,though they certainly "think" they do.

Happiness is a 223 Montucky,good glass/mounts and 5 gallon buckets full of fodder. The Reupold 6x42 can't be whooped,for kids,given it's ease of acquisition and exceedingly generous eye-relief. Very easy to go M1 on it's ele and reach the 1000yd line easily.

Hint.

The 62X is no slouch,though Graf's has 75A-Max in stock currently.

Re-hint.

Thank me later.........

This is the route I went. Only I built and didn't get him a Montana.

But between the two, it's the 22-250. Hands down.



Travis

I've thought several times about playing with light bullets in the .308 at reduced loads, just as a curiosity...too many things to dabble with and not enough time.

I went .223 (AI'd for my kids). Left home this morning and they were laying it on thick with the "we want to shoot as soon as we get in this evening". Everyone thinks they want something bigger so they can use it when they get older....I'm older and shoot more .223's than everything else put together. No matter how old I get, the .223 never gets old.

Don't buy things for what you think you're "gonna" do - buy them for what you ARE doing.

Later if that changes, buy again for what you ARE doing.

Way too many 300 WM's get sold because "I'm gonna go out west someday for elk" and they never leave the woodlot well east of the Mississippi.

I'd go 22-250 over the 308 and let them have fun NOW.

I used the 70 gr speer on deer out of a swift and it kills like lightning..although I would still choose a 308 for the application. The boy can grow with a 308 I'm sure that is what you were thinking.

Isn't that the truth...

The older I get, the more I enjoy the smaller stuff for killing and shooting. I have two kids who went/are going through this and their pick is the 22-250.

There are choices that are better than your listed options. Either the .223 or the .243 make more sense for a youngster than the .22-250 or the .308. All four will work just fine, but I would rather see a kid hunting with a .223 than a .22-250. Likewise a full power .243 makes more sense to me than a reduced recoil .308. How old/big is the kid?

I'm 37 and the .223's and 22-250's are the first rifles I grab.




Travis

.223 gets a lot more rounds downrange than a .308 when I'm shootin. .22-250 offers no practical advantage over the .223 in deer-killin ability, especially at the cited 200 yds.

243
257 bob
250 savage
260