Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Is there any LOVE for the .308?

I don't know many folks who go out and choose a .308 for their deer rifle. As a matter of fact, I don't know anyone who deer hunts with one in my neck of the woods.

I have a .308 (only one I ever owned), but I have to admit it was the rifle more than the chambering. I have a late 60's Bofors full length stock Sako carbine. I fell in love with the rifle growing up and reading that John Wooters had one.

I have killed a bunch of deer with it and so have members of my family. It has now become more of a designated "treestand rifle" because it's so darn handy. I keep a .257 Roy for the open fields. Have a few other favorites that I cycle through, but these are my go-to guns right now.

That said, I wonder how the .308 Win ranks in sales every year?

It is a fine round

It's the only 30 cal I've ever owned but never felt under gunned by its big brother.Easily a 400+ yd killer just ask ET..I ranged this goat for him at 403yds on our Wyoming reunion hunt sponsored by eh76. Our own CF member Jeff aka "Nebraska" graciously loaned us his 700 for this adventure as I didn't have one in my inventory at that time.

After having traded many guns over the years I received a gift certificate at Dicks and decided to buy a stevens 200 back when they were going for around $200. Long story short Dicks agreed to price match so I was faced with choosing what I wanted it in. I realized I nor any of my friends had ever owned a 308 so that is what I decided on just to try somthing different.
I have to say it is a really great cartridge and I now have to wonder what took me so long. I would easily recommend it for a all around hunting chambering for NA game. It's easy to load for has plenty of reach and while I have only shot two deer with mine it really did the job on both of them to the point I wouldn't hesitate to use it on elk .

Easily one of the best cartridges.

My brother has killed a truck load of deer, elk, and hogs with the 308 150gr .

It's generic as all get out, but it shoots and kills as well (or better) as most rounds. It's such a generic round that I've got a standard load in full length sized brass, seated to the same length, that I run in 4 different rifles and it's an inch or under in all of them. It's just an easy round, no fluff, no drama.

My favorite .308 falls in line with the generic trend with black McMillan and black cerakote...not a looker, just a killer:

The quintessential hunting round.

Right now I am running 130 gr TTSX's over 48.0 grs of TAC. My son wants to use it for Black Bear in a few weeks from a stand. I said I can't wait to take a picture of him holding the Sako next to the Bear.

Try the 110's. Shoots flat as a laser at 3100 fps with 4895.

130's do well at 3100

Mine worked pretty well a couple of weeks ago. Montana with a 165gr. Acc. @ 85 yards.

I've been hunting with the .308 since 14, off and on. Right now have three, and my wife has one as well. We've used them in both North America and Africa for at least 10 species of big game up to around 700 pounds, and I wouldn't hesitate to hunt the rest of my life in Montana with a .308.

Hunted with one very often for years , my favotite hunting rifle is in a .308. Why not more popular , most people are stupid [bleep] when it comes to such

I own several 308 Winchesters and several 30-06's. The 308 is just like the 30-06 of 50 years ago; new powders and bullets have improved both.

I have a 308 and a 307. I like both.

In the 1960's I ran across W.D.M. Bell's article Small Bore Versus Big Bore n the December 1954 Rifleman. Bell wrote that if he could go to Africa again under the same conditions he would take a Winchester Model 70 in 308. Bell wanted solid bronze or monel bullets.
I enjoy hunting with and shooting with both of them.

I think that the 308 is probably the best hunting round that most Americans can actually use. It is close to the best all-around that there is.

Been playing with one for the first time this last year or so. Traded into a beat up JC Higgins 51-L, spent some time reinforcing the broken apart action area of the stock and mounted a 2.5-8 VXIII. Several loads will go an inch or so, some less. It's doing well enough I took it to Colorado last week for 1st rifle elk season with 165 Partitions. Unfortunately I saw more orange coats than elk.

A 308 Model 700 ADL is my Current Deer rifle. It is a 1965 rifle That is in a current ADL Synthetic stock with a Leupold VXIII 2.5-8x36 in Weaver Rings. Just spent 11 days Packing it for deer with Pleasure. Light, Handy, Plenty of range and Power For Deer. Load is 125gr Ballistic Tip over 51.5gr of W748. Light recoil devastating terminal effect. What is not to like about the 308?

I grew up shooting the .308 because it was the caliber of choice for my father. His rifles was a Savage 99 and the .308 was chosen because it was the "best" round available in a lever gun. That rifle (and it's owner) were legendary in our part of the world.

My first rifle (a "family" gun obtained when I was 10) was a Mossberg 800 in.....308! I proceeded to reduce the whitetail population for the next few years until I could buy my own rifle.

My choice was the .30-06, which I believed (I was young) to be a step up from the .308.....which I KNEW worked wonderfully on deer/hogs. In truth, there was not a shot taken with that .30-06 (and some 200+ kills) that I couldn't have made with a .308.....and I'd have never have known the difference. The .30-06 is often suggested as the perfect single cartridge for taking all North American game....and it is. However, I suggest that this same statement could easily apply to the .308 as well.

The .308 is perhaps the "best" whitetail round ever invented. It has enough velocity to shoot flat out to 400+ yards. Yet it doesn't have so much velocity as to require "special" bullets at close range and keeps recoil at a mild level. It hits hard, kills quickly and leaves a great blood trail.....unlike other smaller bore cartridges. The .308 is perhaps the most inherently accurate (and yes I do believe some rounds ARE inherently accurate) rounds ever designed.

All of this is true, but what makes the .308 the "best" is that it is short enough to be chambered in any action type one wishes. Bolt, single shot, pump, semi-auto or lever guns all are chambered in the .308. It is short enough to work in them all and even save a few ounces in weight in a short-action rifle for those who think this is important. The same cannot be said of the .30-06....or any magnum length round.

I now own many, many rifles, but the .308 keeps showing up due to the rifles it's chambered in (and it's known effectiveness). Some come and go, but at present I own a Ruger Mannlicher carbine in .308 (short and light), a Winchester 100 and a Savage 99.

There is the REAL reason the .308 is the "perfect" deer cartridge.......it fits in the Savage 99 and the .30-06 doesn't!