Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting A very basic, common, .308 rifle setup

I guess my 308 WIN experience is perverse compared to the rest of y'all. Don't take me wrong. I don't want it to seem like I'm throwing shade on the chambering. As with so much of my life, 308 WIN has come out with results "other than expected."

First off, my early exposure to 308 WIN was a bit crossed. I grew up going to a barber shop in Cincinnati. Ohio was a shotgun-only state. Therefore most of the opinions I heard about any centerfire rifle were from wannabes. In those days, the mid-Sixties, everyone seemed to have an opinion on things, and 30-06 was usually at the center: 270 vs. 30-06, 308 vs 30-06, etc. The shop I visited was filled with a bunch of 30-06 snobs. Later, well after college, I started shooting and hunting. The bunch of old guys that took me under their wing were all die-hard 30-06 guys. One was a WWII vet. Another was a Marine armorer. Another was a gun editor. I had to learn the catechism that 30-06 was IT.

If you go and look back in this august forum in early 2003, you will find the shaman being sold on the concept of a Savage 99. Honestly, I don't remember much of anything about the Savage 99 until I came here. However, it did not take much convincing. I acquired a Savage 99 that summer. I asked my buddy, Bob, the gun editor which chambering to get. He reluctantly pointed me at 308 WIN. His reasoning was that he was sure 300 Savage was going to be orphaned before too long.

Side note: If you see a pattern of the shaman seeming to get a lot of well-meaning bum steers in his life, you're not the only one.

My one and only 308 WIN rifle is that Savage 99. It was itself, a perverse beast. Try as I might, I could not get it to shoot 150-grain bullets accurately. Somebody had said cheap mil-surp brass would be a good idea. That did not pan out either. What I ended up with was a somewhat downloaded load of H4895 topped off with a 165 grain Hornady Interlock in Federal brass. A full-house load was a bit sharp for my tastes, but loading the rifle to 300 Savage levels made it ideal. This has been my Opening Day go-to rifle ever since. I use it to hunt the Opener and then rotate it with other choices until my buck tag is filled, and then I put away for next year. As such, it has only shot bucks, and it has twice taken camp records. It has also taken several #2 and #3 bucks. I had it out last year and it did not disappoint:



For all my early indoctrination in the cult of 30-06, I have to agree 308 WIN was and is a great choice. I say that as quietly as possible; there are a half-dozen old friends that I don't want rolling in their graves. Will I ever buy another 308 WIN? I'm now 64, and I have a whole side of the rack just for all the 30-06s. My last acquisition was a 7mm-08. 308 WIN may be the road not taken.