Recently I've thought about buying a Tikka CTR in .308 as I no longer have a rifle in that caliber after selling my model 10 and already have a 6.5 Creed in a bravo. But it's got me thinking, with all the cartridges that are out now, does it really make sense to buy one new? The ballistics are worse than It's smaller caliber derivatives, it has more recoil, and any animal I would feel comfortable shooting with .308 I'd also shoot with a 6/6.5/7mm and .223 given a good projectile in it's effective range. The biggest points in it's favor that I can think of are
1. Ammo cost relative to the 6/6.5/7mms although those seem to be coming down a bit
2. Ammo ubiquity compared to 6/6.5/7mms
3. Potentially a good trainer as it drifts more in the wind, but I feel like the same thing could be done with .223
What am I missing? The point of this thread isn't to try and **** on .308, I just can't think of a reason I should get one even though I'm likely going to eventually.
The arguments you construct against the .308 could reasonable be levied against almost any other cartridge you choose when compared to the field of all cartridges.
What I am saying is pick your favorite and start to construct arguments against it relative to all other cartridges. You can construct valid arguments for and against all cartridges.
That being said, the .308 is nearly universally acknowledged as one of the most balanced and useful cartridges out there. If it doesn't do anything for you personally, I wouldn’t buy one, but it does most things very well.
