Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Finn Aagaard - Shots With The .308

Thanks, Brad! I agree on Finn's writing; my copy of his "Selected Works" is about worn out.

I was fortunate in being able to take a few days off of school while he was here. We tried to get him on a really tremendous mule deer, but it just wasn't in the cards. Finn decided to take an older 3x3 buck that most guys wouldn't want, in order to help us with a "cull" and still have some good meat. Finn also listened patiently as I showed off my cheap Daisy single pump air rifle, which I was using to compete in 4-H shooting competition. Those examples of kindness made a big impact on a surly teenager, and I still miss the man. Not only for his superb writing, but because he seemed like a truly decent human being.

Well I'm not completely left out.

I have an autographed picture of Charlton Heston from the NRA.
and

I have a signed Nosler # 7 Handloading Manual by our own Mule Deer ( J B ). However I told him I thot his Grandkid scribbled in it. , I am glad to have it.


I've hunted WT for over 40 yrs and 'some' times I've had plenty opportunity to watch and plan shots at both doe's and bucks.

Other times it's a matter of shoot NOW or lose the chance.


Those are the reasons I feel the same as our Dear Departed brother **BobinNH **who said, "I like the long legged cartridges"!!
*edit to add* I'll never forget Bob.

I stated in another thread recently, Flat Trajectory is never a handicap. OTOH .......

Jerry

Jerry,


Jerry, my hunting is almost all in the woods and while I spent plenty of time with the .270 and .30-06 in hand I've mostly been shooting game at 50 yards or even less which has led me back to the cartridges of my youth. Right now I also do not have a hunting trip gun since last November I handed my son my .30-06 . I believe I'm going to remedy that here shortly by investing in a .308 . Already have a Leupold laying around so I'll be good to go.

JB, I have one of your .308 rifles, a Montgomery Wards Heym Mauser which was presented to me by a well known poster here on the Campfire who happens to be a good friend. He gave it to me because I am a fan of yours and it will never leave my possession until I pass. And then I own an old Pre-64 Model 70 that you once owned and needed a bolt after the person you sold it to had the bolt thrown away with the packaging by one of his employees but that's another story. Needless to say, it will never leave my possession either. I had a pristine spare bolt that worked like a charm.

That's pretty cool.

model70man,

Good to hear about the .308 Mauser--and especially about the pre-war Model 70. It's nice to know your bolt worked in it, and that it's still functioning!

Mike, where and the terrain we hunt CAN dictate what we need in the way of rifles/cartridges. I've hunted thickets and wide open places that at times reminded me of the 'plains'. Where I hunt since 2012, I can be in a thicket or stalking open pasture up to 400 yds.

Mostly, I hunt a rifle or cartridge by the MOOD I'm in. I have taken a 7 Mag to a creek bottom thicket - because I wanted to not because I needed it. OTOH it's silly to take a short range round or one having a SOFTBALL trajectory to wide open places. NO inference to the 308.

I have never before put in words what I've said twice this week. A Flat Trajectory is never a Handicap.

Jerry

But on a 50 yard shot that 3,000+ fps cartridge can create a bloodshot mess.

Mike, that depends on 2 things.

Bullet Construction & Bullet Placement.

Jerry

That article brings back some memories. Finn was and is my favorite gun writer by a very slim margin over a couple of the other greats.
What I liked best about his writing is easily summarized by to points he made in this article.
One was about the Kenyathalon and his adamantly refusing to run during the event, and his remarks about nilgai
and bullet placement.The subtle dig on fellow gun writers was priceless.

I'm a bit surprised that his comment toward the end regarding " real hunters" didn't draw some ire.

I too always enjoyed his articles. His sort of function over form attitude about rifles always sort of tickled me. When was the last time you read a article where the writer praised a 1 1/2-2" group as perfectly adequate? Likewise I remember one of his articles where he was sporterizing a military Mauser as a project. Basically he painted the stock with something like bed liner paint and rubbed a handful of sand into the pistol grip and forearm while wet to serve as non slip checking.

bangeye,

I know your question was rhetorical, but the last article I read that said 1-1/2" groups are adequate for general big game hunting appeared in GUNS magazine earlier this year.

Great article, but there are a few rounds that article could pertain to.
308 just had a huge popularity push of being a military round.

If I remember high school correctly, popularity is not always all that it is cracked up to be.

"Many years ago, I wrote him a letter asking about his experience with the Scout rifle. His reply was printed on a dot-matrix printer. The pages had separated along the perforations, but he taped them together, which got the job done. THAT was Finn Aagaard in a nutshell." -- Okie John

I had to laugh. That was so Finn! Brings back memories of when he started using a computer and that old dot matrix printer. He had a frequent hate relationship with that computer, but it made his writing job easier. He had a better way to go from a pencil and yellow pad, via his two finger typing, to an ASCI file for his publisher. Thanks for making me think back.

" Likewise I remember one of his articles where he was sporterizing a military Mauser as a project. Basically he painted the stock with something like bed liner paint and rubbed a handful of sand into the pistol grip and forearm while wet to serve as non slip checking." -- Bangeye

And yes Bangeye, that very rifle, with the sand from Sandy Creek and its stock epoxied back together after a horse broke it in two, was one of the last rifles he had still kept. Interestingly that old .30-06 wore a nice 4X Swarovski scope. Entirely practical, homely, and quite lethal enough for game. It remains the same today. He also still had his Steyr Model 1912, Mauser 98 in .308. Neither had been passed down to family members. They were still his up to the end. While he had taken up with the .308 for his own practical reasons, he never forsook the .30-06.

It is such a shame we don't still have Finn Aagaard around. There is no one quite like him.

Jaguar

So...he didn't forsake the 30-06, humm

Wonder why ? No I don't wonder.


Yes it's a shame that we have to get old and move on.


Jerry

Jaguar
Do you know whatever became of his Brno. 7x57 I may have read at some point but have forgotten. That rifle was featured in so many stories that it was somewhat akin to JOCs 270 or John Wooters Forester.

Bangeye PM sent.

Scenar Shooter would attest to that.

Exactly the decision I made a couple of months ago when I purchased my second Sako 85 Finnlight 308 Winchester. It's the cartridge of my youth as well. I now have four 308's. Two are toys and two are primary hunting platforms.

I have enjoyed playing with a lot of different cartridges over the years, and it's pretty easy for the firearms marketeers to suck me into trying a new cartridge, as long as I like the rifle it's chambered in.

Since I tend to like lighter more svelte rifles, I have owned one or more rifles chambered in 243, 260, 7-08, and 6.5 Creedmoor, and there are currently four 308's in my safe.

We all have different needs, and these other short-action rounds clearly excel in some ways, but I think it would be hard to argue with the point Finn made in the article - "The round sired the .243 Winchester, the .260 and 7mm-08 Remingtons, and the .358 Winchester. While all of them are fine rounds for some applications, none of them can match the versatility of their daddy as a big game cartridge."