Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters 308 vs small bore

.223; .308; .366 for me. Default .308 for hogs and deer. If smaller cartridge wanted - jump down to .223. if bigger wanted (in Europe never needed) jump up .366.

In the past I have been cutting things much closer - .223; .243; .284; .308; .323; .366; .458. Drove me nuts. For noticeable difference in on game performance (same bullet type) I have cut back to the three mentioned above - and the major factor to me is indeed blood trails. For hogs no sub .308 cal. for me anymore - mind, in Europe wild boar are an indigenous game species and not classed as feral, so animals are actually followed up with dogs on sub par shots and a blood trail helps.

I’ve never owned a6.5 let alone killed game with one. But I’ve shot piles of deer with a 25-06 and a 270 and a 308. I always felt like the 308 hit hardest of them all. Always used cup and core bullets in them all when deer hunting. More often than not Hornady but also Sierra, BT’s, rem core lokts, hot cores and even a few accubonds and partitions.
,I believe the 308 left better blood trails on average than the 270 and definitely better than the 25-06. I’m a big 308 fan and have taken probable 25 different species of big game with one. When the game was bigger I would switch to a 168 tsx. I am confident that a 6.5 with a good bullet would be a fine killer of game.... tsx or tsx’s are wonderful killers of game. Dang.... I think I just talked myself into a 6.5!! Bottom line any appropriate cartridge and bullet placed properly is going to work.

Ben