Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters So Why the 308?

This pretty well mirrors my own opinion.

I've dabbled in the 308 on/off since I was a teenager. I was more enamored with the 280 Rem and various other 7mms and 30 cals. About age 40, I was starting to realize the recoil from the big 7mms and 30 wasn't fun. I shot them well enough but really enjoyed shooting smaller cartridges.

Then I joined the Campfire and saw some dude in MT shooting elk with the 308 (that would be Brad). Then it was a 7mm-08. I then became enamored with elk hunting and backcountry hunting. I dragged my share of 9lb magnum rifles back into the backcountry. And hated it. About 10-12 years ago, I started down the road of smaller cartridge's, light rifles, and good bullets. I somehow managed to kill several elk with the 308 and 270 in rifles that weighed 7 lbs or less. 10-12 years later, I've killed 20-25 deer and a couple elk with my Kimber 308. Killed 4 deer this year - 1 shot each. My Kimber Montana 308 has become my favorite rifle and feels like an extension of my body.

Long-winded way of saying I think evolution toward smaller, "efficient" cartridges, is natural. Efficient meaning efficient at killing game at reasonable distances. I also think, using smaller "efficient" cartridges has benefited greatly from advances in bullets over the past 20 years. Of course we've had the Nosler Partition since 1948, but they haven't always shot well in all rifles, mine included. To that end, I just finished loading both 130 and 150 TTSX for my 308. It has shot the 150 really well in previous tests. My goal is to develop a load that gives me 2 holes in deer to elk. I'd bet these bullets fired from my 6.5 lb 308 will do just that.

Aye!

My only issue with the .308 has been loading for it, and it could be something I'm doing wrong. I never seem to be able to reach expected velocities. Maybe it's a throating thing, but I was always under speed with multiple rifles. I've never had that problem with a 7mm-08.

We had to take our beloved 8 yo Lab, Tiger Lily Scout, for her last ride August 11th. She was so sick with renal failure and went very peacefully out in the sunshine in the grass. My 14 yo Lab is still retrieving geese, albeit slowly. At least I haven’t lost both dogs in 2020.
My first introduction to the .308 was by the M-14 at Fort Polk, LA in 1969 and subsequently by the M-60 Pig 🐖 . I thought that round would kill any living thing on the planet and hunted WA and MT with it until the powers that be convinced my foolish notions that I needed something bigger in griz country. Onward and upward to more powerful cartridges! In recounting all my deer and elk kills, not a one could not have been handled by a properly loaded .308 Win. Yet, I continue to hunt with the likes of Weatherby magnums and the .35 Whelen - - - because I can.

Happy New Year!

I'd agree with this in that the time Finn spent with the scout rifle and talking with Jeff Cooper he came to the conclusion the 308 fits all of his needs for this continent. Lets not forget age (and the advancement there of) has a way of opening our eyes to the realization of what we really need in practical terms, and tempering our emotional wants. Wanted to add that this comment was not intended to say IMO Finn was an impractical man, quite the contrary considering his history on the Dark Continent, but just as a general observation of modern human nature in general and myself in particular.

I'd also add that sometimes the carrier is more important than the projectile. Matching the cartridge to the use of the rifle, not the other way around, seems not to be the case for many with todays' never ending list of cartridges.

My first 308 was a savage 99, one of the newer ones.

So for me it’s the platform. Now I have a GSR and an M1a.

I'm reminded of the Parable of the Mustard Seeds. You just never know when one of those little boogers is going to take root.

Part of my experiment with the 7mm-08 was to test whether I could fashion reasonable rounds from 308 empties. I haven't tried military brass yet, but I had plenty of Federal brass that I got from my association with my sons' friend. He's a lousy shot and goes through Federal premium ammo like water. I managed minute-of-deer accuracy on the first try. I'll call that a win.

It's funny. When I started reading Aagard back in the early 80's. I was a blind, ignorant kid. All I really knew about rifles was that 30-06 was THE ULTIMATE. 308 WIN was a wannabe, and 270 WIN was the bastard wannabe. It took coming here for me to hear 270 was also limp-wristed. I read Aagard with a healthy dose of confirmation bias. A lot of that wrong-headedness followed me here to the 'Campfire. Over 18 years, it's gradually worked itself out.

Fathers: Don't drop your young sons off at the barbershop and run errands. You don't know what horrible attitudes they'll pick up.

I use a Rem 700 .308 in a B & C Mountain TI stock as my primary hunting rifle. For me, 150gn Accubonds an Varget produce the desired result. If for any reason I need extra velocity I'll use either CFE223 or Alliant PowerPro-2000MR.

I'm sorry to hear about your dog. We recently made the last ride with our Chocolate Lab Sasha, cancer finally took her; that was a hard day.

Thinking back on my 50 years with the 308 Winchester and the 7.62x51 NATO - It has always gotten the job done, no muss no fuss; steady dependable performance in the game fields, on the target range and on the battlefield.

My first exposure to the 308 was in 1970 when when my dad brought a Sako L579 Deluxe home from the base Rod And Gun Club, it was the prettiest rifle I'd ever seen. He had mounted up a 6X Redfield Widefield on it and went on to hunt with it for years and nothing required a second shot.
My dad let me hunt with that rifle a bit while I was in high school and I killed several deer with my own handloaded 150 Gr. Hornady Spire Points.

Joining the USMC in 1977 I got to experience the 7.62mm first hand, I humped the "PIG" for a while and carried it in harm's way, got to work on and use the M40 and M40A1 rifles. My best memories are from when I shot on the 2nd FSSG Rifle Team and we used NM tuned M-14 rifles in inter-service and EIC matches. Loved the trips to shoot against other Marine Teams, Ft Benning to shoot against the AMU, Ft Bragg to shoot against 82nd ABN, SF Teams, Quantico to shoot against the Marine Corps, the FBI and Secret Service shooters and travelling to Camp Perry several times through the eighties.

I hunted with a Sako AII Hunter in 308 from the mid eighties till now off and on. Being a rifle looney I was always looking from something else, something new and different as the 308 was just boring.
Lately I have been on a 6.5 mm kick and my 6.5x55 and 6.5 Creedmoor have been used to put meat in the freezer for the last couple of years (except one with the 7-08 taken on 2ndwind's place a couple of years ago).

I have been fortunate enough to have hunted in many places around this world during my life and outside of 2 Cape Buffalo, a Brown Bear and a 387 yard poke at a Bull Elk there is nothing that I could not have comfortably taken with a 308 Winchester.

Yes, I still have my dad's old rifle (it needs a new recoil pad) and my Sako AII Hunter in 308. As I whittle down my collection of hunting rifles there will always be room in my safe for an accurate rifle chambered in 308 Winchester.

YMMV

StarchedCover

Dingo, that's a great looking rifle!

If I had a 30-06 or a .308 I would not change. For deer hunting it makes little difference. If I had neither I would buy a 30-06. It's "only" 90 or 100 fps faster? Well, I'll take the 100 fps. The 1/4" shorter action doesn't mean a danged thing to me. An exception would be if I really liked the Savage 99. I used to have a Winchester 88 in .308 but didn't like the rifle.

Why not?

If this is a 30 fight, its between the 06 and the 308, right?
The 308 does almost everything the 06 does. In a smaller and
lighter gun.

If the 308 isn't going to give you enough performance, how can you
truly justify the 06? Go straight to a magnum or a bigger bullet.

I have both.
And see them as pretty much the same.
Either is never a bad choice.

One thing that's still amazing to me is how many hunters consider the .308 a "deer" cartridge and the .30-06 an all-around big game cartridge, more suitable for elk-sized game.

Have not just killed but seen a lot of big game taken with both over the decades, and the .308 kills include not just elk but African "plains game" of the same size, including animals often considered even harder to kill than elk, such as zebra, blue wildebeest and gemsbok. All of those animals died just as quickly as they did when shot with a .30-06.

You mean to say that a 5-6% drop in MV doesn’t effectively neuter a big game load at normal hunting ranges? That’s entirely too logical...

My position has long been that the .308 matches, exceeds actually, the ballistics the .30/06 began with and “made its bones” with, just as the designers intended. Better bullets just make both well, better.

No ‘06 here now, and likely for the (my) duration, unless something irresistible falls from the sky like my current .308 did.

Amazing, ain't it? Aspecially when many handloaders feel another 100 (or even 50) fps at the muzzle makes their rifles far more effective--and that additional velocity shrinks the farther the bullet gets from the muzzle.

Why the .308? Because the 7mm-08 is one of the best all-purpose rounds ever created.

I had forgotten about that.


Okie John

Pretty sure Cooper said the 7mm-08 was an acceptable alternative if the .308 wasn't allowed due to being a military round.