Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Where does .308 Winchester excel?

Accurate, short action rifles, plenty of energy, plethora of .308" bullets to choose from, surplus brass at reasonable prices.

A .308 will do it all,...especially if you handload,..groundhogs to Grizzly.

42.5 grains of H4895 and 150 grain bullets. A scoped FAL loaded with that will keep the gong at 300 yards swinging all day long,...20 rounds on target in less than a minute.

Lucked into 10 boxes of the PMC 150gr deer stuff way back.
Rifle shoots it decent.
Under 100 and Id run it, due to front sight. Change that and maybe go further.
May try a new dust cover and add reflex.

Its comfy even w STG58 stock (prefer over humpback).
STG58 handguards suck though. Plastic reg is more comfy.

Its a FrankenFAL and we drag it to the range to blast when WW ball ammo is found reasonable.
Heavy to be comfy for any shooter off a bag.

Ain’t nothing wrong with a 308. This is just as good a place to talk about it as anywhere and better than most.

Ive not shot any deer w a .30 cal.
Its soooooooo hard to not just grab the 760 in .35 rem.
Light, fast, comfy, no blast just a boom.
Under 150 yards.........my supposed other "deer rifles" just sit in the safe.
Maybe if I hunted some other ground.

Sis sent me the CO regs, so may look at applying for a tag of some sort out there.
Im thinkin Mule Deer and a #1 B in .25-06 would be a good combo.

Aint found that rifle, yet

Where does a .308 excel?

That is a good question. Many will suggest that the .308 Winchester is a "jack of all trades, master of none" kind of a cartridge. At first glance, you may agree with that. After all, the .30-06 has more potential velocity if you break away from factory-loaded ammunition, but you're going to be forced into a long action. For hunting, why stop at the '06 when you can go straight to the .300 Winchester? If you're going short-action, the 7mm-08 or 6.5 Creedmoor offer less recoil and slightly higher ballistic coefficient bullets that provide for somewhat better trajectory. There is even the .260 Remington for the Creedmoor haters that potentially out-performs either of the other darlings if you want to be individualistic and perhaps a few more FPS of bragging rights. So why would anybody want a .308 Winchester?

Those claiming the .308 Winchester to be anemic must also claim the .300 Winchester is anemic. Let me explain. In a density altitude of 1050, a 175 gr from a .308 Winchester fired at 2670 fps will have 3 mRad or 63.78" of drop at 575 yards. In the wind, the same load would drift 1.4 mRad or 32.8" in a 10mph wind at full-value. Remaining energy is around 1260 FPE with a remaining velocity of 1800 fps. This is the expansion floor for most bullets. What pathetic performance, right?

Let us compare to the mighty .300 Winchester with a similar bullet. We can expect the same 175 gr bullet to reach around 2960; ~300 fps faster in the .300 Winchester. To reach the same drop values and remaining velocity we can extend our range to a whopping 675 yards in the same density altitude to achieve the same numbers. That's it, a .300 Winchester gets you 100 yards!

Or think of it this way, an animal hit with a .300 Winchester at 675 yards is the same as hitting the same animal with a .308 at 575 yards. According to polling on this very forum, most hunters won't shoot past 300 yards or so on game. How could the .308 Winchester be ineffective and anemic if it will maintain the velocity floor faster than the average hunter is willing to take the shot anyway? Few would argue the .300 Winchester as being "anemic' at 675 yards so the .308 Winchester is absolutely fine under 575.

So why not choose a 6.5 Creedmoor? Surely the .308 couldn't get close. To be honest, my Tikka CTR 20" could never achieve the advertised Creedmoor velocities. Others suggest 2740 fps is common with their rifles and a 140 gr bullet. My Tikka would get a mere 2550 fps with the Hornady 143 gr ELD-X factory ammo, but we'll go with the popular number. The 6.5 Creedmoor will maintain the 1800 fps velocity floor in the same atmosphere quoted above to approximately 710 yards, but has a lower energy of 1070 FPE. If we go equal energy to the .308 with the 175 class bullet, energy equalizes with the .308 Winchester at around the same 575 yards, though the Creedmoor will drift 1.07 mils and around an impressive 23" of wind drift.

So we must conclude that the .308 Winchester is more than an adequate cartridge for big game hunting North America to the distances most on this website would be willing to take a shot. That, however, doesn't answer the question, "where does the .308 Winchester EXCEL?" Sure, we can comment on the wide range of available bullet weights, great variety of adequate powders, quality brass availability, and one of the largest varieties of factory loaded ammo at a reasonable price, but those arguments have been beat to death and the same advantages exist for .30-06 and daresay the 6.5 Creedmoor these days. But where does the .308 REALLY excel?

As previously mentioned, my short little 20" 6.5 Creedmoor actually could not match my .308 Winchester's velocity in the same length gun. In fact, my 2o" .308 actually out-performed the 20" 6.5 Creedmoor in REAL WORLD shooting...and running the numbers, the .308 won on the ballistic calculator out past 700 yards! We're told this is impossible. In fact, I had to get to a 22" Creedmoor to match the 20" .308 Winchester and over 24" to get to the velocity most claim from the 6.5 Creedmoor--which is fine, and likely the length of test-barrels for Hornady's data. But that brings to light exactly where the .308 Winchester excels; under 22" barrels. With any of the other cartridges, you're really handicapping them going below 22".

Additionally, having several of the "hot" rounds including 6.5 Creedmoor, .260 Remington, 6.5 PRC, .270 Winchester, and several others, none of them have exhibited excellent barrel-life. My 6.5-284 was dead in as little as 900 rounds. A couple of .260 Remington barrels died between 1700 and 2000 rounds. I have a .270 on its last leg with an estimated 2000 rounds on it. 6.5 Creedmoor barrels have run around 2500 before giving up the ghost. 6.5x47 Lapua seems to be the only round that has made it beyond 3,000 rounds for me...with one exception: the .308 Winchester. Currently in my battery is a .308 with over 5,000 rounds on it. My previous .308 barrel approached 8,000 rounds. One high-end .308 semi-auto of mine has a "guarantee" of sub-MOA performance for 10,000 or a free barrel replacement! Yes, the .308 Winchester excels at barrel-life like no other cartridge capable of being a solid 400 yard big game cartridge! If you want a rifle you can use, practice, and master at the range and still take it out to kill game with, there is absolutely no equal to the .308 Winchester.

This right here ^^^^^. Besides that, it does a lot of things well.

Or 155 Scenars and Varget.

.308

We had an aft weapons locker on my aircraft for self defense in case we got bagged surviving the crash...a single M16 and three M14's need I say more..

.308 Excels every where!

Buy Begara!

https://i.postimg.cc/QtXMtvsX/20170314-155413.jpg

308 winchester

If the recoil from a .308 is actually a factor in your decision, grow a set.

Shoots commonly available bullets at useful hunting velocity, easy to develop accurate loads, able to fit in shorter and lighter rifles, not a lot of recoil, commonly available factory ammo in a bunch of different loads to include match ammo….

So, to me, it excels at eliminating a bunch of considerations. It excels at being easy.

If you can't get it done with a .308, you have no business trying to do it.

Great round for enemy troops on bicycles out to 1000+ meters.

6.5 CM probably do the same.

Excels real nice out of my Sav 99

So it’s magical.

Great barrel life is another plus IMO.

Like many cartridges, the .308 is a very capable round. Like many cartridges, it has its devotees who feel that it is superior to all others. As far as "excels" it probably does so in as many specific places and points in time as any of them.

Well it excels more with .308 than it does with .450.