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

The .308 is a very good basic caliber... and everybody should own one or more IMHO

Ignore Paul... he is our resident homosexual... and to the best of my knowledge has never touched a firearm.

Had a 77 mk2 stainless boat paddle w Trijicon amber triangle 3-9X........in .308win.
Reticle kind a neat, but lenses........meh.
Kinda of the way I "viewed" the whole setup.
It was handy, and boring.

Looking back, I proly shoulda kept it........a Stanley claw hammer kinda tool.
Not even Estwing.

But a beater, will do the job, with no worries.

Guess Id rather it been in 7mm 08.

Might get a semi auto sporter in .308 some time.

Does okay on deer sized game too.

The cases make excellent starters for 7-08's

Over the past 49 years I have collected or built over a dozen 308 rifles that I still have.

I have never got a 1" (5) shot group with a 308.
I have never killed an animal with a 308.

Still I chambered the pictured 1903 Turk Mauser with Hart barrel in January 2022.

If I shoot a deer in October it will likely be with some rifles I chambered this year in better cartridges, like 260 or 300WinMag.

Why are there so many rifles in this 308 crap cartridge? What else can we do with a 30 cal barrel and a short action?

I should pop a deer with my FAL.
Swapped rear sight to DSA A2 style, mo betta.

Dunno if my treestand rated to hold both me and that rifle LOL

THAT is funny...

Armsdealer, (s)he’s right you know the gay bicycle rider forum is NOT the place to discuss icky guns… Take your CIS topic’s somewhere else…

I loaded the .308 all the way from a rat load to an elk combo. The rat load, btw is a single lubed 0 buckshot over 3.0 Bullseye. Shoots like a .22 Short. A great load for teaching kids or fun is a 100-gr half-jacket Plinker over 8.0 Unique. A classic cast bullet load is a 150 or 170 over 13.0 RedDot. Varmint load? the 125 Ballistic Tip, baby. My go-to deer load was always the plain-Jane Hornady 150 paired with any of almost a dozen powders for 2700-2800 fps. I loaded up comparatively few elk loads, but it's hard to beat a premium 165 like the Nosler Partition. If range isn't an issue, a 180 works well, too. With that weight, the .308 starts to be less effective because it just can't churn up enough velocity.

It works just dandy when belt fed.

It does!

I've shot one of those too!

The 308 is easy mode for big game. I have shot Moose, elk, black bear, Dalls sheep and deer with 308s.

Cartridge availability, accuracy, size, moderate recoil, a great medium game cartridge. I have a Remington Tactical that I hunt Coyotes with, a great compact rifle. (heavy) . Great fordeer and OK for elk.

Even in tough times components seem to be available. Depending on your need it's easy to throttle up or down. Works in any rifle action. It may not be glamorous, but it's a good ol' workhorse.

To me, 308 Win is the most versatile of its family. Or at least tied with 7mm-08.
It offers basically 30-06 performance, although starts to fall behind with 200 & 220 grain bullets.
It's efficient enough that a carbine length barrel is fine, and combined with a shorter action provides a nice weight savings.
They tend to be more accurate, compared to 30-06.
Ammo is everywhere, and reasonable.

For longer range, 260 or 7mm-08 should be preferred for their range, assuming they are appropriate to your game.
For short range/heavy game 338 Fed or 358 Winchester are good cartridges. I really like 358 Win (it is NOT Just a "brush gun") but a 308 will do just about anything that it will, with less recoil too.

308 Winchester with a good bullet probably sits right in the middle of the versatility zone. And it will probably get disrespected by some simply because it's old & doesn't get press anymore. No sizzle. Same as the 30-06, which may still be the best single cartridge around.

The .308 Winchester is about as good as it gets in a rifle with a shorter barrel without losing much velocity.

I like my .308 that's all I have to say about it.

308 winchester is a cartridge and measures .308 caliber.

Saying 308 caliber could mean any .308 diameter offering 30-06/300 win mag/300 savage/etc..

But don't let misusing the 308 caliber wording stop you from saying it. AND drive 5mph under the speed limit in the left hand lane on highways and interstates, nothing wrong with that.
If someone tailgating you says more over can't you read the sign that says 'keep right except to pass?',, hollar what's the difference? Take another swig of pepsi and keep-on truck'n

You have a dozen 308s some built, and never shot a 1" group?

Help me understand this.
Have you shot them at all?

Are you saying 1.000'

Never under, or over?

Either way, I find it hard to believe that one would properly barrel 12 guns and not have one shoot under an inch?
Or, with at least one load, one time, go over an inch.

Lotta easy, personal, snarky, comments would be easy. This ain't ball busting, just trying to make sense of the post.

Bullets matter... try 168s