Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters A 308 Carbine

What gun do you want to "..take out and put a beating on and rough up..." ?

I've been hunting over 60 years now, birds, small game, waterfowl, deer, caribou, elk and probably a few things I've forgotten about. I've hunted the Carolina Low Country swamps, northern tundra, Rocky Mountains, Great Lakes region.... Hunted on foot, horseback, skis, snowshoes, out of trucks and quads and boats... I've trapped water and predators. I've never found it necessary to "put a beating on and rough up" my shotguns, rifles or handguns. I've got some pretty decent guns. I've got a number of them I've had for decades and used a lot. Do they have the occasional little dent, ding or scratch? Yeah, but very minor, used but not abused. I've never understood this idea that, somehow you have to abuse your equipment when you hunt hard. I do know guys who have guns all beat to hell, but it's just laziness. There are a few guys I duck hunt with who just put their shotgun in the bottom of the boat with the decoys and everything. Why? You're not going to need it when the boat's underway. I put my shotguns or rifles in a floating case when going by boat, especially in sketchy circumstances.

For me, stuff has always been hard enough to come by that I take care of it.

Another, perhaps even better, solution would be a Tikka T3X and have the barrel trimmed back to 20".

drover



A better solution would be to just buy the T3X compact. It comes from the factory at 20 inches. If the compact stock is not wanted, they sell quickly and full size stocks are cheap.

Once up on a time, Remington made a 700 ADL Youth model in 308. It had iron sights and a 20” barrel. This one is a 243, but you get the idea. https://www.gunbroker.com/item/974853883 That would be my first choice for something like this. They also made 22” rifles with iron sights in 30-06 and 270, which handle almost as well. https://www.gunbroker.com/item/967878614

Average three-shot groups with these nine loads is 1.28 MOA with a 4x Leupold. Without the worst group, it’s 1.12 MOA. A more powerful scope would likely improve that.

Okie John

If you aren't doing it already you might want to try a target optimized for the magnification/reticle/distance combination. I've shot quite a few five shot, sub moa groups with 4x magnification by doing so.

The question I had about Francis Sell's idea of a short range deer gun got me thinking. I was digging around and found an article Finn Aagard wrote way back in the day about a sawed-off 18.5 inch 308 WIN Mauser that he liked to carry. He'd used it for everything-- including braining an elephant. He'd loaded with with ever load imaginable-- 110 grain to 220 grain. He loved it.

I saw some intersections with my own experience. His 308 WIN, shortened as it was, did its best work around 150 grains going at 2600 fps. He mentioned this was in the range of the 300 Savage. Indeed, my go-to deer rifle is a Savage 99 in .308 WIN that I download to around 2600 fps, only I have to use 165 grain bullets, because the 150s don't group well in my gun. My idea was to have a 300 Savage-like gun that shot easy-to-find brass.




These are Aagard's loads. Let's say I wanted to repeat his work. Given what we have and what we know . . .

A) What rifle do we start with? Today, it doesn't have to be an Israeli-surplus Mauser.
B) What length of barrel. He cut his to 18.5" but he would admit that caused some velocity loss? Should it be 20"?
C) Loadings. His loads, especially the H4895 load, spot on with my loads. However, I got to thinking: for a short barrel, would a faster powder work better? What powder? What Bullets would you choose?

I think I found a candidate rifle. I've held one, and I have to agree with Aagard, it's a sweet machine.



It's a Ruger Hawkeye Scout. I'd probably scope it conventionally.

Bonus question: Given Aagard's later epiphany regarding the 7mm-08, ideally, would you want this rifle in a different chambering?

My 20" .308 is the first rifle I grab more often than not.

It simply performs without any drama. Kills everything from coyotes to elk.
Being a lightweight little rifle, you have to really pay attention to your fundamentals to get the most out of it, but it is capable of great accuracy. Typical for a Tikka.

Not kidding about the Tikka, weight, and fundamentals.

All my rifles can outshoot me. If not off bags. Even then..sometimes.

Seriously considering adding weight to the Tikka.
It's just too wobbly off hand.

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