Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Why isn't the 308 more popular?

In my world there is only "dead"....no such thing as deader, deadest, more deader and most deadest! LOL

If you didn't "do it" with the .308 Winnie (referencing deer) then you wasn't going to do it with more of anything.....

You can do it with a sharp stick..................

I continue to fail to understand why folks are so hung up on DRT. 308 will work for a lot of instances and tracking has always been part of the puzzle for me. Bang flops aren't interesting. Unless you are in a hurry and meat hunting....

Personally I"d be willing to take a 308 any day at distances beyond what most would be comfortable with.

Speed isn't always an asset when it comes with more recoil, more muzzleblast, heavier rifles, and longer barrels.

For some, all that extra doesn't matter and they are happy with a 26" barreled bolt rifle that weighs nine pounds. Yes, you can get lighter rifles in big cartridges, but with more recoil. Yes, you can tame that recoil with a brake, but with a bunch more noise.

Others want a shorter, lighter, quieter rifle of sufficient killing power. For that, the .308Win is a top choice, but not the only one.

To each his own.

Nothing wrong with a 308, IMO.
Kind of like the 30-06, not much it cannot do with good shot placement.

I think the .308 is about as good as it gets.
The notion that any other cartridge is miles better is silly.
The .308 servs a wide range of purposes real well.
As far as the bullet speed goes.
If you hand load, you can prety much match your bullet to your cartridge.
I mean if you load a 150 grain sierra boat tail into a 300 RUM,
it is likly to break apart and not penatrate.
But that same bullet from a .308 is likly to do a much better job.
Also. I'm not so sure the 7X57 (another of my favorites)shot that much faster and flatter than the 30/40 at the time.
The 7X57 was I believe using a 175 gr rn bullet, while the Krag was using a 220 grain RN.
A little faster to be sure, but the big advatage of the old mauser to the Krag was the stripper clip reloading.
Remember the short lived 30/03 came before the 30/06, It had the same 220 grain RN.
Buy then the germans where using spitzers in the 8mm Mauser, I think 150 grainers.
That is what caused the Army brass hats to redesign the 30/03 into the 30/06.
...tj3006
.

When I was growing up in PA the .308 was very popular. Several PA Game News surveys showed it in the top 2-3. I haven't seen one in the field up there in years. Here in TX, all of the .308s I see at the range are "police" or "tactical" models. Nobody I know hunt with .308s anymore, though several of my Dad/Grandad's generation did. I have neve seen one on a guided hunt either (lots of 06s & .270s though). It just seems to me the .308s is starting to wane in popularity as a hunting round, ubt is more popular than ever with the tac crowd. All that being said, the .308 is a marvelous hunting round. I love it in short barreled carbines for whitetail hunting.

Lou

I cannot remember the last time I saw a 308 bolt action in my local gun shop.

When I bought my Montana in 308 a few years ago, I had to wait several months to take delivery.

I have very few bang flops, mostly shoot into the heart/lung let it run and go find it. I have had 5 or 6 .308's, I always wind up buying them, hunting them, selling them to buy some of the latest whiz bang stuff and then buying another one, mostly because a 150 bullet works pretty good on the deer I shoot mostly under 150 yards. My latest is another short barreled Ruger RSI which I expect to keep for a while. I also think at some point I am going to sell my Weatherby.270win whose stock I hate and buy a 7-08 which is said to kick less and do about the same thing.

I think you missed the point. The projectile WAS stable, it DID exit (with a larger hole) and animals (including this easy to kill deer) don't care...you must be saying a 12 ga. Brenneke at ten yards isn't any good for deer; it must go faster!

How much damage is enough? Sometimes you can carry what may be way too much gun for "easy to kill" stuff, only to have them bounce up.

I've never shot an elk or bear, but hogs die pretty easy too, yet not always, just like the easy to kill deer. Carts range from the 22 Hornet to the 338 Win. with 230 FailSafes that run 2,900fps. Throw a .25/06, 9mm, 44 Mag, 45 Colt, and 35 Whelen in there for the hogs, even the 308.

I'm glad I have no hard rules other than putting decent bullets where they die; when they die everytime, all cartridges are equal 4 me.

I forget who said, ""speed kills...

the .308 has the necessary speed to kill reliably, but the speed to kill impressively evades it..."

All I can say to that is BS! The two longest shots I ever made on deer were at 427 paces (no rangefinders back in 1973) and a 250 yard shot laser measured a few years back. Both shots were witnessed and the longer shot was paced off by thre people and the paces average out. Both deer dropped at the shot. Most of the deer I've kiled were shot at ranges closer that those two. I've ben using the .308 for deer most of the time since 1971 when I bought my first one, a Remington 660. The load, from what I recall in that rifle was a stiff load of H-335 and a 150 gr. Sierra Pro-hunter, although I don't recall if they called them by that name back then. Velocity for the load is unknown, no chronographs available at the time. At least none that I could afford. The 250 yard shot was laser measured and this time the gun was a Ruger 77 RSI. The load was with W-760 and the 165 gr. Speer Hot-core. Velocity was 2550 FPS from the 18.5" barrel. The bullet hit the deer and the deer dropped on the spot. All the other dozen or so deer shot with that .308 were taken mostly at distances less that 100 yards and the farthest any one went was maybe 35 yards, all shot with that slow poke 165 gr, bullet.
FWIW, that same 165 gr. load does all of a blistering 2610 FPS from a 22" barreled winchester M70. The reason for that particular load BTW is because it is the only load that has come close to shooting well in that Ruger RSI and I really like carrying the light weight rifles, not only because of the weight, but because I think it's a classy looking rifle.
I just took delivery of a semi-custom (custom to me) 98 mauser that I just had rebarreled to .308 with a 23" barrel, just to be different. I haven't had a chance to try it out yet due to lack of time, but I did get some ammo loaded up fo the gun. FWIW, I used a .308 on the shortest shot I ever took on a deer as well, 6 feet. Somebody spooked it and it ran right past where I'd taken a stand. That's when I quit using the 150 gr. Sierra. Makes too much of a mess of good eating meat. One can shoot heavy bullets as well. I get 2310 FPS from my M70 shooting 220 gr. Sierra round nose bullets. That's only 100 FPS less than the advertised velocity of factory 30-06. Very accurate too. (.375 to .50" when I do my part.)
Can the 30-06 be loaded to shoot faster than factory? Of course it can. I have a load for my .300 Win. Mag. that does 2930 FPS with 200 gr. Speer Hot-cores and it damned accurate too. It's just that as I rapidly approach my 71st birthday, hard kicking and heavy rifles just are not the fun they used to be. Arthritis on my right shoulder plays a part in that, so I stick to the lighter kicking stuff these days like the 7x57 and .308 Win.
I didn't draw for elk this year so I don't have to play with the magnums.
I'll be taking my new .308 out sometime during the next week to see how it does and just get it sighted in.
Doesn't kill impressively? Yeah, right! I know of a couple dozen deer that would argue that point, if they were around to argue.
Would I use one on elk? While I have betetr rifles for elk, I wouldn't feel too under gunned if all I had was one of my .308s.
Paul B.

Hard to remember when I hav`nt had a 308.Some times have had several.If I was limited to one Rifle for north America,it would be a 308.There is nothing includeing big bears it will not kill.

Who said anything about DRTs?

No, I'm saying (again) that if the bullet went faster--assuming it stayed stable and still exited--it would have caused more damage.



A pinprick is enough, but that has nothing to do with my point about faster bullets causing more damage.



And with each one of the chamberings, drive the bullet faster--assuming it stays stable and sill exits--and it will do more damage.



I don't have any rules myself (they are more like guidlines), but I certainly disgaree with your notion that all cartridges are equal. In fact, I'll go out on a limb here and say you're probably out there by yourself on that one.........

I've not seen much difference in killing ability between the 308 and 30-06.

I have also noticed that around here, there seemingly are no 308 "hunting" rifles on the shelves. The ammo is available, people still use it for hunting, but nobody seems to be buying new ones. That is an obvious generalization, but people want the latest and greatest from what I can see, and the 308 is taking a back seat for new hunters.

I think that is a shame, since the 308 is a much better rifle, IMO, for the majority of hunters, who cannot shoot their new 300WSMs without flinching.

The Kimber Montana in 308 is an exception, as that seems to sell well around here (for as many Montanas as are sold).

Don't put words in my mouth....there are limits, but when dead is dead, what more is there? I am just as content shooting deer with a 45 Colt as shooting a mulie across a canyon with a magnum.

Making one kill just as fast as the other isn't a trick, nor is it a scientific study.

If you need a 300 Mag to do the work of a 308, because of "more damage", go right to town, more damage or not, the animals do not always care. That is MY point.

There is always the Scandinavian Moose studies.....

Wow, Steve, that's telling like it is. Who the hell said a 308 wasn't popular, effecient, accurate, and with 180 grain Partitions, drops elk just like it's 103 year old momma?

Wayne

I didn't--those were your words.

I'll say it again. The FASTER a given bullet goes, assuming it remains stable and exits, the more damage it does. That is and always has been my point. That is a fact. It has nothing to do with degrees of dead, the minumum amout required to kill, the ridiculous idea of "overkill," or anything else.

I happen to like how a 168 TSX performs on deer and hogs when launched from a 30-06 at 2900 fps at ranges out to 200 yds. based on this bullet's performance deer and hogs, I suspect it will do just fine on elk. Regardless, that bullet--assuming it stays stable and exits, will do more damage when launched at 3200 fps from my 300 Win, if I were so inclined to do so (I'm not).

BTW, I have not made any comments about, nor do I care, what the animals may or may not like. I would imagine the animals would like it best if we didn't shoot them at all..........

Someone mentioned speed kills, I said animals don't care; Yeah, faster can equal more damage, fine, I agree with that.

Why isn't the 308 more popular?

Cuz it's been replaced with the 7-08 and the 260!!!