Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles 308 win

Mark, That was the bullet of choice...

Love the 7/08....having one built as we speak. Have shot head to head with friends shooting them and they probably have a slight edge on a .308 past 700 meters...but not much. Past there I grab my .338 Lapua.....grin!



This is the exit hole on a my red stag from a few weeks ago....range was 208 meters. 155 Scenar @ 2950fps. Mature stags weigh about 500 pounds...maybe the size of a raghorn bull elk.

I personally believe there is very little difference in killing power between any of the standard cal, 06, 308, 270, 280 the list goes on. The difference in power is determined by the bullet you use and not the case that starts it out the barrel. A bullet that penetrates to the vitals of the animal doesn't care which case it was fired from. When i was a lad the deer rifle a boy dreamed of owning was the Win 94 in 30-30 and i still love this combination for deer. Plus the 308 is one of the best.

Let me tell you a short story that has not been written in the US mags.

The Dean of Aussie Gunwriters is an old Pro 'roo shooter called Nick Harvey. Nick has been writing since about 1962 so is rather well known there and elswhere.

Nick was a .308 Norma Magnum user for many, many, years and it was his preferred cartridge when he visited far away lands or hunted seriously.

Back in the 70's Nick got a then new Miroku (Browning to US readers) lever rifle in .308. Nick hunted with it extensively and repored (as has Mule Deer), that actual field performance was often indistinguishable to tHe larger magnums, resulting in him dropping his beloved .308 Norma, and seeking a light weight bolt action to replace it.

Well, In the late 70's, such a rifle did not exist.

Nick found a used Remington 600 and did some modification to the bolt and stock and it became his regular hunting rifle.

About that time, the brass at Remington visited Nick and he took them on an Aussie style cull hunt. No tags, no DOW, no seasons, no limits,a normal Aussie hunt.

They were so impressed with Nick's mongrel short action .308 that with his colaboration, it became the Model 7 you all know and accept today.

JW

Fantastic all-around cartridge, one of my favorites.

Dino

Many years ago I used a Savage 110 S in 308, my MS rifle for a LR rifle, I could knockdown rams at 500 meters offhand and it worked well on deer under that.

For still hunting I had a Savage 99 308 with the barrel cut to 16 1/2", with 180gr RN's it was murder on deer in the forest of northern MN & WI. My nephew is still slaying them up there with it.

erich

One of the coolest 308's I've ever seen is in the pages of RL Wilson's "Ruger And His Guns"... it's an early Ruger 77 Flatbolt that an Australian professional hunter used to take over 10,000 head of game. If a rifle could talk...

Another thing I like about the 308 is it's the single easiest round to get grouping of any round I've ever loaded for.

A five pound rifle with a two pound sling?

I know, I know....

Actually, last night I had nothing better to do than weigh my hunting crap on a scale.

A Montana in 308 with an FXII 4x Loopy and Talley LWs goes 5.75 Lbs. The turner and hardware goes 10.4 Oz... A Brownells Latigo and hardware goes 7 Oz.

So as seen in my pic (other than its wearing Talley LWs now) that rifles goes 6.39 Lbs, all up with the Turner I can live with that

I will admit though... I've been afraid of putting that setup on the scale for the last 6 months. I would've (and did) guess the whole shebang at 7 1/4. I'd never been so glad to be wrong

Good pic, kind of like the pic of the venado that Steelhead posts taken with his 62 TSX, only on a slightly bigger scale...

Dober

Melvin Forbes states that his Model 20 in .308 rolls off the line at 4 1/2 pounds. Nice! That would spoil me rotten!

It just seems to work - point, bang, dead animal...

My first rifle was a single shot Handi rifle in 308, and have since owned 4 others. Each has been great. I've used .270 and 30-06 as well, but .308 is just as deadly, shorter, lighter, less recoil and (IMHO) the easiest to load for, of the common CF rounds.

Ain't a day goes by that I don't dream up a new .308 win build.

Gotta say reading this thread has certainly clouded my 260 or 7-08 decision!! LOL

Yessir, I wish I had the extra cheese for one myself.

The 308 is the probably the cartridge I recommend the most to folks, but it's also the cartridge I use the least. Go figure

You could always AI one

If Mauser had ever put the 98 in a 308, it could only be the "other" combination to surpase the 8x57.

Correction - I meant surpass. Too many cream ales.

Solid performer, but nothing flashy.