Is the popularity of the 308 cartridge going down??

interest in new rifles in 308 is low here where I live/work at a gun shop in central BC. We do sell quite a bit of 308 ammo in the fall.

7mm-08 is the new 308
 
If I had only one rifle it would be chambered in .308. But I have many rifles and currently only one is a .308. Odd isn't it! Many other cartridges are more perfect for a given task. But the .308 is very very versatile for the one rifle hunter.
 
The Kurgan said:
There are a lot of "in vogue" cartridges that will likely diminish in popularity as the "next best thing" comes along, but I am surprized that there are less rifles chambered for this round on gun store shelves than in previous years? Has its time in the sun come and gone?
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Not in my neighbourhood! I think I've got six at the moment, my son has two, most of my friends and many of their kids have at least one.
 
Kinda funny, seems everybody has at least one .308 around somewhere, and if given a choice, they would take it over most others.

I think I heard one guy call the 7mm-08 is just a .308 with a bow tie, just a tad fancier. :p

It's not unpopular, it's just doing it's thing in capable hands and putting down game and holes in paper.
 
308 is as boring as vanilla ice cream. BUt guess what the top selling flavour is year in and out? Vanilla.

Coinicidence? Nahh..... just a great all around cheap accurate powerful-enough cartridge in a short action.

Just don't get no better than that. Unless you're talking 30-06..... OOPS!!
 
As todbartell posted, they are not really popular in this particular area, and never have been, in my experience. Great cartridge, but the '06 overshadows it here. I've owned several over the years, but at present, am without. Closest I have is a good bolt gun in 300 Savage, which comes as close to the 308 as damn is to swearing. Regards, Eagleye.
 
Just finished Finn Aagaard's article "Shots with the .308" in the compendium "Finn Aargaard Selected Works." The general tone would be that he approves! Apparently in thirty years in Africa, he only had one client use a .308 Win on safari, but with the exception of an elephant, for which the client borrowed Finn's .375, the client did a fine job on plains game. After moving to Texas, Finn had lots of clients with .308's, and used one himself, to generally good effect.

Any critter lost was lost to failed marksmanship, not inadequate ballistics. But then, Finn says that about anything from a .22Rf to a .577!
 
I hunt with a Remington 700 BDL with a SS Rem Mountain Rifle 7-08 barrel. I have one commercial 308 hunting rifle, two 308 tactical rifles, and a number of 7.62 military riflrs.
I have a number of 7X57 hunting rifles but like the 7-08, it uses the Remington SA (308 Short Action) receiver.
 
If you look a bit you can find a Zastava made Mauser in 375 H&H now imported by Baïkal for less than 800.00 $. The stocks are far from being the top, but you still get a genuine Mauser 98 made of modern steel for very little money. You still can change the stock later. As for the caliber choice, I am an avid user of 9.3X62 rifles, but I also use .358 NM and sometimes a .375 H&H. They will all do the job nice and esay, the two belted rounds having an edge when it comes to distance, with the same bullet weight..
 
I don't believe .308 rifles are loosing popularity given the fact that they sell fast when they come up for sale every place I have looked for one over the years.
 
There are lots of new flavors of the month extolled by quasi rag mag writers but the 308 is time tested and has won numerous long range shooting events and held such records for long periods of time.
show me a better short action cartridge with the ability to drive a 168 gr bullet at high velocity with inherent accuracy.
there are lots of premium factory fodder available and if you reload, you can certainly wring out all its potential.
Doc
 
If you take away the military and police guns, and also the target guns that are forced by the competition rules to be .308, was the .308 ever popular...
 
And we shall all remember that the 308 is the first reel short magnum, this caliber will always be near the top... JP.
 
By volume of sales, I think it has been in the top ten cartridges sold in N.America for most, if not all of my life (age 48) and I expect it will stay in that category for at least as long again.
 
Ron AKA said:
If you take away the military and police guns, and also the target guns that are forced by the competition rules to be .308, was the .308 ever popular...
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Yeah that is a valid point. All the hunter's I know use everything .30 cal but .308.
 
But of course, you don't know all the hunters, (nor do I). The ones you know may be not a statistically valid sample, since it is often the case that one tends to know and associate with like-minded people, and if that's the case and you don't care for the .308, neither will most of your friends.
 
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