Who here hunts with 308?

olympia said:
Out of pure curiosity, who here hunts with the 308 win caliber? It's rare that I see rifles chambered in 308 for sale on the hunting re but I see a fair share in the precision shooting section although I've seen it being eclipsed by the 6.5's.
Seems like this cal is fading, who here still uses 308 to hunt? I have used mine to harvest a moose and a buck. But I usually reach for a magnum rifle when I head out now, but am switching back since most of the game I've taken was under 100 yards.
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The 308 Win. has faded into the sunset, replaced by other cartridges. It's still widely utilized (mostly in eastern North America), whereas; magnum cartridges are used in western North America. I don't look twice at a rifle if chambered in the 308 Win., not unless it's a dandy single shot from Germany or Austria. Personally, most of my rifles say "magnum" on their barrels.
 
I fancy myself as a bit of a "gun guy" and I use a 308. Not exclusively but almost. I have a lightweight bolt action amd a great load with a 150gr mono and there's nothing I've encountered yet that it didn't do a number on. I've danced with others but always go home with the 308
 
Love the .308 but I am a rifle ho lol. My Kimber has been exceptional and in my final 3 for sure........

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I have 3 rifles chambered in .308. Having fired the round out of my FNC1 back in the day, I fell in love with it. Hunting here in Ontario, I've never had a shot over 300 yds. so it's not like mountain or prairie hunting where a magnum can really stretch it's legs. Given the range of projectiles available I can load up to 220 gr. for heavy hitting or down to 110 gr. for varmints. My "go to" for whitetail is 150 gr. Hornady Interlocks or 165 gr. SGK on top of good powder. I've found loads for all of my .308 rifles that are very accurate (MOA). Currently, I have a venerable Ruger M77 heavy barrel that has put a lot of venison on the table over the years. That was the first commercial big game rifle I ever bought. Since then I've acquired a Winchester Mod.100 and most recently a Mossberg Patriot. I nailed a nice 6 pt. buck this fall with the Mod.100, one shot and done. There are more powerful and more modern cartridges out there but for me, I don't need more than a .308. I have become a fan of the 7.62X39 for 100 yd. and under deer hunting since I nailed a nice 4 pt. who just did one jump and nosed over dead. At the end of the day, determine what kind of hunting you'll do, your terrain, your game, and make your choices accordingly.
 
hi safe hunter

YOUR OLD FREIND FROM TIMMINS HERE. LOU ROY
MERRY X-MAS.
DID YOU GET YOUR BOAT FIXED.
GOT A SMALL BEAR ON THE 2ND DAY.
COULD HAVE SHOT ONE 1/2 HOUR AFTER I LEFT THE HOUSE ON OPENING DAY.
I HAD TO STOP THE TRUCK HE WAS HELL BENT ON RUNNING UNDER MY TRUCK TAKE CARE AND BE SAFE
 
I started hunting with a .303, switched to a .308 as soon as I could afford to and never regretted that decision. Same bullet weights and speeds in a more modern and more accurate cartridge and shot from better rifles.
In recent years I've done a lot of hunting with bigger bores or faster bullets. Cartridges deemed more suitable for African game or far-off plains and mountain critters. Funny thing, firing bullets a few hundred feet per second faster the .308 or bullets 300 grains in weight vs. half that doesn't really seem to kill most game animals noticeably quicker or deader.
I like my big and fast cartridges but still have three .308 rifles and won't ever choose to be without one. It's a "Goldilocks" cartridge. Just right for many, if not most purposes.
 
To me, the biggest advantage of the .308 is its versatility as a hunting cartridge...but so what? Like a lot of gun nuts, I have bought and sold a couple truckloads of rifles over the decades...and still have way more than I "need". Ultimate versatility just isn't a big selling point when you have a bunch of different rifles and cartridges to play with; regardless of the game being pursued, there will be something in the safe which is more ideally suited than the .308, or at least that's one of the ways we rationalize buying and shooting all those guns.

Moving from a shotgun zone to a rifle zone ten years ago opened up a world of fun, in which I could choose a different rifle every day during deer season. I often did just that, and rarely chose a .308 unless it happened to be the chambering in a particular cool toy that I wanted to hunt with. Took a deer with a Norc M305 (a truly crappy hunting rifle, but one I wanted to use...once...) and another really nice one with a Steyr Scout...but I used them because of the rifle, not the cartridge. When travelling to hunt, I always have a spare rifle and it's often a .308...and one of the nicest deer off my own land fell to a .308 that I just grabbed at the last minute when running out the door for a quick trip to a deer stand I was still working on at the beginning of the season.

Still have a handful of .308's, still enjoy shooting them at targets/gongs, still appreciate the rifles that shoot them (will never sell the Scout), still don't love them for hunting...and still expect to drop a few more game animals and predators with a .308 in the future.
 
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