What? No 308?

I've never owned one, never loaded for one, none of my local hunting buddies have one and I've purposely avoided the .308. It just seemed too common to me. I have a couple of 30-06, and with those it was always "Why?" when thinking of the 308.

I looked closely at getting one recently for my son, but I'd rather he just use on of the rifles currently sitting here as I have no "need" for yet another rifle.

I suspect I may make it through without every owning or shooting one.
 
I have a Remington 700 Tactical in 308. When ever I have the urge to put tiny little holes in targets I take it out, dust it off and head to the range. I have also used it hunting coyotes in AZ during our winter months there. The 308 is a very efficient user friendly cartridge, every one should have a least one. I am disappointed that I waited so long to get mine.
 
Some of the newer bargain rifles from the big box stores are very accurate in 308. I saw a new out of box Marlin a couple weeks ago for $250. My question: How can people not have a 308, when you can put a generic one together for less the $400 with 3-9x40 Scope.
 
From 1954 to 1973, my go to deer rifle was a bubba job 1903A3 Springfield 30-06 with and occasional hunt with a 30-30. Friends kept trying to get me to go with a .308 but I had to ask why and not getting an answer I cared for. In late spring 1973 I said to my wife, that heavy old 06 is killing me up at the higher elevations where my buddy and I hunt. I said I was going to look for something new, if affordable. I found a Remington 660 in .308, gritted my teeth and bought the rifle and a couple boxes of ammo and mounts for a scope. I put the package together and took it out into the desert to sight in and see how it shot. That thing was LOUD and kicked like hell. I talked to my gunsmith and we put it into a Mannlicher style stock which increased the weight but it was still loud and still kicked like hell. I started flinching badly with that rifle. For my birthday the kids got me a set of those Mickey Mouse looking hearing protectors. My next trip to the desert to try and get the gun sighted in was a revelation. I put those headphones on and shot the rifle. Shot was nicely quieted down and what happened to the recoil? Yup, it was the noise that was doing me in. I hunted with that rifle for the next 6 years before I moved to Arizona and It accounted for a deer a year, sometimes more if my wife and kids used it. I've probably run over 5,000 rounds though that rifle, mostly cast bullet loads harassing the local jack rabbits.
Since then I've picked up three Ruger M77 RSI's in .308, (don't ask) and won a Winchester M70 Youth Ranger in .308. The M70 sits in a Ramline stock as the kiddie stock didn't fit me at all. No fancy glass bedding or anything else other than a trigger job and the rifle shoots MOA or less all the time. I really don't like the Ramline so I picked up an M70 Featherweight stock to try which means I have two Featherweight stocks to fit to rifles. The first being the youth ranger and hoping I don't lose the accuracy and the other is a post 64, pre68 M70 in .243 which is on the long action. The gun was made before Winchester came out with a short action. That one will need glass bedding but the short action stock is gonna need some whittling plus glass bedding to make it good. The .243 never shot decently in the original stock anyway so maybe the change will do some good. About all I ever shot with the .308 was paper, coyotes and deer. After all was said and done, I decided that I liked the 165 gr. Speer Hot Core best for deer. In fact, that's the only bullet that shot worth a darn in the three RSI's.
Paul B.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AMMUNITIONAmmunition BULLETSBullets BRASSBrass FirearmsFirearms GearGear
Back
Top