Caribou Gear

308 ammo..recommendation?

Normally for a 308Win, I’d recommend anything from 150-168gr, and if long shots are on the table, I’d consider sticking to one of the pointier choices in those weights, BUT if you’re only going to shoot it in the brush, I’d recommend a heavy and fairly blunt bullet. Slower moving bullets with less sharp profiles have been proven to deflect less if you hit any sort of unexpected brush between you and the animal.

The Nosler Partition comes to mind. In 30cal they offer a 170gr round nose, 180gr protected point, and a 220gr semi-spitzer.

The Lapua Mega would be an equally excellent choice. It comes in a 150gr, 180gr, and 200gr.
 
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Something few people seem to realize. Make a bullet the proper size out of balsa wood and shoot it properly into an animal and the animal will die. As with most things, choosing bullet's is fairly easy, making them work requires a bit more, you have to know how to make them work and then stick to the program! Whatever bullet you think you like, learn to use it within it's abilities and it will seldom if ever fail you!
You miss pretty big sometimes. A balsa wood bullet ain’t gonna be intact at 20yds.

I challenge you to make a bullet of ANY wood, fire it over a chrono at 3000fps, and get a single round hole at 50yds. I’m not sure the splinters would even travel 50yds.

Let’s imagine your bullet hit an animal intact. What do you think your 10gr bullet would do?
 
You miss pretty big sometimes. A balsa wood bullet ain’t gonna be intact at 20yds.

I challenge you to make a bullet of ANY wood, fire it over a chrono at 3000fps, and get a single round hole at 50yds. I’m not sure the splinters would even travel 50yds.

Let’s imagine your bullet hit an animal intact. What do you think your 10gr bullet would do?
So how do you know that Bill?
 
Search Hammer bullets on Youtube...some major flaming.
Yeah, don't listen to that coot on YouTube. He's in the hunting with match bullet crowd.

*edit: nothing wrong with that as long as you're ethical, but the maker of the videos you mentioned says the monometal bullets are inferior to match bullets for hunting.
 
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So how do you know that Bill?
Some European countries use wooden “bullets” as blanks for training. The bullets don’t survive even the extremely light loads they’re loaded with.

How do you know a balsa wood bullet will kill?
 

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Some European countries use wooden “bullets” as blanks for training. The bullets don’t survive even the extremely light loads they’re loaded with.

How do you know a balsa wood bullet will kill?
Your telling me that a 50 cal arrow without a metal tip won't kill anything?
 
Your telling me that a 50 cal arrow without a metal tip won't kill anything?
It doesn’t shatter upon ignition, and isn’t spun at 180,000(3000fps through a 12” twist) rpm by metal rifling like your wooden bullet, which would be nothing but splinters and fail to travel any real distance.

When is the last time you shot a 5-10gr arrow?

Go load a shotgun shell with balsa wood chunks, shoot it at a goose and get back to us. At least from a shotgun wood(although probably not balsa) could possibly exit the barrel with its structural integrity intact.
 
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I have to wonder given air friction + barrel friction + burning powder, wouldn't a balsa bullet pretty much be ash shortly after exiting the barrel?

I want to guess that @Don Fischer was trying to use the absurd to point out the obvious, which is a pretty dangerous thing to do on any Internet forum.

For what it is worth wood arrows are not recommended for use with compound bows as they have the chance to break apart under the acceleration from release, so a wood arrow might not kill anything unless actually shoot from a traditional bow, let alone a say 250fps projectile is not subjected to anywhere near the forces of a 3000fps projectile.
 
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I have to wonder given air friction + barrel friction + burning powder, wouldn't a balsa bullet pretty much be ash shortly after exiting the barrel?

I want to guess that @Don Fischer was trying to use the absurd to point out the obvious, which is a pretty dangerous thing to do on any Internet forum.

For what it is worth wood arrows are not recommended for use with compound bows as they have the chance to break apart under the acceleration from release, so a wood arrow might not kill anything unless actually shoot from a traditional bow, let alone a say 250fps projectile is not subjected to anywhere near the forces of a 3000fps projectile.
Yes your first paragraph is correct.

No Don wasn’t being absurd on purpose. He comes up with things just that good all the time.
 
I just recently bought a 308 and found the Federal Fusion & Trophy Bonded both 165gr versions, to be the most accurate so far, printing 5-shot groups that a dime can cover at 100yds., next session I’ll see what they do at 200yds.
 
I have to wonder given air friction + barrel friction + burning powder, wouldn't a balsa bullet pretty much be ash shortly after exiting the barrel?

I want to guess that @Don Fischer was trying to use the absurd to point out the obvious, which is a pretty dangerous thing to do on any Internet forum.

For what it is worth wood arrows are not recommended for use with compound bows as they have the chance to break apart under the acceleration from release, so a wood arrow might not kill anything unless actually shoot from a traditional bow, let alone a say 250fps projectile is not subjected to anywhere near the forces of a 3000fps projectile.
You guys are assuming the wood bullet will be going 3000 fps. Take a wood arrow and take the metal tip off t, sharpen the tip and shoot it through a recurve bow and it will kill you. In a compuond bow I suspect what breaks wood arrows is that initial hard exceleration and the length of the arrow.
 
Good thread, I just bought a CVA 308 and am setting up a Tikka Lite also.
 
Good thread, I just bought a CVA 308 and am setting up a Tikka Lite also.
If you mean a CVA Cascade be sure to leave you impressions at some point. I have been looking at those myself.

My better half has a Tikka T3X Lite in 7mm-08 and she loves it.
 
You guys are assuming the wood bullet will be going 3000 fps. Take a wood arrow and take the metal tip off t, sharpen the tip and shoot it through a recurve bow and it will kill you. In a compuond bow I suspect what breaks wood arrows is that initial hard exceleration and the length of the arrow.
A 5-10gr wooden bullet moving at 300fps will not kill you(assuming it’s at least .17cal). Ever played with airsoft or paintball guns? Perhaps if your bullet were more of a needle, and took you through the eyeball. Don’t like 300fps? How much faster than a compound bow do you think you can get your .30cal bullet before it comes apart? If you have a 28” draw, that arrow gets 28” to accelerate from 0fps to 300fps, and that splits wooden arrows. You think you’re gonna beat that in a 26” rifled barrel and get the bullet out with good structural integrity?

The wooden “blanks” travel about 30’ if you don’t use a blank firing adapter(which shreds them substantially).

Wooden bullets used in crowd control are not moving very fast, because if they were, they would fly apart in mid air.

If you want a deadly wooden projectile, it’s going to have to be heavy enough that it wouldn’t fit in a 308Win, and it definitely woodint;) be balsa. But we really need to stick to your original premise which was that one could carve a bullet from Balsa, insert it into a 308Win case, and it would be practically just as deadly as any other bullet offered for a 308Win.

Go make your balsa bullet and show us.
 
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If you reload you could go with 130gr Barnes TTSX and go forth and kill everything you hit.
 
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A 5-10gr wooden bullet moving at 300fps will not kill you(assuming it’s at least .17cal). Ever played with airsoft or paintball guns? Perhaps if your bullet were more of a needle, and took you through the eyeball. Don’t like 300fps? How much faster than a compound bow do you think you can get your .30cal bullet before it comes apart? If you have a 28” draw, that arrow gets 28” to accelerate from 0fps to 300fps, and that splits wooden arrows. You think you’re gonna beat that in a 26” rifled barrel and get the bullet out with good structural integrity?

The wooden “blanks” travel about 30’ if you don’t use a blank firing adapter(which shreds them substantially).

Wooden bullets used in crowd control are not moving very fast, because if they were, they would fly apart in mid air.

If you want a deadly wooden projectile, it’s going to have to be heavy enough that it wouldn’t fit in a 308Win, and it definitely woodint;) be balsa. But we really need to stick to your original premise which was that one could carve a bullet from Balsa, insert it into a 308Win case, and it would be practically just as deadly as any other bullet offered for a 308Win.

Go make your balsa bullet and show us.
Strange thing. I use a quarter square of toilet paper to hold the powder against the flash hole with cast bullet's. The toilet paper comes out ot the barrel flys about ten feet. Never seen a burned piece of toilet paper, a wood product. I'll try not to bother you anymore!
 
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