Would anyone else care to give praise to the .308 ?

too much for prairie dogs? probably not ideal for brown bears.

works for everything else. the F150 of chamberings, I think.

most of our elk camp uses 308's.

boringly efficient cartridge.
 
.308? I think I have one here somewhere,,, what's it look like? It might be the one with the tricked out trigger, Boyds stock and a 50mm Vortex 4-16 AO scope on it. Last time I shot it, it just left one great big ragged hole no matter how many rounds I shot.
 
338BearHunter said:
When I bought my first rifle, I was quite green, but I had heard of the .30-'06. Its a great bear killer, so I wanted one. Then a salesman showed me a .308 Winchester and I said "What's that?"

After looking at the data, I determined, quite correctly (IMHO) that .308 was a better choice. Its so close to the .30-'06 that I saw no point in owning both.

That said, my main bear rifles are now chambered in .338 Federal, which certainly bucks the "find it anywhere" narrative. I suppose the lesson I would give a noob is "Decide what you want to shoot; the other factors are fairly unimportant." Certainly nobody should be ditching their .30-'06 because the ammo is scarce compared to .308 or 6.5 Manbun.

So hossblur, what do you shoot now?
Click to expand...
I own rifles in both 30-06 and 308. I like both. To say that the 308 is better than the 30-06 is a bit of a stretch for me. I think right now the 308 definitely has an advantage regarding the availability of loaded ammo but that is about the only real advantage over the 06. I don't think short vs long action really matters and I've found both cartridges to be close in accuracy. Rifle weight is also a nonstarter, my kimber montana 30-06 weighs 5lbs 7 Oz bare. The 308 comes close with lighter bullets but starts to fall hard once you get over 150 gr. The 308 is a good cartridge but isn't superior to the 06. All that being said if I was a new shooter looking for something in that power class I would be looking hard at a 308 simply because of ammo availability.
 
I don't think there is much of a difference, but I do prefer the .308, especially now. Your comment about bullet weights over 150 described my situation well, as I found that my guns didn't like the 180 grainers. I used a 165 grain copper on a hunt, but the distance was far too short to know about accuracy.

150s and 180s are easy to find, but 165s are damn near impossible right now, so I'm not going to burn the last of my stock on determining accuracy.

I do know people who fanatically prefer .30-'06 over .308. I think they might be in for some rough times on the factory ammo front. I noticed .30-'06 ammo creeping downwards in availability for several years before COVID. The drop in availability is not new.
 
338BearHunter said:
I don't think there is much of a difference, but I do prefer the .308, especially now. Your comment about bullet weights over 150 described my situation well, as I found that my guns didn't like the 180 grainers. I used a 165 grain copper on a hunt, but the distance was far too short to know about accuracy.

150s and 180s are easy to find, but 165s are damn near impossible right now, so I'm not going to burn the last of my stock on determining accuracy.

I do know people who fanatically prefer .30-'06 over .308. I think they might be in for some rough times on the factory ammo front. I noticed .30-'06 ammo creeping downwards in availability for several years before COVID. The drop in availability is not new.
Click to expand...
Absolutely. I'd suggest EVERYONE sell, trade, get rid of those 30-06 rifles. Especially those antiquated Garands. Just throw them out. Trade them for 308 ammo while you can still get it.
 
338BearHunter said:
I don't think there is much of a difference, but I do prefer the .308, especially now. Your comment about bullet weights over 150 described my situation well, as I found that my guns didn't like the 180 grainers. I used a 165 grain copper on a hunt, but the distance was far too short to know about accuracy.

150s and 180s are easy to find, but 165s are damn near impossible right now, so I'm not going to burn the last of my stock on determining accuracy.

I do know people who fanatically prefer .30-'06 over .308. I think they might be in for some rough times on the factory ammo front. I noticed .30-'06 ammo creeping downwards in availability for several years before COVID. The drop in availability is not new.
Click to expand...
Ammo availability is definitely something I think about. I do find it odd that I've seen very little 06 on the shelves. Given the popularity of that round I would think the ammo companies would put some priority on it but that doesn't seem to be the case. Plenty of 308 though.
 
Absolutely nothing wrong with the 308 Winchester. I would buy one too if I found one at the right price in a rifle I liked. The 308 factory ammo is often just about identical in velocity as the same ammo in 30/06. Many people think the 30/06 is so much faster and flatter shooting, but that may not necessarily be true unless you're using handloaded ammo.
 
Jack Ryan said:
Absolutely. I'd suggest EVERYONE sell, trade, get rid of those 30-06 rifles. Especially those antiquated Garands. Just throw them out. Trade them for 308 ammo while you can still get it.
Click to expand...
Unnecessarily snarky, as I specifically said in an earlier post that nobody should be getting rid of their .30-'06s.
 
Doublegunner said:
Ammo availability is definitely something I think about. I do find it odd that I've seen very little 06 on the shelves. Given the popularity of that round I would think the ammo companies would put some priority on it but that doesn't seem to be the case. Plenty of 308 though.
Click to expand...
I've said this before, and the result is usually a butt-hurt induced flame war, but I don't think .30-'06 is nearly as popular as some people think it is. The descent in ammo availability was my first clue, but more recently, rifle makers have .30-'06 on the second-tier when they introduce new rifles. .308 and 6.5 Manbun get top billing nowadays.
 
Washington Hunter said:
Absolutely nothing wrong with the 308 Winchester. I would buy one too if I found one at the right price in a rifle I liked. The 308 factory ammo is often just about identical in velocity as the same ammo in 30/06. Many people think the 30/06 is so much faster and flatter shooting, but that may not necessarily be true unless you're using handloaded ammo.
Click to expand...

i just looked at my reloading manual and compared the .308 and 30-06 velocity both with 165 grain Barnes bullets.

The diffrence seemed to average about 100 feet per second,,,2700 plus for the .308, 2800 plus for the 30-06.

That is about a 3.5 % difference, nothing really.
 
I'm no fan of the .30-'06, but one thing that could tempt one to choose it over .308 would be the maximum bullet weight. Moreso than the slight speed increase IMHO.

I've always felt that for decades the .30-'06 was overrated. In the past five years, the opposite seems to be happening. Quirky market.

Maybe someday 6.5 Manbun will relegate .308 to the same fate, but by then I probably won't care. I'll be completely senile, sitting in a wheelchair with my buckets of daily medication watching The View and because its such intellectual television.
 
338BearHunter said:
I'm no fan of the .30-'06, but one thing that could tempt one to choose it over .308 would be the maximum bullet weight. Moreso than the slight speed increase IMHO.

I've always felt that for decades the .30-'06 was overrated. In the past five years, the opposite seems to be happening. Quirky market.

Maybe someday 6.5 Manbun will relegate .308 to the same fate, but by then I probably won't care. I'll be completely senile, sitting in a wheelchair with my buckets of daily medication watching The View and because its such intellectual television.
Click to expand...
I don't think the 06 is overrated. It's a really good cartridge that does a lot of things well. Is it the best at everything? No. But if I could only keep one cartridge for all my hunting it would probably be the 06. It just does a lot of things well.. Same could be said for the 308. As well as a lot of cartridges. 7mm rem mag comes to mind. Ammo availability right now is the strongest reason to get the 308 though. In the end the 6.5 creedmoor may just kill them all. I also like that one as well. Hard to beat a creedmoor for many things.
 
30-06 recoils a bit more and handles heavy bullets a bit better. Have a 30-06 that's been my elk rifle last three years I hunted elk. before that I used my 6.5x06. Neither of the 06's carry around and shoot as well as my old 308. While in Alaska when we went fishing I carried that old 308 with 200gr bullet's for protection. 200gr bullet's didn't group that well at 100 yds but at 20 ys were deadly. 30-06 does better with heavy bullet's but comes to handling that short action 660 was hard to even equal much less beat. It's all gonna boil down to personal opinion, difference's in power are just to close.
 
The .30-'06 is one of the best black bear cartridges ever devised. It just isn't as good as either the .308 or .338 Federal for the purpose. As I said before, I think its too close to consider owning both a .308 and a .30-'06.

Ten years ago, I saw .30-'06 milsurp everywhere, which I think helped keep it alive. Now, I see very little.
 
338BearHunter said:
The .30-'06 is one of the best black bear cartridges ever devised. It just isn't as good as either the .308 or .338 Federal for the purpose. As I said before, I think its too close to consider owning both a .308 and a .30-'06.

Ten years ago, I saw .30-'06 milsurp everywhere, which I think helped keep it alive. Now, I see very little.
Click to expand...
So, you don't like the 30-06? mtmuley
 
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