Something between 7.62x39 and .308

I am a little surprised that there really isn't much available in a .30 caliber round between these two.

I gladly use the 7.62x39 for pliking/range gun and deer/hogs inside 200 yards, but find the .308 to be somewhat excessive for deer sized game inside of 300 yards. In fact, I usually load my .308 down using H4895 to "30-30" power for two reasons - 1) to reduce recoil, and 2) because even at 2400 fps with a 150 grain bullet, it's still more than enough for deer at 300 yards.

I also own the venerable 30-30 which might seem to be the obvious answer to my question, but it's not available in a bolt-action rifle.

Is there something out there I'm missing? Seems there is a gap in the .30 cal. range for "deer" sized game in a bolt gun. This surprises me since the 30-30 has been around so long, I would have thought it might have been duplicated in a rimless bolt action round by now.

I feel that a .30 caliber, 150-grain bullet traveling about 2400 fps. is ideal for deer hunting. Is there room for a ".30 Grendel" in the modern hunting world?

At 300 yards a 308 shooting 150 gr Hornady SST's @ 2400 fps has 1125 ft lbs energy, drops 20" and has about 11 ft lbs of recoil.

At 300 yards a 308 shooting 150 gr Hornady SST's @ 2800 fps has over 1600 ft lbs of energy and only drops 7.5" with about 14 ft lbs of recoil.

That load might very well kill a deer at 300 yards, but is right at its limits, plus an extra 12+" of drop is huge. I don't think you'll ever notice the 3 ft lbs of recoil.

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Well certainly you're entitled to your opinion, but my shoulder can definitely tell the difference. As soon as I load above 2400 fps with a 150-grain bullet in my .308, the recoil becomes noticeably uncomfortable, as in, no big deal for one or three shots, but I'm not going to sit there and shoot that all day at the range. Part of the reason is that my hunting rifles are 7 lbs. or less due to the fact that I usually hunt on my feet during gun season.

I've always used the 1K ft. lb. standard for deer as I think that provides more than enough margin for error, esp. on 100 lb. Texas Whitetails. Deer get quickly and humanely killed every year with much less, but 1K is my comfort level.

So in my handloads, my goal is to produce a load in my .308 that gives me 1K ft. lbs. at 300 yards. I'm not going to shoot past 300 yards, so there's no point in my mind in wasting the energy. And I'm not going to take a quick shot at 300, so I should have plenty of time to range the critter with my rangefinder, and know where to aim, negating the trajectory question.

Yugorpk, that's what I'm doing now and it certainly works. I bought the .308 for it's versatility and that's exactly what I got.

I'm just surprised that with all the bullet choices in .30 caliber, and for how long that caliber has been around, there isn't something in a "7.62x45-ish" round that found it's way into the deer hunting world.

I know the 7mm-08 has become a very popular round because it features a lot of these characteristics. Just surprised there's not something that offers a heavier bullet with a similar amount of recoil in a bolt gun.

If there was a good, accurate, rimless .30-30-ish bolt gun with factory pointed bullets, I would think it would sell. I mean, how many deer have been killed with a 30-30 by now? Just seems the obvious thing to me. Guess I'm just off base though.

Mistwolf, the 30-40 Krag is another that makes me go "huh". Put in a rimless modern bolt action, it seems like the ideal deer killer for most of North America.

Agreed. I own a 7.62x39 Savage 10, a 30-30 lever and a .308 Savage 11 and I've killed deer and hogs with all of them - in fact, 100's of hogs with the 30-30. The 7.62x39 is a very effective hunting round inside 150 yards, but it's definitely not the equal of the 30-30 based on my in-the-field results.

What I'm looking for is a factory loaded cartridge that gives me what I get in my reduced-load .308 rounds. 150 grain bullet at 2300-2400 fps. with the recoil of a .243/30-30.

6.5's and 7mm's are great rifles for shooting, but for hunting, I want a 150-165 grain bullet. They hit hard and don't waste as much meat as a fast-moving 100-120 grain round.

I can get factory 154-grain soft points for the 7.62x39 and they work superbly out to 150. Hogs are usually DRT. Of course, 150+ rounds for the .308 are easy to find. But finding 150 grain bullets in something that falls in-between isn't so easy to find.

Just browsing around, the .300 Savage is probably the closest to what I'm imagining. Guess I need to take a closer look at that caliber. Wonder why it isn't more popular? Anyone know how the recoil of the .300 Savage compares?