.308 For Deer

[gallo]

First, Steve, congratulations on your deer and your wonderful wife.

Now, a question to some of the people here that have mentioned that the 308 may be too much for deer? What does that mean or imply? Does this relate to meat wastage? Too much recoil for the size of animal being hunted? I ask because I'm considering a deer rifle in 308, primarily because ammo is abundant, recoil is very tolerable, and at under 200 yards the round does the job reliably if I do mine. If I'm so lucky to run into Bambi 25 yards ahead, so be it. I don't understand the caveats about the 308 for deer.

Thanks.

 

[Robert]

Ya well I think the .308 is capable of killing most anything in the world just look what Walter Bell ( died in 1950 ) was capable of doing with his .303 he killed everything in Africa over a 1,000 elephants, rhino,cape buffalo and others,look it up amazing. It's all shot placement . He invented what he called the bell shot which used a military fmj bullet. Everything I've ever shot with the. 308 died.

No, he used a 275 Rigby, aka 7x57 mauser, for the vast majority of his elephant kills.

 

[alientrainwreck]

Like I said all I now is what I've read and there has to be some truth to it or shooting time author wouldn't have wrote it. The writer's name is on the article I posted. I suggest you call him and tell him he is wrong! It does not matter to me what he used but when he went back to hunt lion's you would think he would have chosen the caliber he liked the best. It is wrote a single shot. 303

 

[Nature Boy]

Now, a question to some of the people here that have mentioned that the 308 may be too much for deer

Personally, I think it's the perfect deer caliber. Hard to match the versatility and performance of the 30 cal. in a short action package

 

[Dr T]

I think that there are a number of (nearly) perfect deer calibers. The 308 is one, but 6.5 CM, 6.5x55, 7-08, and 7x 57 are also up at the top of the list. If the cost and ubiquitous availability of high quality factory ammo is a serious issue, it would give the 308 a bit of an advantage.

Whether or not something is "too much" gun is an issue decided by my right shoulder. After two rotator cuff repair jobs, it has gotten a bit tender...How much meat is torn up is more of a question of bullet placement and bullet construction. One of the worst messes I made was with a 30-06 using a 150 gr PP CoreLockt. Three of the least messes I have made were with a 30-06 using a 180 gr Hornady SPFB Interlock, a 308 with 165 gr Hornady SPFB Interlock, and a 308 with a 150 gr Hornady SPFB Interlock. (You may be able to detect a pattern in this...)

 

[Big7]

Woman that will drag a deer?

Heck I'm lucky if I can get mine to BUY a can of worms
much less dig them up.

Sounds like a good one to me.

 

[H&Hhunter]

I agree, the .308 is one of my all time favorite deer/ elk sized game calibers. I have used it extensively here and in Africa for plains game.

 

[tark]

Well, I don't hunt but my Grandfather did, out of necessity, during the Great Depression. He dropped dozens of deer, in their tracks.....with a Winchester Low wall.....in 25-20. So I guess shot placement really DOES matter. If I were young again and wanted to hunt, it seems to me that a good 308 rifle is a pretty good place to start.

 

[Steve S.]

Wow, that is why I like this blog; from killing a deer with the .308 and praising my lovely wife to arguing about brain shots on elephants - now that is diversity. President Obama would change his whole perspective of gun owner diversity if he was active on this sight. This is a great sight with lots of entertaining reading. Good shooting,

 

[TexasPatriot.308]

I have several .308 bolt actions, Ruger M77s, No. 1, Remington 788 and now a Ruger Precison Rifle with a muzzle brake, my cattle pastures are infested with feral hogs and some hay fields offer me shots up to 800 yards or more and with a Leupold VX6 6.5x20x40 and 150 grain factory loads of Hornady I try thinning the herd every day, the Precison Rifle in .308 is one helluva hog slayer. So many hogs, so little time....good thing I got couple .44 mag carbines for heavy brush and always, always a good backup revolver no smaller than .357 mag.

 

[lightman]

Congratulations on the nice deer! The 308 with 150 grain bullets is my go to choice and the high spine shot is my favorite shot on deer. So much so that most of our club members refer to it as my shot, by name. Properly placed, it cuts the spine and an artery or two and does minimal damage to any meat. My load is mostly LC Match cases, a case full of 4064 and a 150gr Sierra bullet.

 

[lobo9er]

First, Steve, congratulations on your deer and your wonderful wife.

Now, a question to some of the people here that have mentioned that the 308 may be too much for deer? What does that mean or imply? Does this relate to meat wastage? Too much recoil for the size of animal being hunted? I ask because I'm considering a deer rifle in 308, primarily because ammo is abundant, recoil is very tolerable, and at under 200 yards the round does the job reliably if I do mine. If I'm so lucky to run into Bambi 25 yards ahead, so be it. I don't understand the caveats about the 308 for deer.

Thanks.

no its a great round and the gun I take out most is a Ruger American in .308. I was just kidding a bit cuz most shots, at least mine are inside 70 yards and some are inside 15, i've got things pretty well patterned where I do most my hunting. Real thick vegetation. That said the .308 is an awesome Deer round. Don't be dissuaded buy one you will love it.

 

[PCFlorida]

Congratulations! Good shot and your wife is a wonderful woman, as is mine. You Sir have a very good life.

 

[Coffeeguy]

.308 is fine for deer. Ended up getting 2 this morning, with 180-grain Hornady Interlocks loaded over 47 grains of IMR 4007 SSC. The 'best' argument I've heard of something being 'too much' for deer is in with regard to overpenetation...But, 'overpenetration', or rather an exit wound, is what gives you the blood trail. Just as you never know whether a deer will show up at 50 yards or 200, you never know exactly how a bullet will behave once it enters the deer.

First kill was a doe at about 100-125 yards, who ended up running 50 yards and expiring. Quarter-sized exit wound left a nice blood trail and found her easily.

Second was a buck, quartering toward me slightly at 50 yards, and he laid down and died right there. Walking up on him, I saw what looked like an entrance and exit wound on the spine about 2/3 of the way back. It didn't make sense because I knew I had aimed for a lung shot, and a spine shouldn't have killed him that quickly. Turned out that the shot had gone in perfectly, then the bullet had veered or was deflected upward and exited through the spine, hence him dropping right there. I don't know if the bullet fragmented or if it had been some bone which created one of the exit holes.

Since I've never purposely made a spine shot, don't know if a 'lesser' caliber would have punched through it like that after traveling through the chest cavity. Bottom line, is people will argue all day long which is the 'best' caliber for deer. .308 will get the job done and put meat on the table,

 

[mshootnit]

I think 308 could be a little slow where shots from 275-400 yds are more common. Practice, skill and steadiness could make up for that I suppose. I shot a doe with 150 SST at 100 yd with a Vepr. The bullet entered behing the shoulder kareened down and gutted the animal. Then the finishing shot to the neck happened at close to 200. That experience soured me on polymer tipped bullets (and I became suspicious of russian bores.)
Shot a few with 165 Hornady 7.5x55 swiss. That round has always worked great for me.

 

[Coffeeguy]

I think 308 could be a little slow where shots from 275-400 yds are more common. Practice, skill and steadiness could make up for that I suppose. I shot a doe with 150 SST at 100 yd with a Vepr. The bullet entered behing the shoulder kareened down and gutted the animal. Then the finishing shot to the neck happened at close to 200. That experience soured me on polymer tipped bullets (and I became suspicious of russian bores.)
Shot a few with 165 Hornady 7.5x55 swiss. That round has always worked great for me.

I sit corrected...Longer-range shots can be iffy indeed when it comes to getting a clean kill. I've been (fortunate?) that in the places I've hunted, I very seldom can even see a deer past 250-ish much less get a clean shot. Having played with .308 on some long-distance ranges up to 700 yards, it tends to start dropping sharply once you get past 300, at and 400 loses half of its muzzle energy. Which is good reminder for anyone wondering if something's good for a certain animal; you need to know the ballistics of whatever you're using.

 

[lastofthebreed]

I use a Savage Model 99 in 300 Savage a great deal for deer. The 300 Savage cartridge, if you are not familiar with it, is the original short body .308 round. It is, in my opinion, almost ideal as a deer cartridge. The 308 Winchester is more of the same.

 

[Kaeto]

I keep trying to get my dad to let me have his Savage 99C in .308 since he hasn't even had it out of it's case since 1999.

 

[Gordon]

Here is the deal: I mostly used a Brown Precision Ultra Light .308 since 1979 for deer hunting, I also had a Model 600 Remington Scout rifle, as per being shown one at Gunsite in 1982 . I hunted both extensively on the West Coast as far east as Colorado and North to Washington . So all deer from say 280 pounds down to our local Blacktail of around 100 pounds. I used 150 grain Winchester Silvertips at first out of those 19" soda straw barrels as they fed so well and really were dramatic in expansion with adequate for me penetration. They allways knew who shot the deer when dressed as the aluminum shards were thru the ugly wound channel. Later on I went to Nosler 150 grain Balistic tip bullets with Win 748 Powder to get about the same or better effect with no aluminum shards. I allways took a more powerful weapon when going on Elk hunts as they were expensive and infrequent and sometimes the bulls seemed as big as thin horses. In the early 2000 till very recently my go to deer gun has been the .270 WSM with required copper bullets for the local and as far as African deer and I have no complaints as it shoots flat as a lazer and has evrybit as much "power" as a .308 . However I now have a nice Zeiss HD5 scope on this Harry Lawson Custom .308 and it is sub MOA accurate and that stock distributes the smack of recoil so I can hunt with it pleasurably

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