.308 for whitetail.

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I think of the .308 as the 30-30 on steroids. Flatter trajectory and more energy at 300 yards. Yet recoil is moderate.

This South Dakota muley was taken with my lever action Savage in .308 at long range. The buck never knew what hit him.

TR

muley3.jpg
 
IMHO, just right or a little on the overkill side for smallish Texas deer. Great hog caliber, too. I have shot several dozen with less gun, .30-30, .257 Roberts, .357 magnum. .308 will take ANYTHING in the lower 48 to 300 yards with the proper load and bullet placement. Deer? Gimme a break. :D
 
I use a .308 Remington 700 shooting 168 grain BTHP, out of the 10 deer Ive taken in the last couple years with it I've only had one run for more than 10 yards. It all falls on shot placement though. It can do alot of damage and waste some meat though, but thats the only downside, but it could be avoided by using a lighter round. IMHO
 
It can do alot of damage and waste some meat though, but thats the only downside, but it could be avoided by using a lighter round
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A HP bullet is going to fragment more and could be the reason you see a lot of wasted meat. You may want to try a bullet that expands a little less violently.
 
OP: I'm curious, did someone give you the idea that .308 is too light/little for whitetails? It's hard for me to imagine someone saying that...
 
.308 or 7mm-08, ideal for any North American game maybe shy of grizzly. you can actually shoot these rounds without being recoil sensitive and hit your target unlike using the magnums and ultra mag fad rounds.
 
OP: I'm curious, did someone give you the idea that .308 is too light/little for whitetails? It's hard for me to imagine someone saying that...
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This.

Unless you're doing something that is WAY beyond the level of 95% of hunters (read: extreme distance hunting, and I'm not going to start that argument) , nobody with any real experience is going to tell you that a .308 isn't enough for a deer. Now, if you're in texas and shooting the antlered coyotes, it may be a little much, but nothing that switching to a more appropriate weight and type of bullet won't handle.
 
Excellent deer round. It puts 'em down hard. Very accurate,
with slightly less recoil than the '06. It's my primary deer round.
 
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I just whacked a 200lb boar at 80 yards with a 150 grain .308 ballistic silvertip, went thru the shield broke both shoulders and blew out the other side. Dropped him in his tracks. .308 should blow through any deer at most angles. You might be giving up some BC to a .270 or 7mm rem mag but for the most part anything to 250-300 yards is going to net you them same results. People preach energy transfer but again most anything .223 or larger is going to blow right thru and bullet performance/construction is going to mean more than 2500 ft lbs vs 3000 ft lbs.
 
My younger brother only owns one c.f. hunting rifle. A pre-'64 Winchester Mod-70FW in .308wcf. He's taken animals from Richardson's ground squirrels and p-dog's to Moose with it. Aside from the 110gr Hornady hollow-points for small varmints, He uses only one bullet; The Nosler 150gr Partitions. He's says he's now 9 for 9 on Elk. But, he's a "Hunter", not a "shooter". He gets within 300yds and places his "shot", not "shots".... Puts the gun up, and gets out the knife.......
Me, I'm more like "gun of the week". This week it's been a Browning BLR in .358wcf.......The .308's fatter, heavier hitting brother.
 
308 has a lot to recommend it as a whitetail round. I can't imagine needing anything else for 90% of the hunting situations I've encountered in the last 25 years.
 
Forgot to add there are real economic benefits to choosing 308 because surplus military ammo (and fired cases if you reload) can be had for less than almost any commercial round suitable for big game. Surplus 30-06 isn't nearly as easy to find these days as is 308, at least where I live.
 
.308 is my primary. Several different platforms. Whitetail, mule deer, antelope, black bear, wolf, any other predators.

Also had good results with .30-06. However, recently for some dumb reason I've been wanting to step up to .300 Win Mag for a bit more oomph at a bit more distance.

But deer and .308 go together like bread and butter.
 
308 is more then enough for any deer within normal hunting ranges. It was my genral purpose deer gun untill I finnaly found my 6.5x55 :D
308 gives up nothing to the 30-06 unless you are trying to use 180+gr bullets. With todays modern bonded and solid copper bullets a 180gr is all you will ever need up to brown bear anyway. The only reason I replaced it with the 6.5x55 is that it kicks much less and has more energy/less drift past 200 yards for the handloader.
308s are also great for autoloaders, they were designed to autofeed very well.
 
.308? A - o.k !!

i use an old Mossberg made Western Auto/ Revelations bolt gun in .308. Have taken 2 mule deer with it using Winchester 180 grn soft points. both dropped right where they stood. First was a smaller spike buck, about 130-140 lbs. second was above 300 lbs doe. she dropped with 125 yd shot and the 180 grner went all the way through her, stem to stern.

the only things on the North American Continent i would not hunt with it are the Brown Bears (Kodiak, and Grizz) and Polar Bear.
 
I think the .308 is a great whitetail cartidge. Certainly not too small! If anything, it's a bit toward overkill, as a .243, .260, or 7mm-08 would all be excellent, too. But my "go to" hunting rifle is a Model Seven in .308. Sweet package for the PA woods.
 
The best thing about the caliber is the accuracy. 165 or 168 grain rounds produce sub-moa groups from my rifle.
 
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