you know.. lately ive been having a bit of an internal struggle with myself.. my biggest competition in debate has always been with myself.. i can see multiple sides of any story and its never so black and white.. unfortunately
the issue im having now is about .308 being the best "general purpose rifle" caliber.. its very useful, yes, but is it the best?.. imagine if society had a breakdown, riots maybe and you had your one general purpose rifle with you where you were staying and had to hunt for food.. does it really matter if its a 5.45, a 5.56, a .308? either one of these im fairly certain will regularly and reliably kill deer with the proper placement and some people hunt quite successfully with 75 grain rounds in 223.. if every round is meat on the table, then more ammo means more food, right?
so my real question is, do you still take a 308 for that added assurance, the added range you probably wont be able to reliably hit anyway due to certain environmental reasons, wind, brush, or maybe your scopes broken and youre using iron sights.. its hard to say and i dont have an answer to these questions because i think ANY of these calibers are equally suitable, just so long as practice the tactics that go with it
what i mean by this, if .308 is your GPR caliber, slower follow up shots but more range and energy are the characteristics, learn how to use that to your advantage, engage your target at a greater distance.. if youre hunting for example, youre less likely to be detected by the deer at great distances and in some regions you dont have much choice
if you have a smaller caliber like 5.45 or 5.56, you have more ammo, quicker follow up shots at a cost for power.. there are tactics you can practice to benefit from this..
bottom line is you can be effective with any of it, it comes down to what youre personally capable of doing and the areas you most want to practice with.. if youre trying to use an AK-74 as a sniper rifle or a .308 in close quarters then you probably wont be as efficient