Is there any point in Getting a .308 Rifle when I already have a .300 savage?

[phantomak47]

I have a Savage 99 in .300 savage and I love it, its a great brush gun that is still good out to around 300 yards. Its a good all around gun for the Texas/ Southern Hunting that I do.


Would there be any purpose in getting a 308? I know you add some velocity and range, but would I be better off in upgrading to a 30'06?

Basically doesnt the 300 savage pretty much do everything the 308 can do for the most part?

 

[MCgunner]

No need for the .308, not for deer. If you were going after elk, you could probably still handload it with a good controlled expansion bullet and just restrict your range to a couple hundred yards max. The .300 Savage got overshadowed when the .308 re-invented it just as the .250-3000 got overshadowed when they necked the .308 down to .243. Not a lot of improvement, just the latest and greatest. The .308 stuck, of course, being a military round. Hard to compete with the military round.

Actually, I read that the .300 was looked at by the military/Winchester when the .308 was being developed. The .300 Savage can be pushed pretty good, within a couple hundred fps or less of the .308. A deer ain't gonna know the difference.

I have a .257 Roberts that's been in the family for 50 years. It never got sold for a .243 and never will. If it were a .250-3000 (very similar round), ditto. It'll do anything the .243 will so why would I want the newer round?

 

['Card]

I'm a big fan of the .300 Savage, but I've never tried one of those 99's - although I'd love to get my hands on one. In my case, I love it because of the Remington Model 81 in .300 Savage, which in my opinion is one of the fastest pointing, best-balanced, quickest aiming, hardest hitting, brush-and-thicket busting semi-autos ever produced. I've got a pretty wide selection of more modern hunting rifles to choose from, but old "meat on the table" still comes out of the case when the deer are hanging tight in a nasty laurel thicket and the only way to get at 'em is to tie your hat down, wade on in there, and flush 'em out.

Having said that, the 99 may be a more accurate platform, but my Remington 81 really only shoots acceptable groups out to about 150 yards or so, and the .300 Savage's ballistics don't inspire a lot of confidence in me at ranges above that either. In a flat cartridge-to-cartridge comparison (leaving the platform out of it) I think the .308 would give you a little more flexibility for either up-close work or those times when you need to reach way downrange.

But that's just me. If your 99 is grouping good at 300 yards, and you're confident in it, and you're getting good results, then I don't see any major compelling reason to change just for change's sake, no.

 

[JackOfAllTradesMasterAtNone]

Yup, What they said. Next step up for Bear or Elk would be 30-06 or a magnum.

But for most Texas game, your .300 Savage will do just fine. Close enough to a .308 that I wouldn't go there.. But I do know people that own more than one rifle the same caliber as others in the safe.

-Steve

 

[Sunray]

"...much do everything the..." Yep, but so does a .30-06. The .308 and .30-06 have identical ballistics. The only advantage of the '06 is that you can use slightly heavier bullets. Both shoot best with 165 grain bullets though. There's nothing in North America that a 165 won't put down.
"...any purpose in getting..." 'I want one' is reason enough. No 'purpose' required.
You don't need a magnum for any game in North America. Certainly not black bear or elk.

 

[Art Eatman]

I don't see any "need" for another package, if you're succeeding with what you already have.

There's always some excuse, of course: "I want..." is plenty good enough. The thing to remember that you'll spend a fair amount of time becoming as good with a new rifle as you are now with what you have.

Old friends are Good Things...

, Art

 

[one-shot-one]

i on the other hand

think any excuse to get a new rifle is a GOOD excuse.

 

[JackOfAllTradesMasterAtNone]

I don't want to change the focus of this thread,

But,

"You don't need a magnum for any game in North America."

I'll disagree.. There's no way in heck a sane person would hunt Moose, Polar Bear, Costal Brown, or Grizzly Bear,

"There's nothing in North America that a 165 won't put down."

with anything less than a 30-06. And that's at the very low end for a lot of big game in Alaska. Geography lesson- That's part of North America.

Not that it can't be done with a 165gn bullet, but shot from a cartridge that produces less than nominal velocity for a clean humane kill on the largest of big game, it's a far fetch to say that the bullet will always be able to do the job.

You dump a 165 into a Brown Bear at 150yds from a 300 Savage. When you do, you might want to chamber another round. Let me know how it goes.

Me, I'll stick with a magnum capable of more velocity/heavier bullet/impact energy for large and dangerous game that live on the North American Continent.

-Steve

 

[MCgunner]

Yeah, and if I wanted to run down to the King Ranch and dump $4K on a Nilgai hunt, I'd want a magnum rifle for that, bare minimum 7mm Rem Mag and I think a .338 would put down a big blue bull more surely.

I'm pretty happy with my small collection that I can handle anything in north America.....that I can afford to hunt. Heck, my .308 is enough cause it's lookin' like I'll never go on an elk hunt. I may be able to afford it in a few years...when I'm to old to be up to it.:banghead:

 

[Lonestar]

The only issue with the .300 savage, is ammo is getting harder to find. You can find .308 in any gun store and maybe even Walmart.

 

[MCgunner]

Well, I've owned a .308 for nearly 10 years and never bought a round of ammo for it, but have killed a lot of game with it. Of course, I have bought brass, bullets, powder, and primers.

 

[Vern Humphrey]

"...much do everything the..." Yep, but so does a .30-06. The .308 and .30-06 have identical ballistics.

In military guise, yes. The .30-06 was downloaded in the '20s, primarily at the request of the National Guard because many NG ranges could not meet the backfall requirements. The M1 (which is a bit ammo sensitive) was designed for this downloaded ammo, and that pretty much set the standard.

SAAMI holds .30-06 to 48,000 CUP -- supposedly out of deference to low number Springfields and similar antiques. The .308 is loaded to higher pressures. When you load a .30-06 to .308 levels, it will give you about as big an increase over the .308 as the .300 WM has over the .30-06.

 

[LAK]

I have a Savage 99 in .300 savage and I love it, its a great brush gun that is still good out to around 300 yards. Its a good all around gun for the Texas/ Southern Hunting that I do.

So, you have what you need.

Would there be any purpose in getting a 308? I know you add some velocity and range, but would I be better off in upgrading to a 30'06?

If you wanted to get into target shooting, matches etc a .308 would be fine. But so would a 6.5x55 for example. The .308 is an excellent cartridge and commercially loaded ammo, components etc are all over the place. The only significant advantage to the 30-06 IMO is when pushing bullets over 200 grains.

If you want something pushing a heavier bullet you might want to look into the Browning BLR (lever) rifle in .358 Winchester. Or a bolt-action in the new .338 Federal. Both the .358 Win and the .338 Fed are .308-based catridges; larger bores and heavier bullets without stepping up to all the fuss of "magnums".

Basically doesnt the 300 savage pretty much do everything the 308 can do for the most part?

The .300 Savage is to the .308, what the .308 is to the 30-06. While the 308 will do signifcantly better with 180 grain bullets, a 180 grain .30 cal bullet of proper construction starting out at 2300+ feet per second should plow through most game animals at any reasonable range.

-----------------------------------------

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[formerflyer]

I’ve gotta take exception with what JackOfAllTradesMasterAtNone says above. The number one cartridge I’ve seen in the hands of Alaskans hunting moose, caribou, bear and other game is still the .30-’06. It’s not my cartridge of choice for up there, but if that’s what I had I certainly wouldn’t be “insane” to hunt with it. I think that you can argue that it is under-gunned for some shots from some angles, and I think the only way that a ’06 165gr combo would be suitable is if premium bullets are used, but I think he’s painting with a pretty broad brush to say that the ’06 is insane.

I wonder what he’d think of my uncles and grandfather who used to hunt up there with just their .30-30’s. Thousands of every game animal in the state have fallen to hunters using 170gr flatnose .30-30’s.

Myself, I’ll use my .375, ‘cause I already have one, and that’s a cartridge that won’t cause me any problem from any reasonable distance, for any angle of shot, on any game in North America. But if I were to go up hunting again, and my H&H wasn’t available, I’d feel very comfortable using my old ’06.

Your .300 savage, loaded properly and shot within reasonable distances and at animals presenting good targets, will humanely kill everything on this continent. And, at the same time, I’d recommend that you get an ’06 to go along with it, ‘cause it’s the same, only more so.

 

[Mornard]

I had my 300 Savage rechambered to .308 (they are near identical) because ammo is far cheaper and more available, with a wider selection.

 

[Mannlicher]

I don't think you ever have to justify buying another rifle.

 

[Vern Humphrey]

I had my 300 Savage rechambered to .308 (they are near identical)

I assume that's a 99 Savage?

People who want to do that should be careful -- yours must be a later edition. The first 99s had short receivers -- the .300 Savage barely made it. Once the .308 came out, Savage lengthened the receiver slightly to accomodate it, and all later 99s have the longer receiver.

So while that's a great idea (if you don't care about collector value), it won't work on earlier 99s.

 

[stevelyn]

There's now way in heck a sane person would hunt moose, polar bear, coastal brown or grizzly with anything less than a .30-06, and that's at the very low end for a lot of big game in Alaska.

Don't say that to any of the natives or any other bushkin that lives up here. They might start thinking all those critters they knocked over with .30-06s and .270s weren't dead enough. My nephew whacked a moose three years ago with a .30-30 and that happens more often than you think.

In the big scheme of things, most bushkins hunt with .30-06s and smaller....even for the toothy, clawed critters.

Matter of fact, the further out into the bush you go, the smaller the calibers especially the closer to the Arctic and Bering Sea coasts.

Belted manglems become more common the closer you get to Anchorage.
The vast majority of magnums are toted around by city and out-of-state hunters.

Now to answer the original question..............

Yes. Because you can't shoot .300 Savage through a FAL, G-3, AR-10 or any other fun gun.

 

[steelhead]

Forget about the 30's. Go play with something in the 22 centerfire, 7MM, 338, 35, or 375 range.