Please recommend a .308 rifle or carbine

[Father Knows Best]

For hunting, I'll add my voice to those recommending the Savage 99. It is a fine rifle that you will be proud to someday hand down to your children or grandchildren.

I'm a little confused, though. You said it was for hunting, but then asked about the availability of "high capacity" mags. You don't hunt with high cap mags. As far as I know, most if not all states restrict mag capacity on rifles in the field during deer season (usually to five rounds). If you want something that holds more, it's not for hunting. For a high capacity .308 semiauto, you're basically looking at the various semi versions of military rifles. Those include the aforementioned M1A (M14), CETME/HK91/PTR-91 (G3), Imbel or DSA SA58/StG58 (FAL), AR-10, Saiga, etc. All are fine rifles, and fun to shoot, and all have mags available that will hold 20 or more rounds, but there are much better choices available if your interest is deer hunting.

 

[jobu07]

Winchester made a 308 lever gun.

 

[Vityaz]

The M1A is definitely a good choice and for hunting you can pretty easily find 5 round mags for it.

 

[Father Knows Best]

Ugh. As much as I like military style rifles, the M1A would NOT be my choice for hunting. It's a big, heavy beast. It's reliable and accurate, but it is FAR from a good choice as a hunting rifle. It's also quite expensive, and can be difficult to scope.

 

[GunTech]

I use my M1a for hunting. I depends on how you define 'heavy'. With a GI fiberglass stock and a Nikon tactical 2.5-10X, mine tips the scale at about 12 pounds - that's with a heavy match barrel. You could shave 2 pound off by starting the a SOCOM. But it's no mountain rifle.

The bnest mount for this rifle is a Brookfield type. I use the Sadlak titanium, but Smith Enterprises is also excellent. Most of the luminum mounts for this rifle are garbage.

A match trigger will bring the pull down to 4.5 pounds, and is definitely worth it. If you don't mine paying for one, the Rader trigger is superb and can be safely set for as little as 24 ounces.

You'll pay around $1500 for a base M1A, and can easily spend 2-3x with all the bells and whistles.

 

[jford1]

My 270 BAR MKII Safari w/BOSS will shoot sub-MOA all day long except for the first cold/clean shot with Federal Premium ammo. I find it to be a fantastic hunting rifle. It's lightweight, powerful, accurate and recoil is quite soft. In Missouri you can use ten round magazines (if available) but with a 4.5-14x Leupold scope and this rifle I've never needed a second shot. It might as well be a single shot. That BOSS break is very very loud, however. I also have a 308 PTR-91 (HK G3 Clone) but I would never want to lug that 10 lb. thing through the brush or up a tree.

 

[Father Knows Best]

I have a PTR-91, too. Mine has one of the early polygonal rifled barrels, and the trigger has been massaged to break cleanly at about 2.5 pounds (no take-up and no creep). It's a sweet rifle, and extremely accurate. But like you, I would never choose it for hunting. It's just too heavy.

For hunting, I will almost always choose a lever or bolt gun. The Savage 99 is about as fine a centerfire hunting rifle as you will ever find if you're not willing to use a bolt action. It is compact, well balanced, reliable, reasonably light weight and quite accurate. Good used Savage 99's can be purchased for well under a thousand dollars.

 

[goon]

Depending on price, maybe find a 99 savage in get the barrel shortened just a little. They really are great rifles eventhough they don't wear black synthetic furniture. And if you are planning to carry it much more than from the car to bench, you will learn to love how they only weigh about 2/3 as much as any of the semi automatics.

Having said that, I still love my FAL.

 

[Andrewsky]

My M1A SOCOM weighs exactly 10 pounds with 3 point sling and fully loaded with a 20 round magazine. My dad's BAR weighs the same (but with a telescope on it).

I didn't buy my M1A to hunt with it. But I am anyways, because I choose to. It's decent SHTF training.

Oh by the way, I'll be hunting in North Dakota and Minnesota. Neither have restrictions on the magazine. Neither does Texas or Arizona.