twoblink
Member
I'm just wondering if you are hunting (be it urban pests, or wild game) when will 308 not be enough and I will have to move up higher?
What won't a 308 kill?
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Art Eatman
Moderator In Memoriam
A fair number of TFL folks spoke of using the .308 on elk. I think I'd be picky about my shots on a moose, although the old .30-40 Krag accounted for a goodly number of those--albeit with the 220-grain bullet.
For US hunting, I'd venture the .308 would do for all but the Alaskan bigbears.
Art
For US hunting, I'd venture the .308 would do for all but the Alaskan bigbears.
Art
ojibweindian
Member
I'm pretty sure the .308 can't kill my smelly ole running shoes! 
Joe Demko
Member
I expect it might be a tad low on penetration for use on diplodoci, ceratopsians, or stegasauri.
JeFF D
Member
Anything from small game to Moose though I'd want something a little bigger for moose but it will get the job done like anything else with good shot placement.
twoblink
Member
Even a good Nosler partition won't kill your shoes? Are you sure??
Yeah, had people telling about needs for such things like 375H&H, and it makes me wonder what they are hunting...
Yeah, had people telling about needs for such things like 375H&H, and it makes me wonder what they are hunting...
seeker_two
Member
...the idea that the .223 is a battle-rifle cartridge...
ojibweindian
Member
i'm pretty sure as they are an evil-smelling pair of pavement pounders!
In all seriousness, from what I've heard, read, and have personally shot (not much), the .308 should do fine for anything short of big, dangerous creatures.
I suppose you would want to move up if going after big bears.
In all seriousness, from what I've heard, read, and have personally shot (not much), the .308 should do fine for anything short of big, dangerous creatures.
I suppose you would want to move up if going after big bears.
Preacherman
Member
.308's and other cartridges in this class (7x57 & 8x57 Mauser, .303 British, .30-'06, etc.) have taken innumerable elephant, rhino, buffalo, etc. in Africa. (As a matter of fact, there are two documented cases of elephant being killed with a .22 LR!!! No, I'm not joking!) Poachers in Africa often use the AK-47's 7.62x39 cartridge, killing anything and everything with it, but they typically fire full-auto.
The big thing is, these cartridges simply don't have enough "punch" to turn or stop a charge from something determined to convert you into fertilizer for the African landscape. Given a clean shot at a vital part, with the animal unaware of your presence, they'll take anything, anytime, with no problems. However, if there is a chance that the animal will become aware of you (before or after the shot) and want to discuss the matter at rather closer quarters, they won't prevent it from getting to you and turning you into something that would gag a gargoyle (to quote C.R. Sam!). They also lack sufficient energy and momentum to penetrate full-length through a major critter, if that's the only shot you have available.
The heavier rifles were designed to deliver enough "punch" to put the animal down in a dangerous situation - and even they don't always work... There's a picture on the wall of a training station in Skukuza, the headquarters of the Kruger National Park in South Africa. It shows a twenty-foot circle of red mud. On one side of the mud is a pair of boots, with a shin-bone sticking up out of the left boot. On the other side of the mud is a hat, upside-down, with neck vertebrae sticking up from it. The mud in the middle is the rest of the hunter... He whacked a buffalo with three rounds of heavy-caliber rifle fire, and fatally wounded it: but the buffalo had enough energy and hatred left in it to reach him and render him into mush for the ants. In another well-documented case, a buffalo absorbed ten solid hits from a .460 Weatherby - over 70,000 foot-pounds of energy, accurately placed - on the run, before finally stopping and expiring. Impressive, no?
Never trust ANY rifle caliber to do the job 100% of the time - it's the shooter, bullet placement and performance, and the mood of the animal that count!
The big thing is, these cartridges simply don't have enough "punch" to turn or stop a charge from something determined to convert you into fertilizer for the African landscape. Given a clean shot at a vital part, with the animal unaware of your presence, they'll take anything, anytime, with no problems. However, if there is a chance that the animal will become aware of you (before or after the shot) and want to discuss the matter at rather closer quarters, they won't prevent it from getting to you and turning you into something that would gag a gargoyle (to quote C.R. Sam!). They also lack sufficient energy and momentum to penetrate full-length through a major critter, if that's the only shot you have available.
The heavier rifles were designed to deliver enough "punch" to put the animal down in a dangerous situation - and even they don't always work... There's a picture on the wall of a training station in Skukuza, the headquarters of the Kruger National Park in South Africa. It shows a twenty-foot circle of red mud. On one side of the mud is a pair of boots, with a shin-bone sticking up out of the left boot. On the other side of the mud is a hat, upside-down, with neck vertebrae sticking up from it. The mud in the middle is the rest of the hunter... He whacked a buffalo with three rounds of heavy-caliber rifle fire, and fatally wounded it: but the buffalo had enough energy and hatred left in it to reach him and render him into mush for the ants. In another well-documented case, a buffalo absorbed ten solid hits from a .460 Weatherby - over 70,000 foot-pounds of energy, accurately placed - on the run, before finally stopping and expiring. Impressive, no?
Never trust ANY rifle caliber to do the job 100% of the time - it's the shooter, bullet placement and performance, and the mood of the animal that count!
Kaylee
Member
anything it misses.
Marshall
Member
A .308 will kill anything! The question is, at what yardage will it kill anything with a high degree of probability?
Redlg155
Member
I agree with Preacherman..
You can shoot and kill anything on this planet with a .308. Just when it will expire isn't a sure thing.
I've seen videos of hunters, actually one of the Real Tree videos, of a guy taking a brown bear with a bow. You can bet those guys stayed well hidden and had some serious backup in case the bear found out who poked him with a sharp stick!
.308 works great on all two legged critters. Both fat and skinny. Just don't expect anything to work 100 percent on four legged critters.
Good SHooting
RED
You can shoot and kill anything on this planet with a .308. Just when it will expire isn't a sure thing.
I've seen videos of hunters, actually one of the Real Tree videos, of a guy taking a brown bear with a bow. You can bet those guys stayed well hidden and had some serious backup in case the bear found out who poked him with a sharp stick!
.308 works great on all two legged critters. Both fat and skinny. Just don't expect anything to work 100 percent on four legged critters.
Good SHooting
RED
GhostShooter
Member
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It doesn't kill germs.
It should be able to kill any beast in NA, but shot placement is obviously more important the larger the animal is. It doesn't make much sense to risk wounding an elk or moose with the .308 Win. if a .30-06 Springfield or .300 Win. Mag is available.
It should be able to kill any beast in NA, but shot placement is obviously more important the larger the animal is. It doesn't make much sense to risk wounding an elk or moose with the .308 Win. if a .30-06 Springfield or .300 Win. Mag is available.
twoblink
Member
Preacherman,
My friend's got a small range by his house in TX, and he's got a 30-30 in the truck; he says that a 30-30 will drop a bull, but not a charging one... So probably is true with calibers that are big also..
My friend's Wild Bore on the fire place, he said, 2 shots of 8mm in the side (a good front shoulder shot, then a good heart shot) and you'd think that would drop the beast, but it didn't, and so there's a tear whole on the scalp of the boar.. He said he was all fumbly as the boar charged full steam and almost reached him before he got the 3rd shot off..
So I suspect not being detected and shot placement being the two key points..
Or moving to a 4 gauge slug shotgun..
My friend's got a small range by his house in TX, and he's got a 30-30 in the truck; he says that a 30-30 will drop a bull, but not a charging one... So probably is true with calibers that are big also..
My friend's Wild Bore on the fire place, he said, 2 shots of 8mm in the side (a good front shoulder shot, then a good heart shot) and you'd think that would drop the beast, but it didn't, and so there's a tear whole on the scalp of the boar.. He said he was all fumbly as the boar charged full steam and almost reached him before he got the 3rd shot off..
So I suspect not being detected and shot placement being the two key points..
Or moving to a 4 gauge slug shotgun..
Uncle Ethan
Member
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It won't be enough if you get between Chucky Schumer and a Television camera.
Tamara
Senior Member
Undead ninja grizzlies.
modifiedbrowning
Member
Grisly dead un-Ninjas?
Nightcrawler
Member
I don't know about undead grizzlies, but I know from personal experience that .308 (out of a 21" FAL) works quite well on your typical carniverous, reanimated nonliving person (zombie), (with headshots, primarily, of course. Body shots will work, but the spine or other major bone structures must be broken in order to immobilize; the undead aren't phased by hydrostatic shock). It also works quite well on various large, toothy, man-eating mutants, including 500+ pound bipedal frog things.
So, again, undead grizzlies not withstanding, it works very well on undead persons.
(Don't ask...)
BWAHAHAHAHAHAA!!
So, again, undead grizzlies not withstanding, it works very well on undead persons.
(Don't ask...)
BWAHAHAHAHAHAA!!
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voilsb
Member
it might not take care of a pack of bigfoots quickly enough. especially if they're on elephants.
might not work too great on the undead, depending what kind they are.
might not work too great on the undead, depending what kind they are.
MLH
Member
A tank!
Brian Williams
Moderator Emeritus
Tatertots?
No, it was hottentots.
No, it was hottentots.
twoblink-
I think you mean a Boar, not a Bore. But I have met Full Bores at parties.
I like what the late "Karamojo" Bell said when chided about his use of what were, for Africa, smallbore calibers. He said he knew that some hunters were "big bores" and others were "small bores", then added that, "I hope I'm not a bore at all."
Lone Star
I think you mean a Boar, not a Bore. But I have met Full Bores at parties.
I like what the late "Karamojo" Bell said when chided about his use of what were, for Africa, smallbore calibers. He said he knew that some hunters were "big bores" and others were "small bores", then added that, "I hope I'm not a bore at all."
Lone Star
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