Which .308 Rifle to Buy?

[Auburn1992]

After taking some time and looking over my gun collection, it seems I am missing a high powered rifle bigger than 7mm. My rifle collection includes: couple of .22's, a 7mm-08, and a .30-30.

I am pretty settled on getting a .308 rifle. The .308 will allow me to target shoot, varmint hunt, deer hunt, and coyote hunt; the main reason I don't want something smaller like a .223.

Anyways which rifle would you reccomend. Mostly this will be used for target shooting up to 300 yards. More than likely, I will never take this out deer hunting as my 7mm-08 is suited for this job. Because of this, I would like the gun to be of a target/tactical style. Weight it basically no option to me but accuracy is.

I would like to find a rifle under $850 so I could have some money for a decent scope. The main rifle that I have been looking at is a Savage 10fcp. It is the .308 savage rifle with a HS Precision stock (either that or a McMillan - can't remember). The guy who reccomended the rifle told me he could get within 1.5" for a group at 300 yards. Just not too sure I believe that.

Thanks for any help.

 

[MTMilitiaman]

On that kind of budget, for your needs, the Savage has a reputation that is hard to beat.

I would also check out the Rem M700VS.

 

[amprecon]

It appears the 7mm-08 is a very adequate round and that .308 doesn't seem to be much of a step up, unlike stepping up to a .300win mag/ultra mag or .338win mag/ultra mag, at least according to this chart: http://www.chuckhawks.com/rifle_ballistics_table.htm

 

[woof]

I agree that .308 doesn't give you much over the 7mm but it "is" available in a lot of rifles that the 7mm-08 isn't. Czech out the cz at czusa.com

 

[aka108]

Check out the Howa 1500. Same as a Weathery Vanguard.

 

[MOHunter]

+1 on the Weatherby Vanguard.
Very solid rifle, plus Weatherby guarentees accuracy right out of the box, good price too.

 

[Big45]

M14.

 

[jimmyraythomason]

The Savage, Howa 1500, Weatherby Vanguard(basically the same gun),or Remington 700. You can't go wrong with any one of these rifles. Stevens makes the 200 at the low end and Kimber 84 at the higher end. Handle several at your friendly dealer and picks yer pisson.

 

[Regolith]

Since you've already got a 7mm-08...if you're going to do a .308, you might as well go semi-auto instead of bolt. FAL, AR-10, M1A are all good options.

Honestly, 7mm-08 isn't that much less powerful than a .308. Difference would probably be negligible, at least for the standard 150 grain bullet weights. You can get heavier bullets for the .308, but that's about it.

If you're doing it JUST for the heavier bullets, I recommend going for the .30-06. .308 tops out at around 200 grains, IIRC, before the bullet gets too big to fit in the case neck. .30-06 goes to 220.