All things .308 Win

[walkingduckwaterfowl]

This 16" factory barrel and this ammo get along fine but not great. Groups meet my standard (always under 1.5" for 10 shot strings) but I haven't had any fall under 1.2" yet as they frequently do with my 6.5 gamer gun or .223.

-J

Do you happen to recall what velocity you were getting?

 

[brolo]

Dad recently gave me his pre-64 M70 featherweight 308, took it out to the range today.

165gr factory nosler accubond and 168gr sierra TMK handloads both shot 4-5” groups

155gr sierra TMK handload powder ladder shot nicely, everything inside the orange dot, no pressure signs up through book max

Real question now is what to do with it, keep it in the safe or put it to work. Practicing/hunting with a suppressor is so much more enjoyable, but I dont know if i want to cut and thread the barrel

 

[North of 60]

Dad recently gave me his pre-64 M70 featherweight 308, took it out to the range today.

165gr factory nosler accubond and 168gr sierra TMK handloads both shot 4-5” groups

155gr sierra TMK handload powder ladder shot nicely, everything inside the orange dot, no pressure signs up through book max

Real question now is what to do with it, keep it in the safe or put it to work. Practicing/hunting with a suppressor is so much more enjoyable, but I dont know if i want to cut and thread the barrel

I was in a similar situation and happily got mine cut/threaded...the benefits of shooting suppressed far outweigh keeping an old rifle original unless it was a very rare and monetarily valuable rifle.

 

[Formidilosus]

Dad recently gave me his pre-64 M70 featherweight 308, took it out to the range today.

165gr factory nosler accubond and 168gr sierra TMK handloads both shot 4-5” groups

155gr sierra TMK handload powder ladder shot nicely, everything inside the orange dot, no pressure signs up through book max

Real question now is what to do with it, keep it in the safe or put it to work. Practicing/hunting with a suppressor is so much more enjoyable, but I dont know if i want to cut and thread the barrel

Absolutely thread the barrel and hunt with it! That is a great rifle, from your dad- a good gunsmith (Mike at Alpine Rifles is one) can set back the rear sight and thread the muzzle easy. Could do a thread protector that matches the barrel as well.

 

[Steve300xcw]

Dad recently gave me his pre-64 M70 featherweight 308, took it out to the range today.


Real question now is what to do with it, keep it in the safe or put it to work. Practicing/hunting with a suppressor is so much more enjoyable, but I dont know if i want to cut and thread the barrel

I'd use the thing as it is. Not everything needs suppressor's, turrets etc etc. Thats a classic rifle and was good enough for the old man. Leave er be

 

[BrowningGuy88]

I'd use the thing as it is. Not everything needs suppressor's, turrets etc etc. Thats a classic rifle and was good enough for the old man. Leave er be

Agreed


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Steve O]

I'd use the thing as it is. Not everything needs suppressor's, turrets etc etc. Thats a classic rifle and was good enough for the old man. Leave er be

This 100%. That is one of the finest rifles made.

 

[Bluumoon]

Dad recently gave me his pre-64 M70 featherweight 308, took it out to the range today.

165gr factory nosler accubond and 168gr sierra TMK handloads both shot 4-5” groups

155gr sierra TMK handload powder ladder shot nicely, everything inside the orange dot, no pressure signs up through book max

Real question now is what to do with it, keep it in the safe or put it to work. Practicing/hunting with a suppressor is so much more enjoyable, but I dont know if i want to cut and thread the barrel

Did you mark some of the bullet holes? Almost looks like some key holing?

 

[NWBLKTAIL]

Dad recently gave me his pre-64 M70 featherweight 308, took it out to the range today.

165gr factory nosler accubond and 168gr sierra TMK handloads both shot 4-5” groups

155gr sierra TMK handload powder ladder shot nicely, everything inside the orange dot, no pressure signs up through book max

Real question now is what to do with it, keep it in the safe or put it to work. Practicing/hunting with a suppressor is so much more enjoyable, but I dont know if i want to cut and thread the barrel

That thing looks mint, I dont know if I would alter it. I do understand however wanting to make it more appealing to take out.

If you could live with it in its current condition though, I personally would not change a thing.

 

[brolo]

Did you mark some of the bullet holes? Almost looks like some key holing?

Nope, didn’t mark them. Even with the 1:12 twist, I was pretty surprised the 165ish gr bullets shot so poorly. The JBM stability calculator had them both >1.5, and my dad said it shot 180gr match kings really well.

 

[Wolfshead]

Dad recently gave me his pre-64 M70 featherweight 308, took it out to the range today.

165gr factory nosler accubond and 168gr sierra TMK handloads both shot 4-5” groups

155gr sierra TMK handload powder ladder shot nicely, everything inside the orange dot, no pressure signs up through book max

Real question now is what to do with it, keep it in the safe or put it to work. Practicing/hunting with a suppressor is so much more enjoyable, but I dont know if i want to cut and thread the barrel

Please, please, do NOT cut the barrel and suppress this rifle!
I believe that if you do, one day you will be very sorry you did.
Not everything needs to be suppressed.
This is a classic rifle and as time grows by there are less of them.
My Dad is gone now and to have his rifle as he had it is something that is irreplaceable.

 

[bullmtn]

Thread it and suppress, it's a tool that your father gave you, when I gift tools, I hope they use them and get worth from my gift, if suppressing the rifle makes it more useable: do it. I see it as the same as someone giving me a beautiful horse but not wanting me to ride it. BUT maybe don't give it a torture test or drop test.

 

[Colby]

Dad recently gave me his pre-64 M70 featherweight 308, took it out to the range today.

165gr factory nosler accubond and 168gr sierra TMK handloads both shot 4-5” groups

155gr sierra TMK handload powder ladder shot nicely, everything inside the orange dot, no pressure signs up through book max

Real question now is what to do with it, keep it in the safe or put it to work. Practicing/hunting with a suppressor is so much more enjoyable, but I dont know if i want to cut and thread the barrel

Very cool. I recently acquired the same exact rifle.
I’m getting trigger done, bedded and floated, recoil pad and muzzle threaded. Plan to make that my main gun moving forward. Also planning to use 155 tmk as long as I can get them to shoot good enough.
They are super cool.

 

[brolo]

Very cool. I recently acquired the same exact rifle.
I’m getting trigger done, bedded and floated, recoil pad and muzzle threaded. Plan to make that my main gun moving forward. Also planning to use 155 tmk as long as I can get them to shoot good enough.
They are super cool.

Cool deal. My dad bedded and floated the rifle over 20 years ago. I loaded the 155s on once-fired fiocchi brass, federal 210, and 42-44.4gr of 8208, 2.8” COAL…my dad said that rifle shot really well with Winchester 748.

What is your muzzle cut/thread solution gonna look like, especially with the front sight? I talked to my dad about what would make him smile, but haven’t decided what i’m gonna do yet

 

[Hondo64d]

Sierra 30 Cal (.308") 168gr HPBT Tipped MatchKing (TMK) Bullets

Sierra 30 cal 168gr HPBT Tipped MatchKing Bullets (TMK) for loading precision rifle ammunition for 30 caliber (.308") rifles.

ravenrocksprecision.com

Sierra 30 Cal (.308") 175gr HPBT Tipped MatchKing (TMK) Bullets

Sierra 30 cal 175gr HPBT Tipped MatchKing Bullets (TMK) for loading precision rifle ammunition for 30 caliber rifles.

ravenrocksprecision.com

1k box’s that have been split up. Pretty cheap.

Raven Rocks is GTG.

While checking cows this evening, ran across this sow. Shot her quartering away at about 40 yards with a 168gr Tipped SMK from Raven Rocks, launched at 2660fps. The sow only went about 12 ft at the shot. The bullet penetrated through the far shoulder, stopping under the hide. The sow weighed probably 120 pounds, but pigs are more dense than just about any other critter I have shot and routinely stop bullets that other animals will not.

Left is pieces of core, center is jacket, and right is bone fragment.

John

 

[proslogion]

Just got caught up on this thread. Reading through the rest of the forum had me feeling like there was no reason to keep my 308. But this thread convinced me to just enjoy it (and probably get a new stock!)

 

[Ajsomp]

Just got caught up on this thread. Reading through the rest of the forum had me feeling like there was no reason to keep my 308. But this thread convinced me to just enjoy it (and probably get a new stock!)

Definitely keep that 308. When/if you shoot out that barrel then look to make a change. Maybe.

 

[BLJ]

Definitely keep that 308. When/if you shoot out that barrel then look to make a change. Maybe.

Only consider a change after that 308 is completely shot out.

 

[Aussie Dan]

This was my introduction to 308.
First time I'd ever shot a centrefire rifle, had never shot further than 25 yards with a .22/air rifle, i had only just got my gun license (Australia ) the day prior and I showed up to a local range to have a chat with the people there about membership and such.
Turns out they were shooting f-class at 700yds in horrific wind. A random guy asked me if I wanted to have a shot as he had some ammo left over.
Long story short I scored 2 points more than he did, poor guy still hasn't lived that down

I now have a tikka t3x polyfade 308 which I got for a great deal. (I think thats possibly equivalent to 1 of the U.S. roughtech variants) in the safe awaiting a scope, rings and some time to actually shoot it.
Will post groups and harvested animals when i get it put together.
I will be using it as my do all rifle until I get a 223 and 6 creed t3x.

Its fair to say i have drunk AAAAALLLLLLLLL the rokslide koolaid.

 

[Macchina]

I posted this in another thread, but found the results really interesting.
I have always heard the 308 is an efficient cartridge, so I calculated it out compared to the 6 most common 308 based cartridges (and 6.5 Creedmoor and 300 Win Mag for fun). This is how much energy at the muzzle is produced per the grains of a common powder. The more efficient the cartridge, the more energy generated by a grain of powder.

I used VARGET for all 8 cartridges (it's the only powder that has data for all 8)
Max load of VARGET for each cartridge. All data is from Hodgdon's website.
I tried to pick a common medium-heavy weight bullet for each cartridge (300 Win Mag Varget data maxes at 168gr):

• 243: 100gr bullet, 33.7gr Varget, 2838 FPS, 1788 Ft-Lbs: 53.1 Ft-Lbs/Powder Grain
• 260 Remington: 140gr bullet, 36gr Varget, 2578 FPS, 2066 Ft-Lbs: 57.4 Ft-Lbs/Powder Grain
• 7mm-08: 140gr bullet, 42.2gr Varget, 2819 FPS, 2470 Ft-Lbs: 58.5 Ft-Lbs/Powder Grain
• 308: 168gr bullet, 45gr Varget, 2737 FPS, 2794 Ft-Lbs: 62.1 Ft-Lbs/Powder Grain
• 338 Federal: 200gr bullet, 47gr Varget, 2510 FPS, 2798 Ft-Lbs: 59.5 Ft-Lbs/Powder Grain
• 358 Winchester: 220gr bullet, 50gr Varget, 2445 FPS, 2920 Ft-Lbs: 58.4 Ft-Lbs/Powder Grain
• 
  
• 6.5 Creedmoor: 140gr bullet, 35.8gr Varget, 2598 FPS, 2098 Ft-Lbs: 58.6 Ft-Lbs/Powder Grain
• 300 Win Mag: 168gr bullet, 58.2gr Varget, 2964 FPS, 3277 Ft-Lbs: 56.3 Ft-Lbs/Powder Grain

As you can see, 308 generates 17% more energy per powder used than the 243 and 6% more than the 6.5 Creedmoor. The 308 is an incredibly efficient round.

What surprised me was I assumed the data would show increasing efficiency as the bore diameter increased, but it doesn't. I first made this chart stopping at .308 as I forgot about the variants with larger bores. When I added the 338 and 358 cartridges I was shocked to see them less efficient. Efficiency tops out at the 308 then goes back down!