- Thread Starter
- #21
I’m
I didn’t just buy a .308 because it was the first gun I’ve got my hands on, there was some thought behind it. Being fairly rural and not handloading, availability was a big thing for me. I also have GOS Tags available for everything from Black bear to muledeer and whitetails and even elk, as well as good draw odds on mountain goats. I’m aware of the 223 hype on rokslide, but I wanted to have one rifle for all the species, and the common consent for that was 6,5cm or up. Finally deciding between the creedmore and the 308 was the factor that I’m in Grizzly country but not able to carry handguns, so the bigger diameter bullet won. I’m pretty set on making that caliber happen for me. Tons of people can do it, so I can tooMaybe sell the .308 to finance something more aligned with your needs and goals?
There are a couple of other cartridges you might consider, between .223 and .243, that would be great on deer (with the right bullet selection) in BC where you are. 6.5 Grendel and 6mm ARC both have less recoil than a .243, and Ruger makes an extremely accurate and very cheap rifle in both of those chamberings.
Another possibility is that you could change the barrel on your Tikka to one using a lower-recoiling cartridge. Here's a thread about it.
There are a bunch of cartridges that have the exact same case head as your .308, which means you don't need to change the bolt face of your rifle, either. Just the barrel. A couple of those are .243, .22 Creedmoor, and 6mm Creedmoor. The process is a little more involved to change the cartridge to one using a different bolt face, but still something you can do yourself, you just need to buy a different bolt and make a couple of modifications.
You can find a lot of options for new barrels for your tikka - there are a lot of used ones for sale on here, for sale often as "take-off barrels". But because Tikka is made with so much precision, you can also buy brand-new "pre-fit" barrels from several suppliers, that do not need a gunsmith to fit them properly.
Everyone's advice above is very good. If you were a friend or family, I'd urge you to find a way to change to a much lower-recoiling cartridge, preferably .223, or 6mm ARC. Even if that ammo is just as expensive for you to buy as .308, it's not as expensive as missing a deer and coming home empty-handed, right?
I wasn’t then, but always wear over ear muffs now, which already helped a lot!It sounds like you weren’t wearing ear protection on that first shot. One shot can do significant damage to your hearing and create flinches. I also see you said you’re in Canada so no suppressor. Too bad everyone can’t be as open minded about suppressors as the British and continental Europeans. But get yourself some good electronic hearing protection with a noise reduction rating of at least 26-28 dB or more. Wear it every time. And like others have said, go get something that kicks less than that 30/06 and shoot it a lot.
Dry fire will not help you get rid of a flinch. Shooting will as long as you reduce the effect of the muzzleblast and recoil. Eventually you’ll be able to shoot that 30/06. But for now put it away and practice with something that won’t hurt you as much.