Is the 308 dead?

[KenLee]

3 of the last 5 rifles I've bought are 308s. Have enough good hunting ammo to last myself and son for life.. I just prefer a 300wsm.

 

[North of 60]

Silly question to me.

The ammo is ubiquitous for factory ammo shooters.

That cartridge is good for most anything within 300 yds for most people with good bullets and further for those that ring steel at 600, 800, etc.

Makes for a very capable AR-10 cartridge. My suppressed 16" SFAR is one of my favorite short hunting range weapons.

 

[Big_wals]

I still have Dad's Win 88 lever 308. I should bust that out, put a decent scope on it and use it next season for a tag. Wonder if someone could rebarrel it so I can suppress it.

I have zero use for a .308, haven’t even shot anything with my 30-06 for six years….. but if I came across a good deal on an 88, I’d have a hard time not buying it. They’re some neat old guns.

 

[Sled]

I have 1 left in the safe for subs and ammo shortages. I don't use it for much though and it's a good backup. I don't think I'd be buying a new one anytime soon though. I really need to pars out the collection and decide what to keep for an investment, sentimental value and actual use.

 

[SDHNTR]

Ridiculous question. It’s alive and well and still a wonderful choice for nearly any and all NA game.

If I could only have one cartridge it would be top of the list.

 

[HuntHarder]

Dead.... Only reason to grab one over the newer cartridges is maybe ammo availability. Ballistically inferior to many newer, better cartridges. Boomers still love em'

 

[wpeach1912]

There’s no reason to buy a new one unless you’re trying to stock up a ton of ball ammo for the end of the world to run out of your gas gun. 6.5 creed replaces its use case. At my LGS last week there were 19 different 6.5 creed loadings and 18 308.

 

[TaperPin]

For 500 yards and under a 308 and 165 gr Partition holds up well enough and is quite usable. For western hunting I think it was popular in the 50s and 60s, and fell out of favor in the 70s and 80s prior to inexpensive range finders, but its trajectory is hardly worth worrying about now. It’s not “modern” enough for those who buy into needing the latest greatest, but it’s not far behind the 30-06 in usefulness. Good, efficient, reliable, simple.

I have a thin pencil barrel that makes it a great mountain gun, or quick handling timber rifle. I also ended up with a nice custom bull barrel that makes a great plinking gun. Brass is cheap/free, you can’t hardly shoot the throat out, and it’s a rock killing and plate swinging mo fo.

 

[RockAndSage]

IIRC, .308 is always in the top 5 - based on both ammo sales, and rifle sales.

As someone else pointed out, it was also the first ammo to come back to store shelves as shortages eased up, and has an incredible variety of loadings. Definitely not dead.

 

[insanelupus]

Not dead at all.

I'm amused at the small caliber, light but fast bullets, and the no exit to put all the energy in the critter fad that is currently occurring. Especially when some consider it a new discovery.

This trend oscillates with the hit 'em with a howitzer trend and goes back many, many decades. Even as a kid, old gun rags at garage sales, decades old then, had articles by Jack O'Connor and Elmer Keith going at it over the same trends.

And I find a while lot of successful but quiet hunters who live in the "keep it in moderation" zone filling tags regularly.

Keep the caliber with reason as well as the bullet and range, use common sense on shot presentations and fill tags.

One additional rule for myself, ensure two holes best I can, in and out, for the best odds of recovery if something has gone wrong or the unexpected happened. Because, eventually it will.

But lots of ways to cleanly kill critters and fill tags. The .308 is simply one of many.

 

[peterk123]

It's the only gun I hunt with. I wanted a classic round about 15 years ago. 308 for the bill.

Great ammo availability. Tons of reloading data. Unlimited powder options. Will kill any North American animal. Effective to distances that I will ever shoot.

I'm not worried about bullet drop since I dial for distance. I'm not worried about wind drift because I am not willing to take a longer shot in windy conditions unless it's blowing in my face. Bad wind, I get closer.

I love the modern cartridges. But there is no real benefit to me changing due to the type of hunting I do. I'm just not interested in long range hunting. It reduces the experience for me. Just a personal choice.

308 is a wonderful accurate round with great bullet and powder options. It just gets the job done.

My only issue with modern rounds is they are so new. Their performance are proven no question. But will they be around in ten years? Some will, some won't. That is the only reason why I hesitate. My favorite, 7MM PRC. Maybe one day I will get one.

 

[Hondo64d]

So with the discovery of the fact that you can pretty much kill anything with a 6mm bullet is there really a place for the 308 anymore? You can get a fair bit more barrel life out of a 308 but even for a longer range target rifle is there much of a reason to go 308 anymore over something like the 6.5 creed?

There are some reasons, for sure. I always say you don’t necessarily need a .308 OVER name your cartridge, but rather in addition to your cartridge of choice.

John

H

Thread 'All things .308 Win'

Jan 14, 2025

I’ve recently been playing with the .308 again. The cartridge has enough great qualities to have its own thread, so post away!

My most recent .308 consist of an Aero Precision Solus action (which I’m really diggin’ so far), 20” Bartlein 3B 1:10 twist, AG Composite Adjustable Hunter, and Triggertech Special. All ‘smithing was done by Jon Beanland, and there is none better.

Here is a picture of my most recent “group.” It is five shots with five different charges of StaBall Match pushing 168gr TMKs. The intent was to find max charge. I never expected it to do this...

• Hondo64d

• 
• 

 

[Steve O]

So with the discovery of the fact that you can pretty much kill anything with a 6mm bullet is there really a place for the 308 anymore? You can get a fair bit more barrel life out of a 308 but even for a longer range target rifle is there much of a reason to go 308 anymore over something like the 6.5 creed?

You are slightly misinformed. There is a 34 page thread here from just this year with hundreds of people praising the 308. Not dead, not going dead.

 

[TaperPin]

A memory popped up (real memory not zerkerburg trash) of a conversation young me overheard at the range with a Wyoming silhouette shooter about why he hunts with the 308. This was back when today’s meemaws were a little younger and had big hair. I can still smell the hair spray.



He liked being able to shoot thousands of rounds a year while getting a handful of years out of the barrel, be competitive in silhouette shooting to 500 meters one weekend, hunt antelope during the week, deer the next weekend and elk the week after that all with the same rifle. Not much has changed, other than meemaw.

 

[HuntHarder]

You are slightly misinformed. There is a 34 page thread here from just this year with hundreds of people praising the 308. Not dead, not going dead.

There's also 3 threads with 22cm, 6mm and .223's that are 139, 159 and 630 pages.... Maybe not officially dead but no reason to buy a .308 with all the other flavors available, other than ammo selection..

 

[Dexter Grayson]

The .308 has been dead to me for years. But I wouldn’t mind having one if the shit ever hit the fan.

 

[Formidilosus]

There's also 3 threads with 22cm, 6mm and .223's that are 139, 159 and 630 pages.... Maybe not officially dead but no reason to buy a .308 with all the other flavors available, other than ammo selection..

That’s not true. There are reasons to use the 308- and those reasons are discussed in the thread referenced.

Almost all the people I know choosing to shoot and use 308’s still, are almost all younger and expend, or have expended massive quantities of 6mm and 6.5mm ammunition. What the 308 does better than any other cartridge on the market is predictability and longevity, with zero fussiness- especially with excellent factory ammunition that never changes, that is available nearly anywhere ammo is sold.

 

[SDHNTR]

Wrong

There's also 3 threads with 22cm, 6mm and .223's that are 139, 159 and 630 pages.... Maybe not officially dead but no reason to buy a .308 with all the other flavors available, other than ammo selection..

Wrong. Despite all that noise, there is zero chance I’m taking a 6mm or less over a .308 if hunting anything bigger than deer.

I couldn’t care less what 630 pages say. I know from my own experience after watching four digits worth of critters hit the dirt. The .308 works, and it works better than any commonly available .22 or 6mm. There I said it.

 

[HuntHarder]

Life support...

 

[Formidilosus]

Wrong

Wrong. Despite all that noise, there is zero chance I’m taking a 6mm or less over a .308 if hunting anything bigger than deer.

I couldn’t care less what 630 pages say. I know from my own experience after watching four digits worth of critters hit the dirt. The .308 works, and it works better than any commonly available .22 or 6mm. There I said it.

For someone that asks for “data” and information so much on other topics, it’s interesting that you “know” so much you couldn’t care less about over 1,000 animals with evidence and results.
But you also say that monos kill just as fast as anything else, yet it takes about 10 animals with each side by side to show anyone paying attention that it isn’t the case.
You take some really odd, illogical positions on some things.