by Jorlcrin » 23 Dec 2023, 7:38 am
I first bought a .308 Win about 11 years ago; a Rem 700 VSF with 26" Fluted Barrel, and a 1:12" twist.
I had a couple of 30-30's before that, but this was my first .308Win rifle.
And the 700 has been a cracker of a rifle; I lucked out to get a Rem 700 built on a good day, with no QC problems, and it shoots really well.
I had a few mates who were doing a lot of distance shooting (F-Class??) at that time, and most of them started out on .308.
Initially, I followed the mantra of projectiles around the 150/165gn range for Australian game.
No doubt; the 150 pills (I was mostly reloading Nosler BT pills) were devastatingly effective, and I even nailed a few animals out around the 400 metres mark, with the holes appearing pretty much exactly where I expected, and the target animals going boonty-up within a few steps.
A neighbour mate borrowed this rifle one Sunday, and nailed the last 9 feral scrub bulls on their property; all head-shots from around 120-150 metres distant, from a helicopter.
[This was after over 12 months of trapping, mustering and tranquilizing the last of these rather bitey cattle that were living in a big swamp.]
But I found that 95% of my shooting, the 150gn pills were overkill.
[Mostly shooting the odd pig, a handfull of wild dogs, a few dozen feral cats, and culling roos on a permit].
Around that time, the factory Federal 130gn(Speer HP) factory loads were popular, and I bought a couple of 500-round boxes through Cleaver, which were incredibly good value-for-money(~$1.17/Round).
I heard critical feedback about the brass only lasting a few reloads, but I re-sized a lot of it to 7mm-08, and still got around 5 reloads per case, which I was pretty happy with.
Unprimed 7-08 brass was about 40% dearer than .308 brass at the time, so these rounds ended up being great value for money for me.
Advice from my distance-shooting mates, was they had observed the .308 Factory 130gn HP pills were very accurate out past the 300-metre target, but starting to get a bit squirrelly by 400m.
Similar results from the 135gn crinkly HP pills that Sierra came out with a couple of years later, though my impression is the Sierras are a little 'harder' than the Speer HP's.
Around the same time I started reloading larger batches of .308 brass, I moved to the Hornady SST range of pills.
Cheaper than the Nosler equivalents, and I found them to be slightly harder-hitting for my type of shooting.
I load all 3 projectiles to depart around the 3050fps mark, which seems to give consistent, repeatable ballistics, out to around 400 metres.
I bought a Ruger Precision Rifle in .308(20" 1:10" Tw) in 2017, and found that it also shot the lighter .308 pills really well.
Around the time of the RPR purchase, I started re-examining what my shooting needs were, and the fact is, I rarely engage anything beyond the 350 metres mark, and it would be highly unusual to be shooting anything larger than around 80kgs(Boar Pig).
So, for me, the fact that my lighter projectiles mightnt be as accurate/consistent at say 500m, is somewhat irrelevant, as I wouldnt bother shooting at that distance.
Nowadays, about 90% of the .308 ammo I load up, I use either 125gn SST's(Horn #3019), 130gn Speer HP's(Sp #2005), or the 135gn Sierra HP's (Si #2124).
I keep a hundred 150gn SST's loaded in the ammo fridge, as well as 50 of the Barnes T-TSX 165gn (BullPhukker Specials), in case we have need for heavier kills than normal.
But the majority of my reloads are the 125gn SST pills, and they work really well.
I have never found the .308Win to be underwhelming, and if I have spent the time to make good/consistent reloads, the down-range ballistics are extremely predictable.
Good enough to be able to say that IF I chose to shoot a target at 400+ metres, then success/failure will be all down to me, rather than either the rifle, calibre, or the ammo.
I also have no doubt that I could easily load up some ammo for the .308 that would be good enough for target work out to around 500 metres, but I'd be moving to a heavier (and higher BC) pill.
Beyond 500 metres, I wouldnt bother, but thats a reflection of my mediocre shooting skills, and not what I've seen the .308 is capable of.
Yes; I'd like a 6.5 rifle in the safe, but not because I think it's a replacement for my .308 rifles.
I'm considering getting rid of my 7mm-08(Long story), and if my Krico .243 craps itself, then these would possibly both be reasons to consider maybe a 6.5 Creedmoor.
If the 7mm-08 and the .243 were out of the picture, then the 6.5 Creed would nicely fill in the gap between my .223 and my .308.
This is what the last 11 years has taught me.