18in barrel 308w for hunting?

[Goshawk]

Hi all,
How effective is a 18in barrel 308w for hunting? Will the short barrel reduce velocity to a point of being sub-par for the large deer species in oz? Eg sambar and reds? Looking at using projectiles around 150 to 168 grain mark.
Cheers

[Baldrick314]

At close to medium range (out to 250 metres) shouldn't make enough difference to worry about

[Blu333]

I've taken down sambar with 150grn Rem Core lokt in my 7600P and that has a 16.5" barrel, aimed pulled the trigger it took 3 steps then plop onto the ground. I'm sure there are better barrel lengths out there, but mine was purchased as a pig gun. Shot placement is key

[Aussier]

Perfectly fine.

150gr to 300m or so, drop a Sambar no worries.

CBF from my phone but I'm sure someone will have an energy table they can share to demonstrate it's not much of a loss for hunting.

[squirrelhunter]

Ruger Scout comes in a 16.5"

Used for nothing but hunting

[SendIt]

CBF from my phone but I'm sure someone will have an energy table they can share to demonstrate it's not much of a loss for hunting.

Allow me, Sir.

Goshawk,

150gr .308 load will be about 2,850fps in a 24" barrel (ADI reloading data and tested barrel length)

Energy lets on target you're looking at the following:

24" barrel 2850 fps muzzle velocity.
Dist - Energy ft lbs
100y - 2,306
200y - 1,944
300y - 1,629


In the same cartridge you'd lose roughly 30fps per inch of barrel less so you're looking at about 2670 fps muzzle velocity.

18" barrel 2,670 fps muzzle velocity.
Dist - Energy ft lbs
100y - 2,015
200y - 1,690
300y - 1,408


About 13% less on paper if you worry about such things. More than enough left over to drop some dinner

[sally-bee]

I'm glad some of you guys are good at math because I'm useless trying to work it out for myself

[Goshawk]

I went and had a look-feel of a Ruger scout with a 18 inch barrel and action tikka t3 lite with a 22 inch barrel. The Tikka is so much lighter!
Maybe I should split the difference and get a 20 inch tikka t3 MT (what the he'll does MT mean?). Hopefully the Mt-bikes version doesn't cost too much more.

[Hatter]

MT = muzzle thread model I think.

[RDobber]

I went and had a look-feel of a Ruger scout with a 18 inch barrel and action tikka t3 lite with a 22 inch barrel. The Tikka is so much lighter!
Maybe I should split the difference and get a 20 inch tikka t3 MT (what the he'll does MT mean?). Hopefully the Mt-bikes version doesn't cost too much more.

The Scouts are a heavy one.

MT = muzzle thread version of the rifle, check the specs page on one of the rifles and you can see the options.

http://www.tikka.fi/rifles/tikka-t3/t3- ... ifications

Can't go wrong with a Tikka

[Goshawk]

Soooo, now the main decision is cal... 308 or 270?

[SendIt]

Soooo, now the main decision is cal... 308 or 270?

I'll give you the short version of the whole conversation.

Half the people like .308 half the people like .270
Both are perfectly capable of hunting deer, pigs, goats etc.
.270 burns a little more powder with a little more recoil but shoots a little flatter.
.30 calibre in general is arguable a little more popular so bullets could be a little easier to find stocks of in dry periods if you're reloading.

Flip a coin, whatever side it lands on will do the job

[Gwion]

And then there's the other side of the discussion that throw in the obligatory "go the 7mm instead"!

[SendIt]

Chronos and Lorgar are our resident 7mm cheerleaders.

Talk to them for that