I read an article recently comparing the 308 Win to other cartridges such as the various .300 Mags (.300 WSM. .300 Win Mag, .300 Weatherby Mag etc.) as it holds up as a LONG RANGE hunting rifle for game such as Whitetail deer, Mule deer, Elk, Black bear etc.
Comparisons were out to as long as 800 yards. The article was interesting and informative, however it didn't mean a lot to me personally. My hunting these days is confined to mostly whitetails in the N/E USA and perhaps an occasional black bear hunt over bait.
The .308 is entirely adequate for both species with a variety of bullet weights from 150 grains up to 180 grain loads. The reason is that shots where I hunt are pretty much limited at the outside to 250 yards and 90% of them are under 125 yards.
The article mentioned that the .300 Win Mag as an example, with various loads did considerably better than the .308 Win for reduced wind drift in a (10 MPH crosswind), high retained energy at all distances, and considerably less drop at the 500 yard marker.
I try and remember that the .300 mag does that with added expense for factory ammo, greater recoil, and reduced barrel life. I have NOTHING against the .300 Win mag. If you read my blog you will know that I once upon a time owned a Ruger Mdl 77 Mark II in that caliber and have regretted letting it out of my stall a few times over the years. I did take a moose in New Foundland a few years ago with that rifle and was very happy with the performance. Even that shot was as I remember was shy of 125 yards.
I have never been a fan of real LONG RANGE shots at big game. IF I had grown up in the great state of Texas or even cut my teeth on deer hunting with bean field rifles down south, I would probably feel differently.
I simply do not need a .300 Mag where I hunt. Most black bear hunts over bait are less than 50 yard shots with perhaps a few stands out to maybe 75 yards. Most N/E whitetail hunts in mixed cover farm lands are well under 200 yards. That doesn't mean one cannot set up over a BIG cornfield where the corn has been harvested and sit in a hedge row tree stand and make 500 yard shots........(I am just not looking for that type of hunting).
My Savage Weather Warrior .308 with accu-trigger which wears a Bushnell Elite 3200 3X9X40 scope with Rain guard and Firefly reticle easily handles all my N/E deer hunting chores and shoots exceptionally well with a variety of 150 grain loads.
I do own a very accurate .270 Win that stretches that 250 yard limitation a little, however experience has taught me that I simply don't need an extra 50 to 75 yards 99.9% of the time. I am more concerned over threading the needle so to speak between branches and sapling etc. and the .308 with 150 grain loads will all shoot under an inch out to 150 yards or better.
Have a great day,
Dan
Showing posts with label .308 Winchester. Show all posts
Showing posts with label .308 Winchester. Show all posts
Monday, January 27, 2014
Thursday, October 10, 2013
Deer Season 2013 NYS
As mentioned in a prior post I had quadruple bypass surgery done on July 24th. Because of concerns of stress on a healing sternum, I decided to take the doctor's advice this time and skip bow season in NY this year. We are NOT allowed this year to use crossbows whether handicapped or disabled or not during the regular bow season or I WOULD HAVE participated. I THINK we will have it allowed by this time next hunting season, however it isn't going to help this year.
In any event I went to the gun club today for a final check on the .308 Savage Weather Warrior and after some range time at 75 and 150 yards, I decided to try a new load this year. I have always used the Winchester 150 grain Power Points in years past, however after getting tighter groups at both ranges, I am switching to the Hornady 150 grain SST load. I was able to print groups at both 75 yards (3/4 inch) and 150 yards (1.25 inch). I have (4) boxes of these on hand and only a partial box of the Winchester PP loads, so I am switching.
In taking a look at a Hornady trajectory chart today it shows the following with this load:
100 yards 1.5 inches HIGH
200 yards ZERO
300 yards -6.9 inches LOW
Safe to call this a 300 yard load if needed, however I seriously DOUBT I will be presented with a shot anywhere near that yardage where I hunt. Comforting to know the gun and ammunition is up for it if it presents itself.
Part of the fun for me is experimenting with different loads and I like to mix things up now and then. It is certainly a little harder to do this year with the orchestrated Obama Administration ammo shortage. .308 ammo is in especially short supply since these loads also fit the many AR platforms out there.
As mentioned before, although I can certainly look for and find 200 yard plus shot opportunities, I am very comfortable that 99% of my shots where I hunt are under 150. For most of my life I hunted with a 12 gauge shotgun with Imp Cylinder bbl in the persuasion of an Ithaca Deerslayer. It had a Weaver K2.5 scope with a side mount on board and it was pie plate accurate out to 100 yards with Foster slugs. I took a lot of deer over the years and never felt handicapped with that gun and load.
In any event, I have been walking 3 to sometimes 4 miles every day for the last two months and I am ready physically and mentally for deer season 2013. My rifle and ammo are up to the task and I know my limitations. I have always prided myself on getting my deer out of the woods on my own, however I am going to bend that rule this year also. I am going to gladly accept help in the form of a 4 wheeler and be happy to have it.
Dan
In any event I went to the gun club today for a final check on the .308 Savage Weather Warrior and after some range time at 75 and 150 yards, I decided to try a new load this year. I have always used the Winchester 150 grain Power Points in years past, however after getting tighter groups at both ranges, I am switching to the Hornady 150 grain SST load. I was able to print groups at both 75 yards (3/4 inch) and 150 yards (1.25 inch). I have (4) boxes of these on hand and only a partial box of the Winchester PP loads, so I am switching.
In taking a look at a Hornady trajectory chart today it shows the following with this load:
100 yards 1.5 inches HIGH
200 yards ZERO
300 yards -6.9 inches LOW
Safe to call this a 300 yard load if needed, however I seriously DOUBT I will be presented with a shot anywhere near that yardage where I hunt. Comforting to know the gun and ammunition is up for it if it presents itself.
Part of the fun for me is experimenting with different loads and I like to mix things up now and then. It is certainly a little harder to do this year with the orchestrated Obama Administration ammo shortage. .308 ammo is in especially short supply since these loads also fit the many AR platforms out there.
As mentioned before, although I can certainly look for and find 200 yard plus shot opportunities, I am very comfortable that 99% of my shots where I hunt are under 150. For most of my life I hunted with a 12 gauge shotgun with Imp Cylinder bbl in the persuasion of an Ithaca Deerslayer. It had a Weaver K2.5 scope with a side mount on board and it was pie plate accurate out to 100 yards with Foster slugs. I took a lot of deer over the years and never felt handicapped with that gun and load.
In any event, I have been walking 3 to sometimes 4 miles every day for the last two months and I am ready physically and mentally for deer season 2013. My rifle and ammo are up to the task and I know my limitations. I have always prided myself on getting my deer out of the woods on my own, however I am going to bend that rule this year also. I am going to gladly accept help in the form of a 4 wheeler and be happy to have it.
Dan
Tuesday, June 11, 2013
.308 Winchester, Gotta LOVE It
As the title says, you gotta love the .308 Winchester, especially in the Savage stainless steel, synthetic stocked Weather Warrior persuasion with Accu-Trigger.
I went to the club today with three different factory loads partially to check my deer hunting zero with a previously chosen load and partly to find out if I could use this rifle on a baited black bear hunt out to 75 yards or so without having to change the scope setting. The answer to both questions was POSITIVE.
See the photo of my hastily put together target below. Starting at the left of the target, the first orange sticker was Federal's 150 grain power Shok factory load at 75 yards. The middle target is the load for which the gun has been sighted in for (Winchester's 150 grain Power Point) and the one on the right is Remington's round nose soft point Core Lokt 180 grain load.
The gun is certainly good to go as is out to 200 yards (previously tested last summer with same scope setting) with the Winchester 150 grain Power Points. The surprise came at 75 yards with the 180 grain round nose Core Lokt which would make a DANDY black bear over bait load. Actually most baited bear sites are closer to the tree stand or ground blind than 75 yards. The farthest black bear hunt bait site I have been at was with Carey Outfitters in Maine about 3 years ago and that was exactly 50 yards.
Take a look:
RANGE CONDITIONS 6/11/2013: Raining moderately hard and steady and light gusting winds
FROM left to right, the caliber and bullet weight, velocity, bullet ballistic coefficient, 100 yards, 200 yards and Midrange trajectory (maximum yardage where the point of impact does NOT rise more than or hit lower than 3 inches from line of sight. From the charts, you can see that there isn't a nickel's worth of difference out to 269 yards (which is farther than MOST of us shoot) and has NO bearing at all on a "Baited black bear hunt" which is the topic here.
I have NO particular problem with the 30:06 per se, except ONE. My own personal experience has been that having owned (3) different 30:06 rifles over the years and also (3) different .308 rifles over the years, the .308 Win IN MY OWN PERSONAL EXPERIENCE.......Your's may vary......is more accurate with various bullet weights than the 30:06.
NO black bear that ever lived (IF possible) would send you an email, indicating that they could tell the difference between a well placed bullet with a .308 Win and a 30:06. From 75 yards in, back to your tree stand or ground blind, I would pick the most accurate of either rifle and for my experience it has always been the .308 Win.
In the target below the left side (2) shots at 75 yards of Federal 150 grain Power Shok's went into 1/2 inch center to center. The middle target with the Winchester 150 grain PP went into 1/4 inch center to center and the Remington 180 grain Core Lokt round nose loads (far right target) went into 13/16 center to center.
Having owned (3) previous rifles in BOTH 30:06 and .308, my experience indicates it is RARE to find a rifle that will handle any three different factory loads this well. IF I wanted to switch to the Federal Power Shok load for hunting, a simple 3 clicks right and perhaps 6 clicks down would put me right where I need to be. I have to admit that the accu-trigger set up on the Savage no doubt adds to this rifle's accuracy.
Dan
I went to the club today with three different factory loads partially to check my deer hunting zero with a previously chosen load and partly to find out if I could use this rifle on a baited black bear hunt out to 75 yards or so without having to change the scope setting. The answer to both questions was POSITIVE.
See the photo of my hastily put together target below. Starting at the left of the target, the first orange sticker was Federal's 150 grain power Shok factory load at 75 yards. The middle target is the load for which the gun has been sighted in for (Winchester's 150 grain Power Point) and the one on the right is Remington's round nose soft point Core Lokt 180 grain load.
The gun is certainly good to go as is out to 200 yards (previously tested last summer with same scope setting) with the Winchester 150 grain Power Points. The surprise came at 75 yards with the 180 grain round nose Core Lokt which would make a DANDY black bear over bait load. Actually most baited bear sites are closer to the tree stand or ground blind than 75 yards. The farthest black bear hunt bait site I have been at was with Carey Outfitters in Maine about 3 years ago and that was exactly 50 yards.
Take a look:
RANGE CONDITIONS 6/11/2013: Raining moderately hard and steady and light gusting winds
FROM left to right, the caliber and bullet weight, velocity, bullet ballistic coefficient, 100 yards, 200 yards and Midrange trajectory (maximum yardage where the point of impact does NOT rise more than or hit lower than 3 inches from line of sight. From the charts, you can see that there isn't a nickel's worth of difference out to 269 yards (which is farther than MOST of us shoot) and has NO bearing at all on a "Baited black bear hunt" which is the topic here.
| .308 Win. (180 Sp 2610) | .483 | +2.8" | +1.2" | 3"@125 259 |
| .30-06 (180 Sp at 2700) | .483 | +2.7" | +1.5" | 3"@125 | 269 |
I have NO particular problem with the 30:06 per se, except ONE. My own personal experience has been that having owned (3) different 30:06 rifles over the years and also (3) different .308 rifles over the years, the .308 Win IN MY OWN PERSONAL EXPERIENCE.......Your's may vary......is more accurate with various bullet weights than the 30:06.
NO black bear that ever lived (IF possible) would send you an email, indicating that they could tell the difference between a well placed bullet with a .308 Win and a 30:06. From 75 yards in, back to your tree stand or ground blind, I would pick the most accurate of either rifle and for my experience it has always been the .308 Win.
In the target below the left side (2) shots at 75 yards of Federal 150 grain Power Shok's went into 1/2 inch center to center. The middle target with the Winchester 150 grain PP went into 1/4 inch center to center and the Remington 180 grain Core Lokt round nose loads (far right target) went into 13/16 center to center.
Having owned (3) previous rifles in BOTH 30:06 and .308, my experience indicates it is RARE to find a rifle that will handle any three different factory loads this well. IF I wanted to switch to the Federal Power Shok load for hunting, a simple 3 clicks right and perhaps 6 clicks down would put me right where I need to be. I have to admit that the accu-trigger set up on the Savage no doubt adds to this rifle's accuracy.
Dan
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