What is it about the .308 that makes it the best cartridge for any type of competition shooting?

[500Stroker]

We all know that it is, so no need to get into that part. But what specifically is it about the .308 that makes it so awesome? Is it magic? Because when I shoot my .308, it feels like magic.

Dude, what planet are you from?

 

[CVH]

The .308 is a compromise. Given proper incubation time, it would have finished growing it would've become a 7.5x55 Swiss, truly the greatest cartridge ever devised. Alas, not everyone can operate a bolt of that length, I digress...

 

[dcali]

The .308 is a compromise. Given proper incubation time, it would have finished growing it would've become a 7.5x55 Swiss, truly the greatest cartridge ever devised. Alas, not everyone can operate a bolt of that length, I digress...

I don't know what sort of blasphemy this is, but I do not like it one bit.

 

[spclark]

I shoot 55gr bullets in service rifle for a full year. When I went back to the heavy stuff...

At 600 yards?

And they LET you come back when you said you promised to shoot heavies?

 

[!Peter!]

Dude, what planet are you from?

Planet Palma I would guess!

 

[LarryDScott]

For the ones who are still in love w/the 308, would one of
you mind stepping up and buy my barreled action, thats
in tha classifieds. LDS

 

[Drop Port]

What group size can I expect from a Savage 10 (308) 1:12 twist bull barrel

If it's been test fired I would guarantee it will shoot one hole one shot groups.

 

[people]

At 600 yards?

And they LET you come back when you said you promised to shoot heavies?

That was not the case at all. I shot those hand loaded pulled down m-193 bullets all year. Some how these bullets in my rifle shot very well. Much better than any other FMJBT bullet did or ever has since. It was the perfect storm. I shot the 88rd XC every week using those bullets and the monthly matches where it was the 88rd and a 3x22 matches at 600 on sunday. The last shoot of that year I did go back to the 69gr SMK for 200 and 300yd and 80gr SMK for 600yds. It took a few rounds to learn not to crank on the windage as much.

During all this shooting I never NEVER came in last. Always close but never last. Taking into account everyone else had what would be considered a match rifle with match ammo states something. Back then my AR was a Model1 sales A2 kit with a free float tube and a better trigger. No pinned sights or upgraded parts.

If they would have told me not to come back until I would have shot the heaver bullets I would have just never came back. Then they like some here would be wondering "how can we attract new shooters?"

 

[Aero]

No. Having something that shoots great in the wind allows a person to make mistakes in wind calls. It is more fun when starting out to keep them into a smaller area of the black.

If you really want to get good with wind you must shoot in it and if possible shoot something that will make you really work for poor scores due to wind deflection. I shoot 55gr bullets in service rifle for a full year. When I went back to the heavy stuff it was like cheating.

It's all relative. Try shooting a 45-90 pushing a 540 grain cast bullet with a case full of Black Powder at a staggering 1300 fps (the original Palma rifle!) from the 1000 yard line. Makes the 155's @ 3000 from a 308 seem pretty darn slippery in the wind.

 

[people]

It's all relative. Try shooting a 45-90 pushing a 540 grain cast bullet with a case full of Black Powder at a staggering 1300 fps (the original Palma rifle!) from the 1000 yard line. Makes the 155's @ 3000 from a 308 seem pretty darn slippery in the wind.

This guy gets it. I bet if you shoot 500rds of that stuff then went to a 308 you would be an amazing person shooting in the wind.

 

[spclark]

Try shooting a 45-90 pushing a 540 grain cast bullet with a case full of Black Powder at a staggering 1300 fps (the original Palma rifle!) from the 1000 yard line.

Yes but don’t expect ME to pull & mark your target! Inbound trajectory’s about 60°.

When they used those for Palma the targets - and scoring rings - were square for a good reason.

 

[Midnightmedic]

From the results I have seen so far, a 308 shot off a bipod has posted the top over-all score of the weekend at the Sierra Cup F-class shoot .

 

[ebb]

When answering a question about the 308 at Snipershide many years ago I pointed out some of it's short comings. I was told to find another website.

 

[BoydAllen]

The original question reveals that the person asking it has not kept up with many types of competition shooting. In short, the .308 is not at all the king of the hill in most competition these days, except where an advantage has been built into the rules such as in F tr. A while back, I was having a discussion with a friend about a build that he eventually completed, as a .308. I told him that currently very few competition shooters choose that caliber unless the rules require it. I am talking the current situation here, not history. My first CF rifle was a .308. I am quite familiar with the caliber. When I first read the question, my first thought was that the person asking it must either have his tongue firmly in his cheek, or was a troll looking to stir things up for the fun of it.

 

[spclark]

... the person asking it must either have his tongue firmly in his cheek, or was a troll looking to stir things up for the fun of it.

With Erud it’s a bit of both much of the time. His better half publishes a weekly blog you can find here.

 

[dcali]

From the results I have seen so far, a 308 shot off a bipod has posted the top over-all score of the weekend at the Sierra Cup F-class shoot .

Not that this wasn’t already settled, but how much more proof do we need?

 

[Erud]

From the results I have seen so far, a 308 shot off a bipod has posted the top over-all score of the weekend at the Sierra Cup F-class shoot .

Well yeah, what did you expect?

 

[pirate ammo]

my 308 makes perfect holes in a target or pig,,I'm just not saying where,,

 

[Aero]

Yes but don’t expect ME to pull & mark your target! Inbound trajectory’s about 60°.

When they used those for Palma the targets - and scoring rings - were square for a good reason.

Hate to hijack or derail this thread, but I just gotta call BS on this. I've heard this myth many times and it generally gets perpetuated by guys that have never shot the guns or pulled targets for them. Now I'm not exactly a great math guy, but because of the layout of our local 1000 yard range and knowing where the impacts are for the BP 45's as well as 308's and the guns that shoot a bit flatter, I thought it would be fairly easy to figure out the impact angle at the target.

Made the little drawing below. The numbers aren't exact and the drawing is not to scale, but because this range is my second home, it's pretty damn close and playing with the dimensions doesn't change the angle much. So, I come up with a 5-6* angle when bullet meets target, but like I said, I are not too good at math. I texted this to a friend, an engineer type and he said it seemed right and said to cross check based on maximum bullet height vs. line of sight and about where it occurs and use that ratio. So, the MRT is something like 50' @ somewhere around 550 yards down range an damn if that don't cyfer out to 5-6*.

Surprised me. I've been playing the Black Powder Target Rifle game for 20 years and I always thought it was 10-12ish degrees and never had a reason to try to figure it out, but I guess half that makes sense since the holes in the target appear nice and round unless the shooter is trying to push too long of a bullet through too slow of a twist. Kinda like modern rifles! That Greenhill guy was really on to something.

About the targets, we still use a square target here in the Wild West The original Creedmoor targets that I'm familiar with were a 6' x 12' rectangle with a 36" aiming Black, some made of steel, that the "markers" marked with paint brushes on long poles.

Sorry to bore anyone with all this, but I just wanted to try to correct bad info. Then again, maybe my math is as bad as I think it is.

To get back on this threads track, I love the 308, have 4 of them right now including a very accurate Palma rifle, and like Mr Boyd, it was my first centerfire rifle as well, bought to shoot HP Silhouette with a bunch of Cheeseheads at Columbus and Lodi

 

[Quickoz]

I've had a few 6x47L, 2x 7mm08AI (which I love) and several 308s. One thing I've found is the 308 just works. Period. Feed it good bullets, powder and she just works. Sure it aint the best but when you look at the scores top F/TR guys are shooting compared to FO. Do you really think its that bad. Especially with the bullets that are available now. Yeah shes got more recoil then a 6.5mm but its reliable and its accurate. 308 Win just works.