Virginia7

Been using the .308 for years in several different rifles. All very accurate. No problems deer hunting either. One shot, one deer - every time. Never had one run off much after the hit either. Good for elk & moose too if you use the heavier bullets, like 180gr.
Recommend Nosler or Trophy Bonded for use on the larger critters. As for black bear, I'd again go with 180gr., or maybe use the 165gr.. Of course, 150gr deer load will take most black bear cleanly, but I'd just like a little more bullet weight for those larger black
bears.

brush buster

It's a capper gotta kick and flat shootin..

biscuit jake

I went through qutie a bit of trouble today to order a .308... very surprised that noone carries them. My experience with the 308 is mainly military.... I am a USMC & Army veteran since '73; the ballistics are decent, it is not quite as noisy as the great 30'06 and we found it to have incredible accuracy potential. If memory serves me right, our snipers were using a Rem 700 stiff barrel and 3x9 redfields.... 900-1100 meter shots. So many, many good bullets with flight characteristics that allow it to go downrange with a little less powder. I understand why we went to the M16 but I immediately missed the M14. Ah, the M16. Fastest shooting squirrel rifle to ever be issued to a standing army.

merllin

To biscuit jake: Well, it good to hear from someone that has used the M14 in the military. Personally, I like the .308 cartridge design better than the 30-06. I've had several 30-06s and have never really liked the cartridge for some reason that is hard for me to pinpoint. I'm tempted to get either a heavy barrel Remington VLS or perhaps a standard weight 22-inch barrel stainless Ruger M77. I know what you're saying about the M-16 - I have had a chance to use it some and was not impressed at all with it. However, I have a friend who saw combat in Vietnam and he swears by it. From what I've been reading lately the military has gone back to one of its original ideas on rifle cartridges by developing the 6.8mm,(.270 cal.) in a newer form of the M-16. Some people do not know this but the .270 Wincester was originally designed by the military as a follow-on to the 30-06, but it was dropped for some reason and picked up by Winchester for a sporting cartridge. Thank you for your service to your country!

Nomercy

General rule of thumb, buy a .308win. Enough said on that.

Oh, you asked why: It's capable of anything and everything that the .30-06 is, which the .30-06 is truly capable of virtually everything that the .300 mags are capable of, so although no one really ever says it that way, the .308win is just as field capable as any of the .300 mags (which has also been my experience, not just an assumption), BUT, it lacks in one very important aspect to all of these cartridges....

RECOIL, the .308 is a joy to shoot, while putting more than a few rounds out of the "stronger" 30cals can get pretty painful pretty quickly.

Bottom line, the .308 is proven on every north american game species, and in anyone's hands is perfectly capable of taking any of these species except maybe the three great bear species...which are typically reserved for bigger calibers, not just bigger cartridges.