This post is a little more off-the-cuff than my usual, but it’s something that’s been weighing on my mind lately. Producing the new podcast is quite the learning experience. I don’t say that just about the technical audio stuff, either, but the wisdom of the folks I’m talking to. To date, I’ve talked to four very experienced shooters across the tactical and competition realms. I’ve asked all of them about the caliber wars, and where things like .224 Valkyrie or 6.5 Creedmoor fit in. Though I keep waiting for the answer to change, it doesn’t: shoot the .308.
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To be honest, I have to constantly remind myself to follow my own advice. Like you, I’m perpetually tempted by shiny objects and gadgetry. I daydream about building up the ultimate rifle for this or that. I obsess over things like caliber, optic design, suppressors, and other gadgetry.
I convince myself I won’t be competitive in local PRS matches unless I rebarrel my bolt gun to 6.5 Creedmoor. Of course, the fact that I’m not actually yet competing in local PRS matches is beside the point. I just know that I need that new caliber.
I do that despite knowing better.
This post is a defense of the classic .308 cartridge. I’m writing it just as much to remind myself that I need to get out there and shoot the gun before investing in new toys.
A Case for the .308
Look, I’m not going go at this from the angle of the .308’s performance in hunting or defense. I’m reasonably sure those things are practically uncontested these days. Instead, I want to get into why the .308 is perfect for your precision marksmanship journey.
This argument comes down to two main factors:
- Lifetime Costs
- Learning Potential
Lifetime Costs of the .308
Russ Miller, a triple distinguished competition shooter and sniper instructor, told me the best wind formula he’s come across in decades of shooting.
Wind = Range Time + Ammunition + Repetitions
Learn to trust the calculator between your ears.
Let’s start with the number one truth that every expert I’ve interviewed repeats: there’s no substitute for practice.
Yes, you can buy wind meters like Kestrels and other gadgets. But at the end of the day, those are point solutions that only tell you the story of what’s happening at your shooting position. But what about the rest of your shot? Can you look out over a 600-yard span and read what the wind is doing?
Can you translate that into what your bullet will do?
If you’re like me, then probably not. And the only way you get there is by shooting the gun.
So let’s talk dollars.
A single box of good quality .308 or 7.62×51 ammunition like Federal Gold Medal Match (FGMM) costs you between $25 and $30. If you wanted to up to 6.5 Creedmoor, expect to spend a few more bucks per box of ammo.
Now, the difference of $5 per box of ammo might not seem like much. But how much ammunition do you have to shoot to “get good?”
If we follow Malcom Gladwell’s position that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to become a master of something, what does that translate to? Let’s say you did some really focused practice between dry fire and live fire and shoot 2 boxes per hour.
5,000 boxes of .308 match ammo works out to $125,000.
For 6.5 Creedmoor? That’s $150,000.
“Holy Smokes!” you say, so did I when I ran those numbers. But that’s not the whole truth, right?
Bringing back some realism
Sure, those numbers are dramatic. The reality is that we aren’t running out to buy 5,000 boxes of top quality match ammo to practice with. We can spend a lot less than that to get in quality repetitions.
What I’m illustrating is that the per-round cost of .308 is cheaper than other cartridges, and those costs add up over time.
But again, that’s not the whole story. What about barrel life?
If you look at Precision Rifle Blog’s series on what the pros use, then you’ll notice a trend towards 6mm and 6.5mm cartridges. The 6mm Dasher and 6mm Creedmoor take the top spots, with the 6.5 Creedmoor further down the list along with 6.5×47 Lapua.
Well, here’s the next consideration: barrels wear out, especially with these fancy calibers.
Top match shooters wear out their 6mm/6.5mm barrels between 1500 and 2000 rounds.
The “average guy” shooting may replace a 6.5 Creedmoor barrel around 2500 rounds.
The 308, though? That’s usually good to 5000 and beyond.
In other words, not only is the 308 saving you money per shot with practice time, it also saves you money in maintenance costs of your rifle.
All of that brings me back to the second point
Learning Potential with the 308
The .308 cartridge provides you a lot more opportunities to learn and grow as a shooter.
The cost of practice itself aside, which is cheaper with .308, let’s talk wind. Yes, a nifty cartridge like the 6.5 bucks the wind really nicely and make shots easier. But you know what’s even better than that? Learning to read the wind in the first place.
Take two shooters. One shoots a .30 call all the time and has really learned to deal with the wind. The other started their journey by splurging the cash and starting with a fancy caliber starting with a 6.
Now swap rifles. Who is more likely to have developed the required skills?
Of course I’m exaggerating again. The truth is that the difference between these two rifles isn’t that much.
So aside from just getting out and practicing, where else can you learn with the .308?
Well, are you interested in reloading?
The .308 has been around for so long that the number of reloading recipes and available bullets for it are staggering. Not to mention the much lower price of quality .308 brass, which also offers you yet more savings for your practice time.
The Bottom Line
So here’s the bottom line: The trusty .308 will literally do everything you need in a precision rifle cartridge so long as you do your part.
You know, I always found that “as long as you do your part” phrase to be annoying when I see it in message boards. And there I go using it myself.
Meh.
So what reason is there left to rebarrel that practically-new 308 sitting in the safe? What’s that, you want to be competitive at PRS matches you say?
This is why we have divisions
If you aren’t familiar, nearly every shooting competition style has divisions. These divisions help divide shooters into groups so that they compete with similarly-equipped folks.
If you want to get into PRS, as I do sometime soon, allow me to introduce you to the PRS Tactical Division.
Bolt Gun - Tactical Division
Tactical Division rifles are restricted to .308 Winchester and 5.56 NATO/.223 Remington calibers only.
5.56 NATO/.223 Remington has a bullet weight cap of 77 grains and muzzle velocity cannot exceed 3,000 fps (+/- 30 fps for environmental factors and equipment discrepancies).
7.62 NATO/.308 Winchester has a bullet weight cap of 178 grains and muzzle velocity cannot exceed 2,800 fps (+/- 28 fps for environmental factors and equipment discrepancies).
No modified wildcat rounds such as the .223 Ackley Improved are permitted to shoot in the Tactical Division. Anyone discovered violating this rule will receive an automatic Match DQ.
Tactical Division shooters will shoot the exact same COF as Open Division
So, in other words, show up with your .308 and you won’t be “outmatched” by the dudes running the newer fancy calibers. Instead, you’ll be up against folks running the same kind of gear you are, so it’s all about your skill.
Wrapping Up
Back in August 0f 2018, the Practical Sharpshooter wrote up an article detailing how the PRS Tactical Division got him to appreciate the .308 again.
Stories like that help remind me that it’s ok to stick to “basic” gear because it works. As shooters, we’re all far better served by shooting what we’ve got until we’ve mastered those fundamentals. After that, everything else is a technicality.
Am I saying that you should ditch your 6.5mm rifle and replace it with a .308? Of course not. If you’re still in the market for a rifle, that’s up to you. What I am saying is that if you’re like me and have a perfectly good .308 rifle in the safe, but feel like it’s “not up to snuff” compared to what’s hot on the market, then fret not.
It’s a perfectly good rifle that will do everything you need it to do, and do it well.
If you take nothing else away from this article, it’s this: there’s nothing wrong with your “low-speed” rifle as long as it’s reliable and accurate. You don’t need whizbang wunder-bullets and shiny gadgets in order to learn to shoot.
All you need to do is go out and shoot the rifle.
I can’t believe that liking .308 makes me the contrarian. Also, I can’t believe that I’ve actually heard a good case for .308. Good post.
So…liking the “retro” cartridge is hipster now, I guess. We were into it before it was cool, too.
Like I said, this was honestly as much for me as it was for everyone else, lol. I keep wanting to go out and tweak with my bolt gun, to include a new barrel and caliber, for no good reason. Writing it down helps me “commit” I suppose.
You make a really good argument if you substitute 5.56×45 instead of 308 everywhere in the article. The rest of it is not nearly as clear cut if you go and check ammo prices. 308 is cheaper than 6.5 Creedmoor if you are looking for plinking ammo, but if you are buying precision ammo from the factory, 6.5Creedmoor is mostly LESS expensive or similarly priced than 308 for match ammo. I suspect that Hornady supporting their Creedmoor rounds pushes everyone else’s price down as well. You do end up burning barrels faster with 6.5 than you do with 308, but if the ammo is cheaper, the cost of replacing barrels more or less makes it equal based on looking at Prime website (ammo is about $800 less, which is roughly what a new match barrel will cost you). With Hornady ammo, the difference is a little bigger. With Federal, the ammo cost is similar, so 308 will be cheaper in the long run. All that having been said, if you are looking to save some money, 223/5.56 is where it is at. You get good barrel life, minimal recoil and major ammo savings. If you already have a 308 rifle, I agree that until the barrel is burned out there is not good reason to switch to one of the Creedmoor rounds. However, once it is time to replace the barrel, it is worth considering. Now, as far as 5.56 goes, over a course of 5000 rounds, you probably save… Read more »
All valid points, and ultimately why the .223 has supplanted the .30 cal in most marksmanship matches. For practicing marksmanship fundamentals, the 5.56 is hard to beat (save for maybe even doing down to .22)
Knowing that I wanted to take a precision rifle course to “round things out” and “stay balanced” on skills, whatever that means, I asked one of the instructors what caliber he’d recommend. “.308, with out a doubt.” Well why is that? The above article is why. In Missouri, it’ll do everything you’d ever want. More importantly, there’s more ballistic knowledge about the round than virtually any other. It’ll make you learn wind and distance estimation. It still does the job admirably. The kick is acceptable to all but the frail. It’s affordable. It’s not a barrel burner. You can pick up everything you need at any Wal-Mart in the nation. I did pick one up too. A Savage Model 10, 20″ tapered, fluted, threaded bull barrel. Regrettably, it has the new magazine and not the old AI mags. Even has a nice tactical bolt. $1400 for the rifle, base, rings, scope, 200 rounds of ammo, bipod, reloading dies and suppressor adapter. By the way, shooting it suppressed reduces the recoil a solid 20-25%. I shot my first clover leaf group at 100 yards with it, maybe a .5″ group, I didn’t measure and it doesn’t really matter but I was proud. I took my father with me to the range and let him shoot it, first unsuppressed and then with the can on. “Wow”. “Yeah, makes a difference”. Then we shot a hanging golf ball in the wind at a 100. Mom tells me he’s still talking about it almost… Read more »
I’m jonesing for a 30 cal suppressor so bad right now, with an eye on the Dead Air Sandman-S. But alas I’m concerned about getting the paperwork started now and then having the law flip on me while I wait for it.
I would not be concerned about silencers being illegal in the least. For the first time ever, theres been a little bit of a stink about it but they’ve been petitioned to be taken off the class III NFA item list and treated as firearms for several years now. They’re just not deadly, and it’s nothing but fear mongering that got them put on the list anyway. I think 3 crimes have been committed with a suppressor. Illegally made/assembled cans are a different story, but that’s anyone with a soda jug, muffler, or common oil filters…
I’m not a suppressor fetish kind of guy. I bought a Rebel Silencers SOS Hunter and have shot 1200 rounds of .22, about 250 rounds of .308 and 1000 rounds of .223 through mine. Just had a little hiccup last week and sent it in for some love, we’ll see how they take care of me. Total cost: $250 for can, $200 for stamp = $450. One of the funnest, best firearms investments made. For real. If you require battle proof cans, maybe not the company I’d go with. But if you want lightweight, modular in length and weight, and affordable, they’re hard to beat. If you’re going with a dedicated can for a particular weapon, not sure how to proceed…I specifically bought mine and have it for 5 different firearms.
6.5 CM would make you, and most, a better shooter faster primarily due to both ballistics and less punishing recoil. Recoil is particularly important if not shooting an AR/variant or other style of gun with recoil/operating system or muzzle brake that absorbs most of the felt recoil. If you have less money than time, then yeah, maybe .308 W makes sense. And I still think it’s makes sense for a battle rifle due in no small part to barrel life (although I think 7.62×39 can do everything .308 W does more efficiently and effectively w/in 250 yards), but for precision, there’s simply zero argument for .308 W over 6.5 CM. 6.5 CM is roughly equivalent to .243 W, which means it’s more than adequate for all lower 48 game except for moose and grizzlies. And I’d further suggest that the argument for .308 W or 6.5 CM is equivalent to .22lr over .223 R — it’s a bit of an exaggerated analogy but nevertheless a fair one. Bullet drift and drop are exaggerated. Environmental factors have a greater effect. You have to have more skill to make equivalent hits, etc. So .308 is good for learning, but for repeatable precision/true marksmanship, 6.5 CM makes it MUCH easier to achieve that level of proficiency. And if you reload, it’s also a more efficient/less wasteful cartridge. Importantly, “the .308 is cheaper” really only applies meaningfully if shooting Russian bi-metal or old surplus, not if shooting equivalent precision loadings… Your $5 difference doesn’t… Read more »
Fair points. I’ts not that I think it’s a mistake to have a 6.5 CM or another longer-range cartridge. It really does make sense if that’s what you want to do. But I’ve got a few caveats to that for new shooters. You mention that the 6.5 has a much better supersonic range than 308, which is absolutely true, but most new shooters will never get the chance to shoot to those distances. I think there’s a lot of “pressure” in the shooting world to buy the latest and greatest even though the desired use case isn’t really there. If a new shooter’s range doesn’t go past 300 yards, as an example, then the ballistic differences aren’t a factor (recoil, sure…there’s an argument there).
Anyway, my underlying point is that there’s nothing wrong with keeping that 308 you bought a few years ago and shooting the hell out of it before you decide to step up to a 6.5 CM or something else. Doing it “just because” isn’t all that productive in the long run.
Being more overbore, .308 should give longer barrel life than 6.5 CM. The issue w/ .308 for precision is that cheap ammo and precision ammo are two separate classes and shoot quite differently. Additionally, components-wise and also reflected in price before the ammo situation went nuts, is that it’s cheaper to load or reload 6.5 CM due to less raw components. 6.5 CM brass is generally more expensive than .308 but that diminishes pretty quickly if you reload.
My take on 6.5 CM is ultimately the mastery of one gun philosophy. Getting someone super-proficient on one gun and one optic is a heck of lot less time consuming than trying to master several different calibers and setups. The 6.5 CM is a gun precision folks can grow into, while .308 is a gun folks grow out of — and due to felt recoil 6.5 CM is a superior starter gun as well…
*I like .308 in a battle rifle, or even a modern bolt action brush (in place of a .30-30) gun like the shorter Mossberg Patriots.
But for precision, a grown man who already knows how to shoot is probably best serve with .270 Win in the lower 48 north of the Mason-Dixon line and 6.5 CM south of it. In AK, .300 win mag is probably more what’s needed — in part due to less velocity from most powders at lower temperatures, but also due to size of game and distances.
For starter shooters — 6.5 CM is a cartridge that starter shooters that would previously bang on a .243 Win can instead stay with, perhaps forever.
And to be clear, I’m not advocating for hunting at 1000+ yards (precision at distance is personal skills, really no different than golf), and developing those distance marksmanship skills around one rifle and caliber saves substantial time and money, while also increasing proficiency.
Basically, if you aren’t being challenged, then you aren’t growing. 6.5 CM allows for continued challenge through the full reasonable envelope of individual-portable small arms.
YMMV.
Great article!
One of my prime reasons for picking the .308 is that it is a military/police caliber and no matter what, ammunition will always be available. This to me is more important than going after one of these whizz-bang calibers like the 6.5 Creedmore etc.
The .308 has been my go-to round since the 1970s when I lived in South Africa. I started with a WW2 vintage K98 Mauser that had been re-barreled to 7.62×51 Parker Hale and sold to Israel in 1948. This rifle was extensively modified/updated by me and was my primary hunting rifle. The accuracy of this rifle was superb and .308 was more than adequate for the antelope we were hunting.
My other hunting rifles in South Africa were the Weatherby .300 magnum and a 375 H&H magnum both of which kicked the hell out of my 5’8 155lbs frame so they spent a lot of time in the safe and were ultimately sold off.
Currently live in Pennsylvania and shooting a Bergara B14 HMR and a Ruger SFAR in .308, the IWI Zion AR15, and the Ruger American in .223, and as happy as a clam still shooting military/police calibers.