[Fuzzee]

I've never tried to take a bear with it, but I've never had a reason too. I only hunt game for food and down south I've never had a problem with any predators. But what can it take and what can't it if needs be?

I know I may be down south now, but I wasn't planning on staying and have been looking north.

::redsnipe::

 

[wesley762]

a 308 will take anything down in North America, Deer, bear, Moose, Elk. Unless you plan on going to hunt a elephant you should be good.

 

[Fuzzee]

Does elephant fry up well?


:mrgreen:



I've seen it drop really big wild pig like a bad dream, but wonder about a big Grizzly.

 

[BigCheeseStick]

EVER the devil's advocate... Godzilla did attack New York in 2000, and WOULD presented an issue according to Hollywood.

That small problem resolved, a .308, a 12ga for turkey, rabbit, such, and a .22lr, complete a nicely rounded arsenal for all North America IMO. The other stuff like M44's, AK's, SKS's, .44 Magnums, 22-250, are all just gravy.

And CCW is a whole other thread!

 

[Fuzzee]

I'm 12 gauge empty right now. I've never been a flying bird hunter though and that's about all I can see one for that my rifles won't do. I prefer rifles and have seemingly sold every shotgun I've had. It might be nice to have a nice over under. My father had one and sold it when I was young. I would have loved to have had it and I really should cover that base I think. One of these days. If I happen to run into Godzilla, I'm lighting him up. I do like lizard and snake. There tasty and I can't see how Godzilla wouldn't be.

 

[Smitty901]

If you can not kill it with a 308 at a reasonable range .
I am not hunting it. 308 will kill anything this side of the pond.

 

[Gunner's Mate]

a 308 will dispatch any critter on planet earth a PH used to hunt elephant with 7x57 in africa now it may not be ideal or legal to hunt elephant these days with 7mm but there is nothing that will survive a well placed shot from a 308.

 

[HuntingHawk]

Didn't Obummer make it illegal to shoot at Predators or any other drones?

 

[alterego]

I agree with the above post, a 308 will kill any living thing on mother earth.

 

[Chipper]

What will a 308 kill that a 22LR won't?? What will a stick sting and another stick kill that a 22lr won't??

 

[dwight55]

While I generally agree with rickfromillinois, . . . we're talking prepping here, . . . and my .308 will be my hunting rifle for everything sheep size and above.

Prepping involves the probablity of a "eat or starve" scenario, . . . and the "eat" just may have to come from the hunt, . . . where I will not really be thinking much about the animal I am hunting.

I will be thinking about my stomach, . . . hoping it is not growling enough to warn everything away from where I am.

But I also have no qualms about knocking heads with the biggest stinking grizz the planet ever produced. My .308 I will have with me in the field has a 20 round box magazine and will be loaded "for bear" so to speak, . . . and if we come together, . . . I won't really worry about being seriously humane, . . . but rather about being seriously fed.

May God bless,
Dwight

 

[Infidel]

I agree the .308 is fully capable of taking any critter in the lower 48, however if I were in grizzly country I'd want something in the realm of .444 Marlin, .45-70 Govt., or .450 Marlin. My reasoning is I'd want something that I could be fairly well assured that if I was charged would penetrate the skull of a grizzly. Would the .308 do that? Probably but I'm sure any of the aforementioned cartridges would with a big heavy bullet. All that said, I think the .308 is a great choice for an all around rifle for the lower 48.

-Infidel

 

[Gunner's Mate]

The 357 Mag at the muzzle shooting a 180 gr projectile produces 580 ft lbs of energy
The 308 at 1000 yards shooting a 175 gr projectile produces 547 ft lbs of energy
so to put this into perspective I dont reckon there is anything that can survive a well placed point blank shot from a 357 Mag or a well placed shot from a 308 at distance. Kinetik Energy = 0.5 * bullet weight / 7000 / 32.2 * velocity ^ 2

 

[LunaticFringeInc]

There aint nothing a 308 and a good appropriate load wont take in North America. Now that being said, were I facing a charging Grizzly Bear I would prefer something with a little more bullet frontal area and weight...ie a 416 Weatherby or bigger! That's not to say a 308 with a 180 gr Nosler Partition over a max charge of powder couldn't pick up the check. But I doubt you will be facing such a adversary on a regular basis unless you live in Alaska.

The 308 with bullets 180 gr and under gives up very little to the 30-06 and few will argue with merit that the 30-06 is inadequate. Its my main hunting rifle at the moment and Im down south too and have made several excursions north with it and its never left me wanting. With 150-165 gr bullets its a excellent flat shooting plains rifle. With 168-175gr match bullets, its very accurate at long ranges. With a 180 Gr Barnes X or Partition its capable of smashing big heavy bone and deep penetration on Elk, Moose and Bear. Yeah I have a 7mm Rem Mag that shoots flatter and faster, yeah I have a 300 Win Mag and a 338 Win Mag that throws heavier and in some cases bigger bullets but they are much more expensive to shoot and the recoil considerably more and wont kill anything more dead than my 308 will.

As for the 12 guage...load it with a good slug load and its a brutal stopper on anything under 600 lbs on the hoof at reasonable ranges!!! Beyond that the soft lead slugs don't penetrate deep enough on a consistent basis to give me a warm fuzzy from what I have seen.

 

[pharmer14]

There aint nothing a 308 and a good appropriate load wont take in North America. Now that being said, were I facing a charging Grizzly Bear I would prefer something with a little more bullet frontal area and weight...ie a 416 Weatherby or bigger! That's not to say a 308 with a 180 gr Nosler Partition over a max charge of powder couldn't pick up the check. But I doubt you will be facing such a adversary on a regular basis unless you live in Alaska.

The 308 with bullets 180 gr and under gives up very little to the 30-06 and few will argue with merit that the 30-06 is inadequate. Its my main hunting rifle at the moment and Im down south too and have made several excursions north with it and its never left me wanting. With 150-165 gr bullets its a excellent flat shooting plains rifle. With 168-175gr match bullets, its very accurate at long ranges. With a 180 Gr Barnes X or Partition its capable of smashing big heavy bone and deep penetration on Elk, Moose and Bear. Yeah I have a 7mm Rem Mag that shoots flatter and faster, yeah I have a 300 Win Mag and a 338 Win Mag that throws heavier and in some cases bigger bullets but they are much more expensive to shoot and the recoil considerably more and wont kill anything more dead than my 308 will.

As for the 12 guage...load it with a good slug load and its a brutal stopper on anything under 600 lbs on the hoof at reasonable ranges!!! Beyond that the soft lead slugs don't penetrate deep enough on a consistent basis to give me a warm fuzzy from what I have seen.

If I were facing a charging grizzly, I would probably be hoping I was carrying a gun without a scope on it... which narrows it down to 12 gauge or .45 out of my current arsenal.

 

[pharmer14]

I don't believe that the original question mentioned anything about prepping, it asked about hunting. Is the .308 a good round for prepping? Yes. Is it a good round for HUNTING anything in the United States? I don't think so. As I mentioned earlier, I doubt that any professional outfitter would recommend using a .308 round to hunt grizzly bears.

Yeah a 308 will kill a rabbit or squirrel, but there probably won't be much left to eat!

The 308 is a great gun. I have one and love it. But I wouldn't be using it for small game. Pick up a good 22 and a shotgun too.

And that's really the challenge of a gun for prepping.... Finding a gun that works for the little stuff as good as it does the big.

 

[Montana Rancher]

.308 isn't a bad gun and under ideal conditions you can kill anything with it, I don't own one as there are a lot of better caliber so ut there that allow you to shoot even if the shot is not ideal.

I hunt mostly elk and can count the years I haven't shot one much easier than the years I did.

My favorite is a 300 Weatherby magnum, I use 150 grain Barnes X hand loads right at 3500 fps. At 500 yards it drops 21 inches at my elevation, sighted in 2" high at 100 yards. A308 is gonna drop about 50 inches with the same bullet making it a much more challenging shot, anything over 500 yards s not doable for most hunters n field conditions.

My favorite non typical story was shooting a 4x5 bull at 300 yards, his vitals were behind a tree at at that range I didn't want to try a head shot so I shot through the 12 inch tree and killed the elk. No way I could do that with a 308.

My point is having more gun than you need will help you harvest more consistently. I don't count deer as they are so easy to get around here it isn't funny, I believe the hunter harvest ratio is around 80%

 

[csi-tech]

I get so sick of people saying if a .505 Gibbs can kill it so can a .22. A .22 LR is utterly useless for anything larger than a damned rabbit. People poach on our property left and right and they use .22 rifles at night so no one will hear them. I have found deer that have run from who knows where aspirating blood and laid up in a thicket all night suffering. Shot placement was never an issue. right through one lung and deep into the next. The .22 just doesn't have the kinetic energy to provide the necessary wound channel and trauma. If you stick a needle through your liver, you will die. But you will suffer for a long time. The .22 LR is a SMALL GAME CARTRIDGE ONLY!!!!!!! If you are using it for home defense or plan on it taking down an elk, you are a sadistic idiot.

 

[BigCheeseStick]

US government would disagree. How many years now have they been equipping troops with .22 caliber? Since about 1968?

It IS an arguable subject to be sure, but my personal feelings are it's all about shot placement. Half the slaughter houses in the world use or have used .22lr to kill cattle at one time or another. Farmers still do it.

How many deer have run miles and miles after being shot with a bow? Yet everybody and their brother thinks its perfectly fine and even brag about it. If your confident in getting a head shot with a .22lr, I'd bet my money on you making a quicker cleaner kill than anybody with a bow.

Are there better choices for deer hunting? GOD YES. Will .22lr do the job in a pinch? YES

 

[BigCheeseStick]

There is a big difference in the ballistics between a 5.56 mm round and a .22 lr.

Yes, when we used to slaughter hogs at home we used a .22 LR round to shoot them in the head, which only knocked them out, then we cut their throats before they regained consciousness. Most slaughter houses do not use a .22 LR to kill animals. They either use a pneumatic bolt or a sledge hammer. It's cheaper and more affective.

IMO, A .22" hole is still a .22" hole no matter how fancy the gun it came out of. The ridiculous theory behind 5.56 / .223 is that "the bullets will tumble and do more damage". NOTE. RIDICULOUS. Yes this phenomena DOES happen, under very specific conditions (specific ammunition, specific barrel threading, specific barrel length, at a specific / narrow range, under specific environmental conditions, at specific depths of penetration, through specific material). Then you throw this wonderful round in a weapon that is a complete mechanical A hole... Boy, who wouldn't want to rely on that to save their lives?!?

Benefits of a .22lr are commonality, price, recoil, compact weapons, low noise level, weapon and ammo variety, it goes on and on.

Benefits of a .223 / 5.56? .............. Shooting ground squirrels at long distances with cheap crap ammo, because 22-250 don't come in trendy black rifles?

To each their own though. I still say taking deer with head shots from .22's is far more humane than any bow. But again, JMO.