Thread: Interesting view on the 308 v new calibres

Originally Posted by Bagheera

The 308 owes its ongoing popularity to:
Nato standard cartridge
Required in many shooting competition rules
Large existing market, knowledge base, production facilities and economies of scale.

Any cartridge that's even slightly inferior to the 308 (303, 8x57, 30/30) is one a one way trip to history, unless it has some decisive compensating feature (300 AAC, 358 federal, 44 Mag)

Therefore almost every other hunting and target cartridge in common use today is in some way better than the 308. (270, 6.5Cr,300WSM etc etc)

In my opinion, the 308 is a baseline benchmark everyone feels familiar with and its just a question how much better any other cartridge is by comparison, for whatever special niche or all round useage.

Everything is a trade-off. There is no "better" without giving something up in other areas. I think you worded it correctly when you said "is in some way better", as when all factors are considered im unaware of anything that is better all-round.

eg the cartridges you mention, all have pro's as well as cons vs the .308

.270 - reduced barrel life, long action, minimal efficient high-bc pills available.
The .300WSM is in a different class being a magnum cambering. Substantially increased ammo ammo costs, reduced barrel life, more recoil, reduced ammo availability, comparatively low capacity magazines etc.
With the 6.5cm - less barrel life, less energy out to ethical hunting ranges. At the point that a 6.5cm has more energy than a .308 you should probably be using a larger caliber anyway (600+ m), and to 600m there is very little meaningful difference in drop or windage when a fair comparison is run (most writers pit the 6.5cm with highly efficient ELD type bullets vs frumpy soft point flat base projectiles for a non-fair comparison). In fact last time i shot 700m with .308 I needed about 1.5mil less elevation than a 6.5cm that was next to me.


IMO when all factors are considered and fair ballistic comparisons are run, the .308 still has a lot to offer against any cambering.
Ill be shooting .308 out to about 1050m this weekend assuming the weather is OK.