The 308?

I just got a pre 64 winchester featherwieght in 308.

Ive never had the desire to get a 308. So ive been looking at the load books to compare to an 06. Seems its just about 125 fps or slower than a 06.
Is this about right?

I was looking for a 3006 featherwieght when I found this good deal on the 308

A quicky passing thought when I bought it was I could rechamber it to a 3006 , but Ill leave it how it is Unless the barrel is bad.

What do you think of the 308 compared to an 06?
Does a 308 like the same powders as a 06?
H4350 is my 06 go to powder. What is the powder of choice for the 308 ? Ill probably use this rifle with 180 gr bullets. Or what do youall think.

GSP, I'm just down right sure you will be Unhappy with the performance of that 308 with all types of powder and bullet's, so out of shear kindness on my part, I will give ya 50.00 over your cost plus the shipping to save ya, just send it to me.

I shoot 165's and some 168's in mine and it loves them.

Most medium burning powders work great in 308. I personally prefer 165-175gr bullets in it. I shot a lot of 190 sierras at 500meters in Silhouette and had good luck with IMR-4064 in the heavy bullets. My best target load is 44.0 of VV-140 with sierra 175's, and my 2 favorite hunting loads are 47.0 WW-748 and a 168gr Barnes Triple shock or 46.0 Varget and a 165gr Partition. I think Lapua cases are the best but RP's work fine too.
Both 308 and 30-06 are great calibers but for most stuff I like the 308 better because it usually is slightly more accurate........DJ

Most of the time your intended quarry will not know the difference between a .308 or 30/06. However, the difference increases with the heavier bullets. In these situations a controlled expansion bullet will give you better penetration on bigger beasts such as Moose, or Elk as you call them over the pond

Thanks for the imfo.

Jimmey , if ya put in a well on my property ill trade ya the featherwieght for the well and pump...

GSP7, congratulations on the Pre-'64 Featherweight Win. Although my two .308s are Remingtons, my cousin bought a Win. Featherweight 70 in .308 Win., in 1962, when he graduated from college. He's lived all over the West, including 20 years in Boise. He's not a "gun person," in that he doesn't have much more than the standard "get by" group;. .308 Win., Rem. 1100 12 ga., .22 Rem. 552, a S&W .357 Mag., and a Win. Commemorative John Wayne 94 .30-30, which he's never fired. (He loves John Wayne flicks.)

That said, he's killed 22 bull elk, two antelope, one Idaho moose, and he doesn't know how many Mule deer and whitetail deer he's put in the freezer. Each one was killed with that Featherweight .308 Win. For years he used the Rem. 180 gr. PSP CoreLokt bullets for everything. Then he changed to the Federal Premium .308s in 165 gr. Nosler Partitions. He never lost an animal, and has rarely ever fired two shots. (He fired two at the moose but one round was to make sure the moose didn't get back up.)

I daresay the results on the animals he's killed would have been exactly the same, were he using his old .308 Featherweight, or a good .30-06.

My favorite gamegetter load for my two .308s is 46.0 grs. of IMR4064, behind the 165 gr. Nosler Partition. Both rifles shoot one inch groups. Works for me.

Good luck with that Featherweight.

L.W.

My understanding is that the 308 does not live in the shadow of the 3006. In fact up to about 165gn projectiles it is superior to the ,06 after which the ,06 takes over.

IMO, if one needs anything bigger than the 165gn load, why not move up to a 300 Win Mag or 300Wsm??

I would think twice about rebarrelling that to an ,06. Why not put the money towards a 300Win mag or similar and get two really effective rifles?

You know, I got a 308win, that beats out my 30-06 with 150gr bullets. It has a kreiger barrel on it. I shoot varget and 4064 thru it. Now the barrel before it, I was about 80fps slower with 150gr bullets. I think the 308win is the perfect deer rifle. And 150gr at 3010fps with 47gr of Varget, will work on any size deer. I love short actions.

Now any bullet bigger than that, especially 180gr, my 30-06 runs off and leaves it.

If you want a "deer" rifle, then the 308 is you gun. If you want to shoot moose and elk and want to use 180gr bullets. Better get the 30-06.

GSP7
The 308 is my favorite "light" rifle. It will do anything the 30-06 can do. If you are lucky enough to live and shoot long enough to wear out that 308 bbl just re-barrel it with another 308 bbl and keep on hunting.
You will not be disappointed with the 308.

I've got a Ruger 77 RS in 308 and it's the perfect deer rifle to me. Mine shoots the 150 gr. loads best so that's what I stick to. For all the deers size game and under I think it's a fine round, when going after game in the 350 lb. and up range though I do tend to go to my '06 or 300 Win. simply because those two rifles happen to shoot heavier bullets better. If you can work up a good 165 gr. load for that particular rifle I don't think you'd ever miss an '06, even for Elk.

However you should probably aim for at least one of each, that way you can have a rifle for 150 gr. loads, 165 gr. and 180's. That's the story I'm telling my wife and I'm sticking to it.

Major Caliber,

Read Page 281 of the Speer reloading Manual Vol 13. There is an inset under "Lab Notes". they will not agree with you.

The idea of a 308 is starting to grow on me. Ill be picking up this 1953 winchester m70 featherweight monday or tuesday. Its needs some cleaning and the barrel scrubed good . Then Ill know how the barrel is, It had something in the middle of the bore, and the gunstore guy would only run one dry patch through it for me. Might be some heavy rust.

I think Ill use it with 165 grainers.



I alredy have 2 sporter 6.5x55s(model 70,mauser),3 .270s(model 720 rem,JC higgins m51, Ruger), 2 3006s(model 30 rem, '49 standard model 70). now this 308.



This is my first pre 64 feathewieght.



Now I need to by dies....



Next I need some bigger stuff. 338mag next...



Rick

GSP7,

No flies on the .308 Win. Give the rifle a try "as is". You may like it. You can always change it later if you want.

-Bob F.

Ruff Hewn



The Speer manual mentions that they have had frequent enqiries from customers as to why their 308 velocities`are often better than the 30-06 velocities in their data. They cite 2 reasons -



First they mention that the 308 is better generally with projectiles as heavy as 150gns, about the same with 165gn projectiles, anything heavier, the ,06 pulls ahead as the case can carry a lot more slower burning powder than the 308.



They also say that different barrels produce different results and that their data on the day was taken using 22' barrels and that the ,06 will do slightly better with a 24' barrel but not neccesarily so.



The 308 is bloody impressive but I guess the ,06 is more versatile if one is only going to have 1 rifle.

I thought it was interesting that your post on the .308 was your 308th post.

God is telling you, "son, get a 308."