What to do? (308)

[Forestryguy]

Roosie,

I don’t intend to burst your bubble. 308 is a great choice. That said theAmerican gun market is stuck in a repeating cycle of ammopocalypses. Making a choice for a caliber based on ammo availability at any single point in that cycle is a flawed strategy in my humble opinion.

We are currently in the upswing to recovery where manufacturers are pumping out common calibers like 308, 223/5.56, 300 win mag, 270 win, 30/06, 6.5 cm, etc. Those cartridges will be widely available for a time, while other less common calibers (25/06, 257 Roberts, 7-08, 338 Fed, 35 Rem, etc) will take longer to recover. Ammo manufacturers are focusing on producing the popular calibers now and are running smaller runs of the less popular calibers. If we are lucky, this upswing will run long enough for supply on all calibers to recover.

But once another downturn happens (read “election”), 308 and other popular calibers will be unobtainium again. Every Tom, Dick, and Harriett will horde that stuff like crazy. Your 308 will sit in the safe for lack of ammo. Or worse, you’ll look at your mountainous stash of 308 ammo and think, I can’t shoot it because I’ll never find any more.

Eventually you’ll say to yourself, “What if I bought a 300 Savage?” That will eat at you a bit because there will be tons of boxes of 300 Savage on the shelf. Finally, you’ll acquiesce to the desire and sell your 308 at a loss. You’ll sink your hard earned cash into an old Savage 99 or Rem 81, or rebarrel your 308 into a 300 Savage. But by the time that’s done, the surplus of 300 Savage will be gone because everyone else saw it too. If you are really sick, you might do this with another 2-3 calibers as the bottom drops out again.

Then if you haven’t already, you’ll sink tons of money into reloading equipment until powder and primer supplies dry up.

Finally after 2-3 ammpocalypses, you’ll be so done with this bullshit that you’ll forget all about guns and take up something like primitive archery made from branches you cut out of your neighbor’s yard under cover of darkness, or weaving baskets using yard clippings twisted into cordage. Whatever it is, you’ll be ready to say that you’ll never have another hobby that involves the word backorder or optics planet again.

Enjoy your romance with the 308 while it lasts.

There is already 300 Savage collecting dust on the shelves in my area. The only reasonable answer is to purchase a long action switch caliber rifle and stock up on barrels and bolt heads.

 

[roosiebull]

Roosie,

I don’t intend to burst your bubble. 308 is a great choice. That said theAmerican gun market is stuck in a repeating cycle of ammopocalypses. Making a choice for a caliber based on ammo availability at any single point in that cycle is a flawed strategy in my humble opinion.

We are currently in the upswing to recovery where manufacturers are pumping out common calibers like 308, 223/5.56, 300 win mag, 270 win, 30/06, 6.5 cm, etc. Those cartridges will be widely available for a time, while other less common calibers (25/06, 257 Roberts, 7-08, 338 Fed, 35 Rem, etc) will take longer to recover. Ammo manufacturers are focusing on producing the popular calibers now and are running smaller runs of the less popular calibers. If we are lucky, this upswing will run long enough for supply on all calibers to recover.

But once another downturn happens (read “election”), 308 and other popular calibers will be unobtainium again. Every Tom, Dick, and Harriett will horde that stuff like crazy. Your 308 will sit in the safe for lack of ammo. Or worse, you’ll look at your mountainous stash of 308 ammo and think, I can’t shoot it because I’ll never find any more.

Eventually you’ll say to yourself, “What if I bought a 300 Savage?” That will eat at you a bit because there will be tons of boxes of 300 Savage on the shelf. Finally, you’ll acquiesce to the desire and sell your 308 at a loss. You’ll sink your hard earned cash into an old Savage 99 or Rem 81, or rebarrel your 308 into a 300 Savage. But by the time that’s done, the surplus of 300 Savage will be gone because everyone else saw it too. If you are really sick, you might do this with another 2-3 calibers as the bottom drops out again.

Then if you haven’t already, you’ll sink tons of money into reloading equipment until powder and primer supplies dry up.

Finally after 2-3 ammpocalypses, you’ll be so done with this bullshit that you’ll forget all about guns and take up something like primitive archery made from branches you cut out of your neighbor’s yard under cover of darkness, or weaving baskets using yard clippings twisted into cordage. Whatever it is, you’ll be ready to say that you’ll never have another hobby that involves the word backorder or optics planet again.

Enjoy your romance with the 308 while it lasts.

i don't know about bows made from branches, but i do shoot my recurves a lot i do understand what you're saying, and agree with much of it, but through all of the recent ammo shortages (starting at Obama) .308 has been the most readily available cartridge besides 556/223 during those..... that's not why i got this rifle, but it did make me gain appreciation for it seeing that pattern.

the main thing is, the .308 does make a lot of sense for the rifle hunting i do, which is on the coast, and primarily shooting blacktail (the years i rifle hunt them) bear, and lions at 300yds and in for the most part.... the .308 doesn't struggle in the least there, it's a mellow recoiling cartridge, which i have gained appreciation for over the years.... or maybe i lost appreciation for heavy recoiling rifles that had no meaningful benefit for the recoil (for what i do) and there are a TON of 30 cal bullets at my disposal (another readily available thing associated with the .308) i have had a hard time running down projectiles for the 6.5 virtue signal.... the .308 is a a fine cartridge for the hunting/shooting i will do.... i don't have the time to start caring about killing stuff outside 500yds, much of my shooting time is spent behind my bows, i'm more of a 300-500 rounds per year out of my hunting rifles, which is enough to be comfortable with my rifles and different field positions at any range i expect to shoot, magnums don't extend my effective range, and i think the boring 'ol .308 will be a good fit for my type of hunting.

i will probably get another couple hundred rounds in the near future while i'm stocking up on some powder and primers and projectiles, i can still shoot plenty, then ammo shouldn't be an issue regardless, but it is nice to start off with some ammo to shoot right now, hard to find a rifle you could buy, then find ammo to shoot out of it or buy all of the needed reloading components.

next phase it getting a shorter barrel, and putting a can on it, it will be a pretty sweet rifle for my niche all around.

picked up the rifle on my way east this evening, and has to live in a hotel room until thursday, then i will be putting it all together friday and get to shooting after i'm back home. the rifle itself was the last piece i needed, it's all ready to go when i get home

 

[ElPollo]

i don't know about bows made from branches, but i do shoot my recurves a lot i do understand what you're saying, and agree with much of it, but through all of the recent ammo shortages (starting at Obama) .308 has been the most readily available cartridge besides 556/223 during those..... that's not why i got this rifle, but it did make me gain appreciation for it seeing that pattern.

the main thing is, the .308 does make a lot of sense for the rifle hunting i do, which is on the coast, and primarily shooting blacktail (the years i rifle hunt them) bear, and lions at 300yds and in for the most part.... the .308 doesn't struggle in the least there, it's a mellow recoiling cartridge, which i have gained appreciation for over the years.... or maybe i lost appreciation for heavy recoiling rifles that had no meaningful benefit for the recoil (for what i do) and there are a TON of 30 cal bullets at my disposal (another readily available thing associated with the .308) i have had a hard time running down projectiles for the 6.5 virtue signal.... the .308 is a a fine cartridge for the hunting/shooting i will do.... i don't have the time to start caring about killing stuff outside 500yds, much of my shooting time is spent behind my bows, i'm more of a 300-500 rounds per year out of my hunting rifles, which is enough to be comfortable with my rifles and different field positions at any range i expect to shoot, magnums don't extend my effective range, and i think the boring 'ol .308 will be a good fit for my type of hunting.

i will probably get another couple hundred rounds in the near future while i'm stocking up on some powder and primers and projectiles, i can still shoot plenty, then ammo shouldn't be an issue regardless, but it is nice to start off with some ammo to shoot right now, hard to find a rifle you could buy, then find ammo to shoot out of it or buy all of the needed reloading components.

next phase it getting a shorter barrel, and putting a can on it, it will be a pretty sweet rifle for my niche all around.

picked up the rifle on my way east this evening, and has to live in a hotel room until thursday, then i will be putting it all together friday and get to shooting after i'm back home. the rifle itself was the last piece i needed, it's all ready to go when i get home

My post was not intended to be taken seriously, but I still occasionally make bows out of poached branches. It’s a great hobby, but I hunt with them less than I used to. The 308 is a great choice, and you frankly don’t need anything else except good bullets that work with your velocities.

 

[roosiebull]

Got it put together this morning, gonna heat up the barrel tomorrow

 

[roosiebull]

Well, it’s a good shooting rifle, glad I went that route, loaded and ready it’s 9lb 4oz, about exactly what I was hoping… need to get a bear killed for my wife, then I will be trying to break in the tikka myself with a bear

The bravo is a solid choice for sure, overall I like it