.243 or .308?

Shadowhunter

New member
I've been gathering some funds to buy me a new deer/varmint rifle and I was originally thinking a .243 but a friend of mine made me think otherwise when he said he could by surplus ammo for his .308 for about $4.00 a box. I don't reload so when he said that it made me think maybe .308. It's a little overkill for varmints but I know you probally can't get milsurp ammo for a .243, but then again, what's overkill when it comes to varmint hunting? BOOM! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif Anyway for a deer/varmint/yote rifle what would you prefer? Also does anyone have experience with a Tikka T3 Super Varmint or Tactical, and would it work for deer hunting? sorry for the long post.
 
"surplus" ammo to me means the possibility of military ammo...if so, it may be full metal jacket....may not be. I'd sure check into it first though.

I wouldn't recommend shooting ANYTHING with FMJ stuff and it would certainly be illegal to hunt deer with.
 
I wasn't planning on using the surplus for hunting just for practice. Also, does anyone have experience with the Remington 700's ADL or SPS? Thanks in advance.
 
I recently got the Tikka T-3 Lite in .243 and couldn't be happier. Took it home and it drove tacks sighting it in and I went out and started killing coyotes that afternoon with it. Most pleasant firearm purchase I've had in awhile.

For what you are talking about doing, I would prefer the .243. I think you will find a wider selection of coyote and varmint bullets for that caliber.

When you say "surplus" for the .308 I'm assuming you mean FMJ. I could be wrong but I can't think of a situation where mil-surp ammo would be desirable for deer/varmint/coyote. Just my opinion though.

Good hunting
 
Sorry Shadow hunter. I must have been typing when you posted you were going to just use the FMJ for practice. That's up to you I guess.

Anyway, I bought a SPS a little before the Tikka. It is a good utility rifle but it isn't a Tikka. The action isn't as smooth and the trigger will need to be adjusted. Also the SPS is a little heavier.

Good hunting
 
Shadowhunter -

I've always believed in practicing with the same ammo I'm going to use to hunt. That way, I'll be more familiar with the trajectories of the round. For the same reason, I'm one of those "one-rifle-one-load" types; I always use the same loading for any one gun.

For many years, my do-it-all rifle was a Ruger Mark II in .243. I loaded it with Speer 85 grain BT Spitzers for everything from groundhogs to coyote to deer. The only time I changed was to go black bear hunting in Canada. I went to a 100 grain pill for that; bang-flop on a smallish bear with one shot to the head.

The .243 gets the job done!

While I don't have any experience with the 700's or SPS's, I do own 2 Model Seven's. I absolutely love the factory Remington actions and adjustable triggers!

me!
 
Shadowhunter,
If you're going to reload the .308 will work for both. A 110gr. Hornady V-Max bullet will handle your varminting and you can step up in bullet weight for large game.

A lot of your rifle caliber choice should be made of the percentage of what you're going to hunt the most. If you're going to hunt varmints more than large game, I'd choose a 25.06 in a Savage. A 25.06 has the same ballistics as a .22-250, but uses twice as much lead to get the job done. Savage rifles are well known for their "out of the box" accuracy.

Good luck with your choices!
Good hunting, Bowhunter57
 
Quote:
...buy surplus ammo for his .308 for about $4.00 a box.



Most surplus is not .308 but 7.62x51 which definately is not .308. Also a lot of the surplus is machine gun ammo which is even hotter.
My remington, winchester and savage bolts will not close on surplus ammo.
Remember that bolt action precision rifles have tight chambers and any deviation could spell disaster.

Now with my CETME and HK91 love the surplus stuff! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
I love the .308 and the surplus stuff that I've shot ran kind of mild (2650fps)it was full metal jacket and ran fine out of my AR-10 but I wouldn't dream of shooting it in my Remington SPS even for target practice, my loads run 2950fps in this gun. Quite a bit of surplus ammo is corrosive or at least mercury primed which is corrosive. So don't let "cheap" ammo sway your purchase.

For a hunting gun it's hard to beat the .308 but for a coyote gun I'd prefer the .243, actualy I prefer the .223 for coyotes and the .308 for deer and such but for a dual purpose gun the .243 would be better than a .308 unless you reload and find a gun that likes 110 or 125 grain ammo for critters and also the heavier stuff for deer hunting.

I bought 2 SPS's a while back and did some work to them, trigger, bedding and floated the barrels. I kind of like them and they both will shoot but I can't say they're the best choice out there, that would be Sako hands down, but for the money I can say they're a good starting point.

One other thing is factory ammo for the .243 can be disappointing when ran over a chronograph so if you don't reload keep this in mind, a factory .243 100 grain bullet will be slower than a factory .308 with a 150 grain bullet or at least the difference won't be justifiable. Heck even reloads won't have 100 fps difference in the 2 so the .308 makes for a much better big game round, the .243 obviously has the edge with 70 grain bullets for critters and such. Even the 85 grain bullet which is used for a dual purpose round traveled less than 3000 fps out of my old .243 and like I said my .308 chronograhed 2950 something fps with a 150 grain bullet for an average of 5 shots, stick a 125 grain ballistic tip in there and you'll get close to 3200fps.

I'm gonna catch hell for that I know but that was my results and if you can prove me wrong please do so cause I actualy liked the .243 until I just put all this down on the computer. Sorry.
 
Just get an T/C Encore or a NEF Handi Rifle and with extra barrels you can have both.
Both the T/C and the NEF shoot very accurately, I know for a fact cause I have the Encore and dad has the Handi Rifle.

t/c223encore.
 
Man, I have such a hard descision in front of me. In the the end I'll have a new gun either way so maybe it's a Win-Win situation. Get it .243 Win., .308 Win? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-006.gif Maybe I'll get a .308 and .243. thanks for the input guys, still open to more opinions.
 
I have both 243 and 308 Rem 700 ADL's, including a 308 PSS, plus some custom rifles. All shoot great and have had no problems with any of them. Either will work for deer, but I prefer the 308 over the 243 here. The 308 may have longer barrel life over the 243. Plus I'm pretty sure the 308 is more used in long range and accuracy contest.
 
Quote:
Most surplus is not .308 but 7.62x51 which definately is not .308.



It sure should be. The .308 Win. was just the civilian release fo the 7.62x51 NATO round, and they're both listed under the same heading in every reloading manual I've ever seen. If your .308 rifle won't chamber military loads, you've got an undersize chamber or you're buying reloads that weren't properly resized. My H&K 770 will shoot them both without any kind of problems and I've reloaded a ton of military brass for it using small base dies. Never failed to chamber a round yet.
 
Quote:
Man, I have such a hard descision in front of me. In the the end I'll have a new gun either way so maybe it's a Win-Win situation. Get it .243 Win., .308 Win? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-006.gif Maybe I'll get a .308 and .243. thanks for the input guys, still open to more opinions.


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Here is a suggestion for you.

Get the .243 for now. It is plenty good for everything unless you are after moose or elk beyond 300 yard range.

For $100 you can get a Swiss K31 in 7.5x55 Swiss. This round almost duplicates the .308. These Swiss rifles are just awesome. They may have dings and grungy looking military stock due to storage, but once you clean it up it is just awesome. Most, if not all, have pristine bore. I have had about 25 through my hands during last year and all of them had pristine bore. At the range they shoot extremely well with their issue triggers, which are actually much smoother than my factory Remington and Winchester. Ammo for these gems are now available with softpoint loads. These rifles are still very reasonably priced just like the Swedish Mausers used to be twelve years ago before the public realized how good they were built and how accurate they were on the rifle range. Back then you could buy Swedish Mauser for $60. Now they are going at $250 to $350 a piece.
Once these K31's are known to the shooting public and domestic ammo manufacturers start producing ammo and brass for it, I bet it will be another case of Swedish Mauser in the make. I have five of them sitting in my safe for now....:)

Howard
 
Thanks for the welcome SteveM and I think I've decided to buy a .308 for now and then later save up for a Tikka or something in .223 for my varmint rifle. Also, I asked my friend and he said the mil-surp stuff he buys chambers fine in his rifle and shoots good enough for plinking and such. Also, having read that a .243 barrel life is 6 - 8 times shorter than a .308 (taken from above post) I'd rather have a 308 for the time being. Thanks for all the replies and i'm still open to new ideas. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
Shadowhunter,

Just a word of warning. I told myself that I would buy a
.243 Win, someday after I got my first .308 Win. I had to
choose between a .243 Win, a 7mm-08, and the .308 Win.
Well today I have three .308 Win firearms, and I am still
threatening to get a .243 Win someday. Really, I am
going to buy a .243 Win, someday.... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Actually after looking into different 6mm cartridges,
I have decided that I will probably get a 6mm-284
wildcat, and then I will get a .243 Win.../ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

You will like the .308 Win. When I first shot the .308 Win,
in a hunting rifle, I wondered why it took me so long to
get a .308 Win. I will probably feel like that when I
get my first .243 Win, someday.../ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Squeeze
 
Buy them both. OR just one both will do the job that you want. I have an ADL and a buddy with a sps 243. Both guns are good. But I got a Savage 25-06 that I actually use for both deer and yotes. I like the Savage better than the Rem.

You want be happy until you buy both of them.
 
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