.308 Sniper Rifle

.308 Sniper Rifle

The 308 Winchester is a rifle caliber that is rimless, bottlenecked and is the commercial cartridge that the 7.62x51mm NATO was inspired and derived from. It was first introduced in 1952, two years before the adoption of the 7.62x51mm NATO and was marketed towards hunters as the ultimate hunting caliber. It has since gone on to be one of the most popular hunting calibers in the United States, and maybe even the world. It has gained its popularity as a great round for medium to large size game animals and is used in large numbers on whitetail deer, mule deer, and even elk and black bear. It is also a popular hunting round that is used around the world, particularly in Africa and Europe. 

Ballistically the .308 Winchester has slightly more drop at longer ranges than the .30-06 Springfield, due to its slightly lower speeds with most bullet weights. This cartridge has a 3.64 ml case capacity, and the exterior of the shape of the case was designed to help with reliable feeding and extraction in both rifles and machine guns under extreme situations. Its lighter weight in short action rifles, with better accuracy and a slower speed resulting in better downrange damage, easily pushed this cartridge to battle head to head with the popular .30-06 round. As a target rifle, there are plenty of ammunition choices that can stretch the gun out to 1000 yards without too much difficulty. It is one of the best and most accurate 30 caliber cases on the market and the recoil is very manageable. It has been the base for many more popular rifle cartridges, including the .243 Win, .260 Rem, 7mm-08 Rem, .338 Federal and .358 Win. But for 90% of real-world applications, the .308 Win is a perfect choice.