OK, I finally decided to put away the Springfield M1A as a deer hunting rifle. I am looking at Savage M10 in left hand but am wondering...308 or 7mm mag? I like the idea of having one type of ammo on hand. I have some great shooting .308 match loads and some really good hunting ammo. But, I kinda like the idea of a "reach out and touch" round like the 7mm. Granted many thousand deer have been put in freezers with the .308 and it is not a round to laugh at. But if the chance to hunt bear or elk comes up would I always want more? So I know this might cause one of those everlasting debates...Chevy vs. Ford, .223 vs .308 or AK vs. AR. But what do you all think?
I have the model 10 Tactical rifle in .308 with a Leupold mil-dot glass and a Harris bi-pod. I love the accu-trigger and the rifle has very little recoil, is very fast for follow-up shots, and can punch holes that can be covered with a dime all day. There really is no game in North America that can't be taken with the .308 and the bother of having to buy another caliber ammo wouldn't be worth it to me ( except that I got 7mm Weatherby mag in a 700 Remington). I have been trying to get rid of most of my odd-ball calibers for a couple of years but it doesn't seem to be working. I almost never shoot anything except for .308, .22, .223, .45 acp,.40 S&W, 10mm, .38, .30-06, .30 carbine, .44 mag, 7mm Weatherby, 8mm Mauser, 7.62 x 39mm, 9mm, .380, .270, .300 Win mag, .416, .50 BMG, .32 acp, .32-40, .25 acp, .22 mag,.44 Russian, .357, .38 super,.45 LC, 10, 12, 16, 20, 28 ga., and .410...uh....sigh
.308 would be a great choice. If you are into reloading you can use all of the components you have on hand, or if you get into it you will have two different rifles to use great handloaded ammo with. 7mm mag is great, but really what will the .308 not do that 7mm mag will? If you are that concerned about range, jump up to the 300WinMag Oh yeah, and Savage is a good gun, I have one and love it.
Lots of bear and elk have been dropped with a 357 mag revolver, and the African big 5 has been taken with a 30-30, so the 308 would more than suffice, and I like keeping ammo selection/stock simple. Don't let the marketers convince you that you need something more. All personal taste though. If you're just "itchin" for a new caliber with "that extra reach and knockdown" the 300wsm and 325wsm is lookin pretty impressive
Griffin The 308 is a solid gun and for all the crap people give about savage they are just about the best out of the box accurate rifle. Now that being said. your M1A is set to shoot 147 grn pills. If you want to really improve the 308 then look at rolling your own. I use a 165, 168 and 178 grn pill and am very pleased with the results. If you decide to look into the matter further follow the link at the bottom of my tag line. You'll get all the info you could want there. Take care Be safe Poacher.
The Savage is one of the best values out there. Accurate right out of the box, and reliable too. I have one of the 'tactical' rifles in .308 that will do dime sized groups from the prone position. Scary accurate with Federal Gold Match or my equivalent handloads. The interesting thing about this rifle is it came with a 20" barrel when my friend bought it. The barrel had problems, so it was sent to Savage for correction. It came back with a 24" barrel and no more problems. Savage did this for no charge. It shoots better with the 24" barrel, and the recoil was lessened as well. I have the rifle now, my friend upgraded to a Ruger. The Ruger is not quite as accurate as the Savage. I think my friend is having seller's remorse about now.