308 vs 300win mag

[XC700116]

Of course, you're right. He should start with a .308. It's to fun to ponder other fun stuff though...

Yes, it is fun, (And I'm making no assumptions on OP's experience here) it's just that I am working with a friend of mine that can't even zero his shiny new Tika T3 Superlite in 300 WM. Dropped the cash for a nice rifle, and a really nice Swaro on top of it. But since he's new to big rifles he's all over the place because he has no clue how to manage recoil, or any of the fundamentals. The only rifles he has owned or shot before are AR's, and he bought this one on a whim without asking anyone but the guy at the sales counter if it was a good idea. So now I'm trying to teach him those things on a monster caliber, in a very light rifle, and it's not going well. He of course is trying to be stubborn about it and doesn't want to learn it on one of my rifles. Thankfully he's finally picking up a 270 from his uncle that will be a lot easier to shoot so hopefully I can get him squared away using that. This is why when I don't have a good background on people I usually recommend non magnum short actions in cheap calibers to shoot for their first bolt guns. Personally I don't have a lot of love for 308 ballistics but it's advantages for getting a lot of trigger time without torching your barrel or your wallet make it an obviously great choice.

I have shot bolt guns and various other rifles for years (mostly hunting and screwing around) and just this fall put together my first long range custom built rig and got into match shooting. I leaned on Tim K's knowledge and willingness to help heavily while getting that rifle together and he was very helpful. I'm extremely happy with the rifle and I'm shooting well with it, I'm pretty sure he'd have slapped me upside the head if I'd have gone through that whole thing with intentions on building a 300 WM or other big magnum caliber.

IMO it's tough to combine a precision rig and a hunting rig into the same rifle and have something you're willing to pack around while hunting and have something that's nice to shoot for long strings of fire on the line, practicing or shooting a match. Right now I'm rebuilding my hunting rifle into more of a precision rig for hunting, but I don't see myself shooting long strings of fire with it either, as it's going to be as light as I can make it within my constraints for a precision shooter, It's getting EXPENSIVE.

In reality, you're much better served by building/buying a good precision rifle for LR shooting/practice and matches, and buying an off the shelf magnum hunting rifle for hunting with low round counts and quite frankly, you don't need 1/2 MOA for hunting at reasonable ranges.