The same also goes for 90 and 100 grain .243″ bullets with sectional densities of .218 and .242 respectively. John. In last week’s caliber battle, I gave the nod to the .308 Win. Before we get started, I have an administrative note: Some of the links below are affiliate links. The following ammunition cartridge ballistics information and chart can be used to approximately compare .300 WSM Winchester Short Magnum vs .308 Winchester ammo rounds. I absolutely love the entire family the 308 Winchester has produced! The 7mm-08 uses heavier, larger diameter, and more aerodynamic bullets that have a higher sectional density, more frontal surface area, more resistance to wind drift, penetrate better, and carry more energy down range than the .243 Winchester. It still seems that every new hunting rifle that is released is initially available in .30-06 Springfield; it remains a staple in our industry. My time with the 7mms has been mostly spent with the 140-, 150- and 160-grain bullets, as they offer the most flexibility. The rifle I was looking at was a Ruger 6909 youth model for both my wife and step daughter to share. But leaves one huge question… is this enough gun to take down an elk from 200 yards for a novice hunter/shooter.? However, the .308 Winchester is still by far the most widely used and the .243 Winchester is a distant second, but both still rank among the Top 10 in ammunition sales in the USA each year. The .243 Winchester and 7mm-08 Remington are the two most popular examples of cartridges developed by necking down the .308 Winchester to shoot smaller diameter bullets. What are some disadvantages and advantages of each. The 7mm rem mag is #1 and the 30-06 is a close second. Looking at sheer availability, you can’t really get more popular than the .308 Winchester and .30-06 Springfield, and no 7mm will compare with the volume of ammo available. The 7mm-08 Remington and .308 Winchester (but particularly the .308) are both better hunting rounds for really big game animals due to their advantage in frontal surface area and kinetic energy. Here’s how each cartridge compares directly to the others in general terms. Are you looking for a great cartridge for mountain goat, bighorn sheep, tahr, or chamois hunting where a flat shooting and mild recoiling cartridge in a lightweight rifle is very desirable? Ammunition of all kinds is plentiful and there is a wide choice of rifles readily available. The .243 Winchester, 7mm-08 Remington, and .308 Winchester are all excellent rifle cartridges, albeit ones with very different strengths and weaknesses. Fortunately for the .243 Winchester, Field & Stream editor Warren Page extolled the virtues of the .243 in his columns in a manner similar to what Jack O’Connor did for the .270 Winchester at Outdoor Life. I would go on to embrace the 7mm-08 Remington, the .275 Rigby/7x57mm Mauser and the .280 Ackley Improved over the years, all giving more than satisfactory performance in the field and at the bench. When I violated church doctrine by purchasing a .375 H&H Magnum, I received a proper scolding, as in dad’s mind, nothing more or less than .30-caliber was needed. They've both done their share of killing. The 308 will only beat it in( popularity) in this day and time. Depending on where you grew up, who your influences are, and what you were exposed to, you may sit firmly in one camp or the other. They’re outstanding for hunting small to medium sized game, but all three cartridges are also perfectly capable of doing the job on bigger game as well. Wildcatters had been necking down the .308 Winchester to 7mm for years, but for reasons that aren’t totally clear, no company had ever standardized a 7mm cartridge based on the .308 until the Remington Arms Company released the 7mm-08 Remington in 1980. The table below compares 55gr Nosler Varmageddon (.252 BC), 90gr Hornady ELD-X (.409 BC), and 100gr Winchester Power Point (.356 BC) loads in .243 Winchester to 120gr Nosler Ballistic Tip (.417 BC), 140gr Winchester Power Point (.360 BC), and 150gr Hornady ELD-X (.574 BC) loads in 7mm-08 Remington, and 150gr Winchester Power Point (.294 BC), 165gr Nosler Ballistic Tip (.475 BC) and 178gr ELD-X (.552 BC) loads in .308 Winchester. Typical .308 bullets have more frontal surface area and carry more energy down range though. Velocity wise, down-range energy retention wise and trajectory wise the magnum round has the edge but the .308 is still an excellent long distance shooter. I have a dedicated deer rifle in the 308 Winchester. Remington renamed the .244 the 6mm Remington a few years later and started producing rifles with a 1:9 twist rate, but the damage had already been done and the .243 Winchester was already well established and had claimed the majority of the 6mm centerfire rifle market share. Mag. The .308 shoots a wider slug, 7.62mm vs. .7mm, or in American caliberation: .30 caliber vs. .28 caliber. Of course Remington and Winchester produce their flagship Model 70 and Model 700 rifles in .243 Winchester, 7mm-08 Remington, and .308 Winchester. I'L take it over the 308 any day because I know better. However, even though they are similar in many ways, there are some big differences between the 243 vs 308 vs 7mm-08 cartridges that you should be aware of. Since Winchester produced their .243 rifles with a faster twist rate of 1:10″, they could accurately shoot heavier bullets and were thus much more versatile than the .244 Remington initially. All other things equal, a heavier projectile of a given caliber will be longer and therefore have a higher sectional density and consequently penetrate deeper than projectiles with a lower mass and sectional density. I am thinking about getting a .308 or a 7mm rem mag. 308″ bullets which have sectional densities of . However… I do have experience with the 7mm-08 as well… and I believe it’s about the best of the bunch to tackle all needs as far as hunting the lower 48. As an example, 150 grain and 160 grain .284″ bullets. The chart below compares how much a 10 mile per hour crosswind impacts the high BC ELD-X loads for each cartridge out to 500 yards. What makes or breaks the deal, in order to choose one over the other? Even discounting the extremely high velocity 55gr .243 varmint load as an outlier, the .243 still shoots a lot flatter than the other cartridges. All three cartridges are very common in bolt-action rifles. The .243 Winchester, 7mm-08 Remington, and .308 Winchester are all mild recoiling and flat shooting cartridges well suited for hunting thin skinned game like coyotes, pronghorn, mule deer, whitetail deer, or fallow deer. Not surprisingly, all three cartridges have virtually the same case capacity. 308 vs 30-06 vs 300 Win Mag: Which Cartridge Should You Be Hunting With? The .243 Winchester cartridge most often uses bullet weights in the 55-115 grain range, with 55, 87, 90, and 100 grain bullets being the most common. For example, when fired from a Ruger American rifle, a 140gr Nosler Partition from the 7mm-08 has nearly 75% more free recoil energy than a .243 Winchester load firing an 85gr Nosler partition. Most conventional ammunition will top out at 175 grains, though, unless you’re looking at a serious long-range setup. Velocity is important when deciding which caliber you want to carry out in the field because the higher the velocity you have, the less impacted your round will be by environmental factors such has the wind, rain, snow, sleet, or gravity. I’d spend a bunch of time behind the trigger of the .308 and .300 Winchester, as well as the .300 H&H, with no complaints whatsoever. Very few of the deer I've killed with these three were over 300 yards. Thanks for your support. Mag. Since the .308 Winchester is the parent case for the .243 and 7mm-08, all three cartridges have the same rim .473″ diameter. I think I’m bringing my 9.3×62 with me, though I’m still toying with the idea of my 6.5×55 or my 7mm-08. On Thanksgiving Day 1993, a hunting buddy deemed it too cold out to sit for deer, and insisted I took his Remington 7400 chambered in .280 Remington. Recoil of the ratio of the 7.62x51mm NATO round in use, Remington! Installments of our `` Head to Head '' series vs..28 caliber, Nosler and... 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