From an email:

Oh great shaman! I’ve been offered a Rifle for Deer hunting that is in 308 Winchester. Is that a good choice? Should I hold out for a 6.5 Creedmore?

I guess my 308 WIN experience is perverse compared to most folks. Don’t take me wrong. I don’t want it to seem like I’m throwing shade on the chambering. As with so much of my life, 308 WIN has come out with results “other than expected.” The short answer to this is that 308 Winchester is a nearly ideal choice for whitetail deer. Do not let my experience dissuade you.

My early exposure to 308 WIN was a bit crossed. I grew up going to a barber shop in Cincinnati. Ohio was a shotgun-only state. Therefore most of the opinions I heard about any centerfire rifle were from wannabes. In those days, the mid-Sixties, everyone seemed to have an opinion on things, and 30-06 was usually at the center: 270 vs. 30-06, 308 vs 30-06, etc. The shop I visited was filled with a bunch of 30-06 snobs. Later, well after college, I started shooting and hunting. The bunch of old guys that took me under their wing were all die-hard 30-06 guys. One was a WWII vet. Another was a Marine armorer. Another was a gun editor. I had to learn the catechism that 30-06 was IT.

Back about 2003, I had this sudden urge to buy a Savage 99. Honestly, I don’t remember much of anything about the Savage 99 prior to this. It just started to look like a supremely interesting rifle. I was a bit late; Savage had stopped making them several years earlier I acquired a Savage 99 that summer. I asked my buddy, Bob, the gun editor, which chambering to get. He reluctantly pointed me at 308 WIN. His reasoning was that he was sure 300 Savage was going to be orphaned before too long.

Side note: If you see a pattern of the shaman seeming to get a lot of well-meaning bum steers in his life, you’re not the only one.

My one and only 308 WIN rifle is that Savage 99. It was itself, a perverse beast. Try as I might, I could not get it to shoot 150-grain bullets accurately. Somebody had said cheap mil-surp brass would be a good idea. That did not pan out either. What I ended up with was a somewhat downloaded load of H4895 topped off with a 165 grain Hornady Interlock in Federal brass. A full-house load was a bit sharp for my tastes, but loading the rifle to 300 Savage levels made it ideal. This has been my Opening Day go-to rifle ever since. I use it to hunt the Opener and then rotate it with other choices until my buck tag is filled, and then I put it away for next year. As such, it has only shot bucks, and it has twice taken camp records. It has also taken several #2 and #3 bucks. I had it out last year and it did not disappoint:

For all my early indoctrination in the cult of 30-06, I have to agree that 308 WIN was and is a great choice. I say that as quietly as possible; there are a half-dozen old friends that I don’t want rolling in their graves. Will I ever buy another 308 WIN? I’m now 64, and I have a whole side of the rack just for all the 30-06s. My last acquisition was a 7mm-08. 308 WIN may be the road not taken.

Based on this history, What I am going to say about 308 Winchester from here on out is a bit of an extrapolation, but I assure you that it is accurate. First off, look at all the good things written about 30-06 in regards to whitetail deer. Everything about 30-06 applies to 308 WIN out to about 300 yards. The latter was engineered to match the former’s performance out to 300 yards.

But Shaman! You picked 7mm-08 for your last deer rifle; why not a 308 WIN?

Look, you’ve got a chance at a 308 WIN and I say take it. You don’t have a rack full of 30-06s already. As to the 7mm-08, I really, really love that new rifle. I can’t wait to get it out again. However, I’ve got a lifetime supply of reloading components sitting in my basement. If you go to the store looking for ammunition, you will find that 308 Winchester and 30-06 are among the most commonly available out there. 7mm-08 is in the next tier down as far as availability. When you look at the price, 7mm-08 is over twice the price of 308 WIN, and the deer are not going to know the difference.

Should I hold out for a 6.5 Creedmore?

If you were going to be shooting at extremely long range, you might want to consider the 6.5 Creedmoor. However, whitetail deer hunting is normally a close-in affair. Most deer are shot by most hunters within 80 yards. While I don’t want to go drag this post into the weeds, suffice it to say that 308 WIN does a superb job on whitetails out to normal shooting distances (200-250 yards). The deer will not notice the differences, and I would not let a good deal pass.