Is the 308 Winchester one of the greatest rifle cartridges of all time? Probably not – but who cares? It’s one of the most popular rifle cartridges in the greatest country of all time (the USA, obviously*). That makes it one of the greatest by association. QED.
If you’re relatively new to the 308 Win, then you are no doubt wondering which type of ammunition you ought to get for application X, Y and Z. What should you fire at the gun range? What should you use to teach manners to unruly hogs? What should you use to harvest the key ingredient for venison shish kebab? It’s enough to make your head spin…
…until you’ve read this informative article, that is. If your head is still spinning by the end of it, then it will only be because it was filled with a large quantity of high-quality knowledge so suddenly. Let’s get into it!
*If you disagree with this sentiment, then we hope your COMMUNIST MASTERS serve you AN EXTRA LADLE OF GRUEL tonight as a reward for having THE STUPIDEST OPINION IT’S HUMANLY POSSIBLE TO HAVE.
Best 308 Win Ammo for Target Shooting
PMC Bronze 147 Grain FMJBT
- Product No. 308B
- Bullet Weight: 147 Grains
- Bullet Type: Full Metal Jacket Boat Tail (FMJBT)
- Muzzle Velocity: 2,780 fps
- Muzzle Energy: 2,523 ft lbs
Precision Made Cartridges (PMC) is two things:
- A subsidiary of South Korea’s largest nonferrous metal fabricator; and
- The South Korean military’s primary supplier of small arms ammunition.
The first thing is important because it means PMC is a “fully vertically integrated” manufacturer. They produce all of their own components in-house, which affords their engineers total control over their ammo’s overall quality. The second thing is important because it heavily incentivizes PMC to make very good ammo. If the sequel to the Korean War ever happens, then PMC doesn’t want to start handing out crud ammo to the boys (theirs and ours, realistically).
So what we have here is extremely reliable (yet not extravagantly priced) 308 Win target ammo. Those 147 grain bullets ought to feel real familiar to any long-standing fan of “ye olde three-oh-eighteth” (as it was referred to in olden times), and the FMJBT design is at once economical and accurate. And unlike most steel-cased ammo, these target rounds are both reloadable and nonmagnetic.
PMC 147 Grain .308 Ammo Ballistics
Best Match-Grade 308 Win Ammo for Competitive Shooting
Sierra MatchKing Competition 168 Grain SMK
- Product No. A2200–01
- Bullet Weight: 168 Grains
- Bullet Type: Sierra MatchKing (SMK) Hollow Point Boat Tail (HPBT)
- Muzzle Velocity: 2,650 fps
- Muzzle Energy: 2,620 ft lbs
Before you accuse me of being a silly billy, allow me to preface by saying the best match-grade 308 Win ammo for competitive shooting is handloaded. Full stop. No machine can load ammo with the same precision and consistency as expert human hands.
With that out of the way, the best factory-loaded 308 Win match ammo is Sierra MatchKing Competition, which showcases the Missouri company’s famous MatchKing bullet. The MatchKing has been fired to win more contests than all other bullet manufacturers’ best work combined.
The MatchKing begins its life as a wafer-thin copper jacket (drawn to an industry-leading concentricity standard of ±0.0003”, no less). It is then injection-molded with molten lead, which hardens in place to form a rearward-situated and uniformly distributed core. Its supreme rotational stability and streamlined geometry both contribute to the MatchKing’s jaw-droppingly accurate performance.
Sierra MatchKing Competition 168-Grain 308 Ammo Ballistics
Best 308 Win Ammo for Varmint Hunting
Nosler Varmageddon 110 Grain FB Tipped
- Product No. 40272
- Bullet Weight: 110 Grains
- Bullet Type: Flat Base (FB) Tipped
- Muzzle Velocity: 3,150 fps
- Muzzle Energy: 2,423 ft lbs
22 ARC. 22-250 Remington. 204 Ruger. Many excellent rifle cartridges are available for the all-important task of clipping vermin. But what if you want to hunt small game with your 308 Win? Who’s going to stop you? No one, that’s who.
Any 308 bullet is powerful enough to turn a varmint into red chowder. FMJ plus woodchuck equals dead woodchuck. But if you’re looking for a little extra oomph while you’re out in the varmintlands, simply chamber a Nosler Varmageddon round.
This cartridge’s bullet is extremely light at 110 grains, and therefore exhibits the extra-flat trajectory you want while you’re taking aim at small things. Its flat base enhances the bullet’s short-to-medium range accuracy by giving propellant gasses a clean, even surface to push against in the barrel. (A boat tail is more beneficial for long-range accuracy, and probably won’t help while you’re hunting with so light a bullet.) And once the FB tipped bullet’s other signature feature collides with the varmint, it’ll cause the bullet to burst apart into lead and copper shrapnel.
Nearby vultures had better put on little bibs with pictures of prairie dogs on them before you begin hunting with Nosler Varmageddon ammunition.
Nosler Varmegeddon 110-Grain .308 Ammo Ballistics
Best 308 Win Ammo for Hog Hunting
Fiocchi Field Dynamics 165 Grain PSP
- Product No. 308D
- Bullet Weight: 165 Grains
- Bullet Type: Pointed Soft Point (PSP)
- Muzzle Velocity: 2,700 fps
- Muzzle Energy: 2,671 ft lbs
The pig, if I am not mistaken,
Supplies us sausage, ham and bacon,
Let others say his heart is big–
I call it stupid of the pig.
Let Ogden Nash’s poem The Pig serve as reminder that wild boar are similarly composed of good things to eat. Nothing keeps a marriage healthier than regularly gifting your spouse boar hocks. “Look, honey: hocks!”
Truth be told, there are much fancier bullets to use for hog hunting than a pointed soft point. If you’re trying to snipe hogs into submission – methodically picking them off one at a time from 900 yards away – then you’d do well to choose a more sophisticated, lower-drag bullet. But if you’re hunting hogs the normal way – i.e. going blap-blap-blappety-blap with an AR-10 – then a pointed soft point bullet’s all you need.
Lead core. Copper jacket. Sharp, ballistically efficient and unjacketed tip. This round’s PSP has everything it needs to cut a clean line to the target, pierce deeply into it, and widen out quickly. Direct a PSP toward Porky’s heart or cervical column, and he’ll be sure to say “Th-th-th-that’s all, folks!”
Best 308 Win Ammo for Deer Hunting
Hornady Superformance 165 Grain SST
- Product No. 80983
- Bullet Weight: 165 Grains
- Bullet Type: Super Shock Tip (SST)
- Muzzle Velocity: 2,840 fps
- Muzzle Energy: 2,956 ft lbs
Hornady’s Superformance series ammunition really is something else. It promises to boost muzzle velocity by as much as 200 fps – without producing added recoil, chamber pressure, muzzle blast, or anything else so unlikable.
This round doesn’t just push its bullet hard. As the SST, that bullet is plenty accurate. Between its concentric jacket and sleek tip, secant ogive profile and boat tail, the SST has everything it needs to conserve superior stability and velocity downrange.
The reliably deep and wide wound channel the SST produces is the product of three key features: its InterLock ring and cannelure, which keep the bullet’s core doubly locked to its jacket, and its tip which wedges into the underlying core to trigger rapid expansion.
The SST’s fast expansion truly is “super shocking” – a guaranteed deathblow so long as your aim’s up to par. It’s also not the most extravagantly priced deer hunting bullet on the market, which means you’ll be able to sink a solid amount of time into target practice without having to make highly speculative and risky crypto investments beforehand.
Best Lead-Free 308 Win Ammo for Deer Hunting
Underwood 152 Grain Controlled Chaos
- Product No. 551
- Bullet Weight: 152 Grains
- Bullet Type: Controlled Chaos
- Muzzle Velocity: 2,900 fps
- Muzzle Energy: 2,839 ft lbs
The Controlled Chaos has our vote for coolest-named bullet of all time. Sounds like two Greek gods conspired together to do something extra divine.
Lehigh Defense isn’t just in the business of coming up with neat names. The Texan (yeehaw) firm is one of the country’s leading authorities on monolithic (i.e. copper) bullets, and they specifically developed the Controlled Chaos for bagging critters in areas where lead bullets are verboten.
Internal hydraulic pressure causes the Controlled Chaos’ nose cavity to trigger expansion. Once it penetrates to a certain depth, the bullet bursts apart into a number of jagged fragments which each proceed to ream out just as many distinct wound channels. The Controlled Chaos also releases an enormous energy spike when it bursts apart, which is said to shock the quarry’s nervous and circulatory systems into shutting down.
BONG — BONG — BONG. Know what that is? It’s a funeral bell for the deer that just got shot with a Controlled Chaos.
Best 308 Win Ammo for Elk Hunting
Federal 175 Grain Terminal Ascent
- Product No. P308TA1
- Bullet Weight: 175 Grains
- Bullet Type: Terminal Ascent
- Muzzle Velocity: 2,600 fps
- Muzzle Energy: 2,627 ft lbs
It’s not that the 308 Win is necessarily bad for elk hunting. It’s just that other rounds, like the 7mm Rem Mag and 300 Win Mag, are better. But so long as you keep your range within 400 yards, the 308 Win is apt to reach a Rocky or Roosevelt with at least 1,500 ft lbs of kinetic energy – the minimum amount of power recommended for the job.
Federal’s 175 grain Terminal Ascent gives elk hunters full command over the 308’s conventional 400-yard effective range on elk. The massive bullet uses its low inertia, sleek profile, sharp Slipstream tip, and AccuChannel groove technology to overcome wind and frontal air resistance. The result? True match-grade long-range accuracy.
The Terminal Ascent features a thick copper shank, which is bonded to its heavily alloyed lead core. That ensures high weight retention, which helps the bullet plunge deeply through elk sinew as it widens out to kill quickly. Hunt with these rounds and you’ll be back at base camp before beer o’clock.
Best 308 Win Ammo for Home Defense
Winchester Defender 120 Grain Split Core HP
- Product No. S308PDB
- Bullet Weight: 120 Grains
- Bullet Type: Split Core Hollow Point (HP)
- Muzzle Velocity: 2,850 fps
- Muzzle Energy: 2,164 ft lbs
Home defense scenarios typically play out over short distances for a couple of reasons:
1. The average American doesn’t live inside of a mansion large enough to permit indoor sniping; and
2. It’s hard to argue someone is a “threat” while they’re very far away.
The 308 Win was not conceived for engaging targets at close range, of course. Its Secretariat-kick recoil, banshee-holler report, and Zeus-like striking power all make the 308 Win a poor selection for defending the castle against conventional threats.
With that being said, drive down to your local post office and observe which flag is flying in its driveway. That’s your reminder that this is America, where you can choose whichever cartridge you darn well please for defense.
Winchester designed this Defender series cartridge to compensate for the 308 Win’s massive power, in a sense. Its 2,165 fps muzzle velocity is low relative to its lightweight 120 grain bullet, which translates to (A) reduced recoil and accompanying muzzle flip, and (B) lower close-range striking energy, which is indicative of a lower risk of bystander injury resulting from over-penetration.
The split core HP is exactly the right bullet for defense, too. True to its name, its core has two halves: a front which delivers rapid, shocking expansion (which helps the bullet anchor itself “safely” inside the threat, in addition to inflicting maximum damage to said threat), and a bonded rear which retains the weight required for effective penetration through flesh.
The Takeaway
The 308 Win is one of the most versatile rifle cartridges on the planet. It can do anything, and its widespread popularity has compelled manufacturers to design ammo for every conceivable application. Whether you’re bopping gophers, toppling elk, earning trophies, or tickling recyclables at the old plinking gallery, there are already numerous perfect rounds for the job.
That’s all to say that our list isn’t remotely exclusive. Find ammo similar to any of our recommendations, and you’ll set yourself up for success regardless of what you’re setting out to accomplish. There’s only one mistake that you absolutely, positively must avoid while shopping for 308 Win ammo: buying it from any place other than this very website. Don’t forget it. Ciao!
