How far can my Saiga 308 go?

[Nick9130White]

How far would my saiga .308 be able to shoot with enough power to take down big game?
Under perfect conditions.

And what's .308 "marlin" or something. Is that like .308 win?

 

[wyobohunter]

The question is very subjective so there is no definite answer. It has enough power to kill beyond ranges that most people should be shooting at live game. How far can you put a bullet in an 8" circle every time... from a field position?

What big game are we talking about? A whitetail deer and a Kodiak Brown bear are both big game.

.308 Marlin is a fairly new cartridge. It is an attempt to match bolt action ballistics out of a lever action rifle. It is not interchangeable with .308 Winchester.

 

[Nick9130White]

Good point.

I just mean what does it loose enough stopping power where it cant take down big game. Not saying I'm going to try and take down a buck at 1,000 yards I'm jut wondering.

 

[Willie Lowman]

How far can my Saiga 308 go?

All the way to Carnegie Hall. All it's gotta do is practice!

 

[smoakingun]

game up to 250 lbs, the cartridge will do the job out to 600 yards, you ability to shoot the rifle is the limiting factor

 

[wyobohunter]

Not saying I'm going to try and take down a buck at 1,000 yards I'm jut wondering.

It would have enough energy to kill that buck at 1,000 yards assuming proper bullet placement and bullet design. I wouldn't ask it to do the job of killing beyond 500 or 600 yards, and I wouldn't do that until after I've practiced extensively at those ranges and feel completely confident in my ability.

 

[mavracer]

The old rule of thumb is to hit deer sized game with 1000 ft lbs for a reliable kill.
Find the ballistic table for the load your using when. it drops below 1000 ft lbs that's your answer.

 

[macsters]

the answer to that question relies on three variables:

the terminal ballistics of the bullet
the tolerances of the weapon
the ability of the shooter

a 175 grain, FMJ boat tail, max power .308 load fired from an 22" barrel will have somewhere in the neighborhood of 1700 ft lbs of energy at 500 yards. that is plenty to take out a deer, but probably not enough to take a large bear reliably (just a guess, i dont know much about bears and other super game).

at 1000 yards, the same round has dropped to about 550 ft lbs. which many would argue is not enough to take even deer sized game.

also consider drop and wind effect. at 500 yards, the bullet has dropped about 50 inches. if there was a constant 10mph crosswind, it would be off by 22 inches or so.

as far as the saiga .308 is concerned, i saw a thread (maybe on a different forum, not sure) where a guy using handloads was able to get .5 MOA without any serious modifications. i dont know if that would be possible with factory ammo, but the gun is capable of being extremely accurate.

one more thing: its pretty hard to make field shots at those distances. before you take a shot like that, you need to make sure that you are capable of putting the round in the correct place to ensure a fast kill. if it isnt a fast kill, your long distance from the target will make it extremely difficult to track it.

 

[precision_shooter]

How far can your Saiga 308 go?

Well, how is it dressed/how much does it weigh and how strong are you? Those will factor into how far you can throw it.

Now, if mechanical help is used, then I would say at least a couple hundred yards...

Sorry, couldn't resist based on the title to your thread...

Now, on a more serious note, Barrel length and weight of projectile, and shooter's ability will be the major factors as far as how far the rifle will actually shoot accurately. I would say 500-600 yards, more with handloads and lots of practice with wind doping...

 

[Dave R]

your ability to shoot the rifle is the limiting factor

There's your answer.

 

[mavracer]

at 1000 yards, the same round has dropped to about 550 ft lbs. which many would argue is not enough to take even deer sized game.

somthing else I was thinking along this line.
550 ft lbs would be iffy IMHO on deer size game. But at say 50 yards where I knew I could "place my shot" I'd feel a lot better about taking the shot than at 1000 yards where time of flight is enough that mr deer could just decide to take a step and turn my marginal power into a gutshot animal I'd have little hope of harvesting.

 

[Kreyzhorse]

The old rule of thumb is to hit deer sized game with 1000 ft lbs for a reliable kill.
Find the ballistic table for the load your using when. it drops below 1000 ft lbs that's your answer.

I've never heard that before but I like it. I will use that at some point.

 

[chris in va]

At 1001 yards, it just bounces off the target.

Don't tell all the handgun hunters that 700 ft/lbs isn't enough to bring down a deer. They'll all want rifle chamberings after that.

 

[mavracer]

Don't tell all the handgun hunters that 700 ft/lbs isn't enough to bring down a deer. They'll all want rifle chamberings after that.

guess I need to clerify

from WIKI

A rule of thumb is a principle with broad application that is not intended to be strictly accurate or reliable for every situation. It is an easily learned and easily applied procedure for approximately calculating or recalling some value, or for making some determination.

under the right conditions 100 ft/lbs is enough to cleanly and humainly kill animals they've been doing it for years in slaughter houses.

of course maybe the OP is a really good shot and can put it right behind the deer's ear at 2 miles when the 308 has dropped down to 100 ft/lbs.

 

[Mannlicher]

How far would my saiga .308 be able to shoot with enough power to take down big game?
Under perfect conditions.

And what's .308 "marlin" or something. Is that like .308 win?

what a scary question!

 

[Willie D]

as far as the saiga .308 is concerned, i saw a thread (maybe on a different forum, not sure) where a guy using handloads was able to get .5 MOA without any serious modifications. i dont know if that would be possible with factory ammo, but the gun is capable of being extremely accurate.

Results not typical.



I don't know if I'd take ANY shots on game with a Saiga past 300yds. I think most of the answers that the OP is getting pertain more to what the .308 round is ultimately capable of vs. what your garden variety Saiga .308 is capable of. Saigas will string shots all over the place when heated up, especially with the longer barrel models and .308 will definitely lose to range out of a 16" barrel.


What length barrel do you have? That'll make a difference too.

 

[Edward429451]

I have an old magazine article back from when people could shoot, and the old writers admonishing the readership to be sure and pick a load that will give you 200 ftlbs for a certainty, otherwise you may have to chase your big game down...

By all means, use the 1000 ftlb rule. I'm just illustrating the point that how good you shoot the rifle will be the limiting factor.

 

[Nick9130White]

It's a 21.somethin inch barrel.

 

[rshanneck2002]

rshaneck2002

I dont know willie d about that one, i own a 22in barrelled Saiga and it does just fine for an ak style weapon out to 500 yds,mine stays in the black with a 100 yd target out that far. About the size of a normal mans head i would think? I do this with the russian side mount with a Mueller 3x10 on top,for what i paid for the 308 i find it crazy as all get out when people pay a thousand or more for the russian sniper rifles. I have only shot mag-tech 150 gr fmj thru her so i really dont know what it would do with real good ammo. For the money i paid at the time good deal. One tough rifle and any barrell when good and hot will change point of impact,this is a combat rifle and russians believe in minute of torso so to speak. Sighted in with a cold bore shot with good ammo,well you could kill a deer quite far with on i do believe.

 

[Northslope Nimrod]

What Mavracer said. See above. The .308 is plenty for deer. Fine for elk. 1000 ft pounds of energy is enough for elk and more than enough for deer. Use the table, but the real limiting factor is being able to make a proper hit...as a hot loaded 308 with premium bullets will have the killing power way beyond most of our accuracy ranges.