Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Africa 308 Win for plains game

Is the 308 Win used very much for plains game and what bullets and weights used?

It's just fine.
I have used the 308 to kill a number of elk and my sister uses hers to kill moose and caribou, as well as a grizzly in Alaska.

I'd opt for 180 grain Partitions or maybe 165s,

It’s works perfectly.
Bullet weights depend on the length of shot planned (typically longer in the N Cape, E Cape mountains and plains than in Limpopo bushveld). As an all purpose load I’d probably go with either 165gr bonded (Accubond, Scirocco, Interbond, A-Frame etc) or 150gr copper (CX, TTSX, TSX, E-Tip etc) - whichever shoots best in your rifle.

Worked for me on Kudu with a lowly 150g Hornady Interlock.

Bullet selection and reasonable shot distance are the key. Keep your shots under 300 hundred yards. Use a good quality bonded bullet or Partitions/A-frames of 165 grains and you will do just fine. Bonded bullet or Partition/A-frame .... because the African game typically needs a shot through the shoulders to get to the vitals.

From what I have learned from a lot of reading on African hunting forums, it seems that the .308 is quite likely the most common cartridge used by resident hunters for plains game hunting in much of Africa. Certainly South African "biltong" hunters and landowners have used the .308 for many decades with good success. Bullet weights for the .308 trend towards the 165-180 grain for most African hunting, simply because a variety of game is often available and bullet choice sensibly tends to be dictated by effectiveness on the larger species present. So yes, the .308 is capable, common, and widely used.

Super common round used by locals. The game ranger we had with us used a rifle chambered in .308.

Absolutely FINE for really all African PG and I include eland. I prefer the 300s, but a 308 has probably taken more game in Africa with the possible exception of the 303 British than anything else. Great, well balanced round with mild recoil.. Nice for the ladies...

Just as a comparative reference point, a 150gr. TSX handloaded to 2950fps will completely broadside pass-through the shoulders of zebra (mountain and plains) out to 200m. I've done it a LOT while culling. Factory ammo is readily available in RSA, Nam and Bots but, not loaded as fast.

Yeah, the .308 works fine. My wife Eileen with her zebra stallion, South Africa 2008--handloaded 150-grain Nosler E-Tip at about 2850 fps:

We used a .308 with a 150 grain TTSX load at 2900 fps for plains game last fall in Mozambique, and it worked very well on a variety of species including a big sable.