Caliber .30-08

by Krzysztof Turowski
Appearing often at shooting ranges, or browsing the web you can see or hear  various interesting stories, describing the challenges faced by the hunter who wants to buy ammunition or set our riflescope. However, it turns out that sometimes the biggest difficulty is to remember and correctly determine your own caliber … Scroll down to the next part.
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– I do not go to the X shop anymore, unpleasant service they have. – I heard while waiting on the shooting range to take my place – John, what do you say, after all is the cheapest store in the area. – friend’s colleague replied – Well, yes, but I wanted to buy more expensive, better bullets to my rifle. I tell that woman that she gave me the JRS, because I heard that they are better, and I heard, she will not sell me, because I have a different caliber in my license. I’m asking her what other ?! 8×57 as it is! – he complained – John, relax, you know well that she will not sell it as long as you don’t have it in your license . At the police station you have typed it wrongly, and now you have it. You can go to make it better, but you know how it is, more problems than all this is worth. You see that St Hubert does not want you to change ammo. – his friend comforted – Well, right, besides wild board don’t care which bullet they got – John assured Curtain…
  Well … some of you probably have heard this or similar conversation. The level of knowledge about ammunition, calibers, or weapons is, let’s say directly, very different. From people who are preparing themselves ammunition with full awareness, having in the safe a few or a dozen different calibres, to people who have a single shotgun throughout their lives, and hunt for big game with shotgun slug, or not at all. I heard the statement of a man who wondered how it is possible that a person who is not allowed to hunt male deers has a rifle (in Poland you need to have additional license to hunt for male deers). Well, in times when he was making his permission for weapons, young adepts were hunting only with shotgun. The law changed, he did not have time for hunting due to his work, but he is still a member of the hunting club. He appears once or twice a year on driven hunts for pheasants or hares, not wanting to hurt the grandfather who is the president of the club, thinking by the way that the rifle can’t have rifle. What do you think is his knowledge of calibres? I am writing a lot about weapons and ammunition in my book, which will be released soon, there will also be something about the setting up rifle scopes on weapon, about which I would like to prepare also a separate post. I have heard many stories about how a man with 5 bullets appeared at the shooting range, and each of them was not from another series but from completely different producer! I also heard stories about people who when asked about caliber talked: Winchester or Remington ,thinking that it would be enough and explain what kind of weapon they have. However, the biggest hit I’ve heard of is the title caliber .30-08 which, surprisingly, is not an isolated single case, but something that is heard more often. I do not know what it is caused, but it turns out that the war on the best and only right caliber that exists on the forums or facebook confused people so much, that their heads begin to combine .308 Win and .30-06 in one strange creation  named 30-08. Scroll down to the next part.
 This is how the .308Win caliber cartridge case looks like after fired from a .30-06 caliber weapon
Although such a caliber does not exist, I know the story of a man who (probably unknowingly) pursued the dream of one, universal caliber connecting both missiles. Well, I kept in my hands a shell of a .308 Win caliber bullet, which apparently was shot from a .30-06 caliber weapon and according to the principle “photo, or it’s not true” shows you the photo of the shell that remained after this experiment. An interesting thing is how much the hull deforms in the area of ​​the transition cone filling the natural gap in length. How did it happen that the .308 shot went to .30-06? Someone had both calibers and probably made a mistake in the shooting range. I also have no reason to disbelieve the person who showed me that husk, because he has heard and seen many things. You do not need to be a specialist in the area of weapon or ammunition, but you should know the caliber of your weapons and from time to time look at the tables on the packaging and understand what is on them. It is also important to remember during hunting, that it is important of which  ammunition we shoot because each bullet works differently, in other way gives energy, and causes a different effect. This is due to the fact that each is constructed according to different assumptions. It will also be useful to understand why it is worth visiting the shooting range more often than once a year and why it is important to have the same hunting projectiles that we used to adjust our optics, but soon. Happy hunting! P.S. The name of our hero from the statement was intentionally changed to “John” for the purposes of this entry.

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