Hunting gun, help me choose - 7.63x39 or 300 AAC?

[damon1272]

OP your choice is fine. As for caliber I would go with the 300. 7.62x 39 could get scare if there are import restrictions put in place. Also American bores IIRC are .308 vs. .311 for the imports. Reloaded or American sourced bullets will be at .308 so better potential for accuracy. Either of these rounds are near 30-30 performance so as long as ranges are reasonable you are fine. Go have fun!

[Woody13]

Smitty I have both and shoot both and love them both for hunting. Its more of a feel for what you want. I do reload on the 300 but not really on the 7.62. Both have a great knock down power. I also agree with using a .223 or .556 for that matter as well. I do know that if you have a lower get a complete upper of either one and just switch out as you want to. There is only three grains between the two but they both are loaded differently. The 300 is my go to and if ammo is scarce again I am set and can still load all day. Its a great platform and I own 5 and tend to shoot the 7.62 more out of my AK.

[Whatisthis?]

I think the 300 is wonderful. I just built my own a couple weeks ago. Cut my own brass from 223, bought a couple things of powder more suited to 300 BO, got some decent bullets for it and I'm set. I am getting xtreme bullets for plinking and the additional cost is almost nothing over 556. Super fun to shoot supers and subs together.

I've looked into good hunting bullets and have plenty of choices if going within 150 yards. Outside of that, you're probably going to need the optimized Barnes ttsx for 300 (expansion down to 1300 fps). I think a couple noslers will get you to ~200 yards.

I don't know enough about 7.62x39 to comment.

[SloChicken]

Look how many folks hunt deer with a nice SKS

ratled

Most of Russia

I took many antelope and mule deer with my Mini 30 over the years.

Privi Partizan offers a soft point round that is boxer primed that works great in my mini. It is a great hunting round but not lead free.

[SloChicken]

OP your choice is fine. As for caliber I would go with the 300. 7.62x 39 could get scare if there are import restrictions put in place. Also American bores IIRC are .308 vs. .311 for the imports. Reloaded or American sourced bullets will be at .308 so better potential for accuracy. Either of these rounds are near 30-30 performance so as long as ranges are reasonable you are fine. Go have fun!

7.62x39 will NEVER be as scarce as 300aac/blk at it's most popular.

There are far too many rifles chambered in 7.62 for that ever to happen. No matter what goes on in the eastern bloc.

[SloChicken]

all that said, the .243 sounds like the best choice mentioned here.

[ratled]

How many have hunted with 30-30?
lots as far as I know.
And who's talking SKS? 7.62 x39 AR and done.

Talking about the round and taking deer.... I would SWAG the SKS is the leader in the x 39 harvest thats all......and yes, I use and x39 AR for mine

ratled

[sigstroker]

.243 is a great round, and out of the two, it's really a toss-up. They have almost identical ballistics from everything I've read. I would say there are more hunting loadings in the .300blk on the market now that it's caught up. There will be an unending source for your .300 brass as well with as saturated as the market is with .223 also.

Obviously, I'm leaning toward the .300, but and it's a big BUT, the 7.62x39 will be cheaper to shoot just plinking if you're purchasing factory ammo. If you're rolling your own, either one is just fine.

OP's two choices both suck, especially for inexperienced hunters that can't accurately judge distance, and thus bullet drop. .243 is orders of magnitude better. Hopefully OP won't teach beginners to be irresponsible and use inadequate calibers for the task.

For expert hunters that know both their and the calibers limitations, it's a different story.

[ElvenSoul]

OP your choice is fine. As for caliber I would go with the 300. 7.62x 39 could get scare if there are import restrictions put in place. Also American bores IIRC are .308 vs. .311 for the imports. Reloaded or American sourced bullets will be at .308 so better potential for accuracy. Either of these rounds are near 30-30 performance so as long as ranges are reasonable you are fine. Go have fun!

Ummm 7.62x39 is .310 not .311

[C.W.M.V.]

Talking about the round and taking deer.... I would SWAG the SKS is the leader in the x 39 harvest thats all......and yes, I use and x39 AR for mine

ratled

Oh my apologies, I didn't mean to be snarky.thought you were joking about the sks.

[ElvenSoul]

There is a SKS Pig Hunting Club in Arkansas

[ElvenSoul]

To bad the 7-30Waters died off.

[smittty]

Thanks for all the feedback.

I know the ballistics for both cartridges are very similar to the 30-30 which I've used for moose. At this point I'm pretty much decided on the 300 AAC.

Now I'm choosing the rifle...I'm leaning towards the bolt action but I do like the idea of an AR upper.

[ElvenSoul]

Precision Design makes dedicated .300 mags for the AR

[Str8Shoot3r]

Blackout is good. But the rifle I'd stick to an AR platform. The Ruger is a good choice.