.308 lever, bolt or AR style
 

Looking to get into the .308 arena of shooting and was wondering what pros and cons were ffor each style. I was looking at Marlin in lever, DPMS in AR and a Howa in bolt.

RE: .308 lever, bolt or AR style
 

If you are talking about a .308 Winchester cartridge then Marlin does not chamber it. It chambers the .308 Marlin round which IMO will flop.

Besides that what exactly do you want to do with the .308? Long range paper punching, general hunting, etc...?

RE: .308 lever, bolt or AR style
 

General hunting, deer, coyotes, varmits, etc. Maybe the occasional trip North for larger. Mainly it will be used where I live in southern Illinois.

RE: .308 lever, bolt or AR style
 

Bolt gun, and the Howa is an excelent place to start looking. They make an incredible rifle for the money you will spend on one. Another good "bang for the buck" rifle would be a Savage althoughI prefer the strength and features of the Howa line.

RE: .308 lever, bolt or AR style
 

If you really want to hunt with a lever-action, look into the Browning Lever Rifle, or BLR, it's chambered in .308, as well as lots of other calibers.
Of course, if you go with any lever-action, accuracy will suffer.

I would say go with the Howa bolt-action, better hunting rifle, would work great for deer,elk, moose, bear, antelope, and other game animals.

DMPS would be a fun rifle, for shooting, but AR-10's aren't known to be ideal hunting rifles for big game.

RE: .308 lever, bolt or AR style
 

I've never had any problems with accuracy from any of my lever action guns. You just need to not try to shoot past the range of the caliber. I have several lever action marlins and anything within 200 yards is in trouble. The farthest I've had to shoot was 165 yards with my .35 Remington and the deer ran about 20 yards before falling.

RE: .308 lever, bolt or AR style
 

I'd like to get an AR10 myself, so thats what I'll suggest! :D

Not sure what your budget is but Tikka makes a real nice 308 with a bull barrel called the Varmint, it comes with rings and a 5rd detachable magazine as well.

RE: .308 lever, bolt or AR style
 

I vote that you buy all three rifles. Unless you tell us what kind of hunting you do-then basically all responses are speculation. I would agree that a standard lever action may not be as accurate as a standard bolt action-but so what. Most lever rifleswill outshoot most shooters. Maybe the bolt is better off the bench, but who hunts off the bench? I have never seen a bolt that handles like a good lever. However if you hunt past 250 yards then the bolt action will shine. The problem there is that most shooter's can not even shoot at 250 yards under hunting conditions. I think you should try one of these-that is after you load at least 1,000 shells to put through it(this counts as a lever action). Tom.

RE: .308 lever, bolt or AR style
 

Browning makes a lever action in 308 (the BLR). My stepfather has two BLRs, one in 308, and one in 243. I used the 308 a couple of years ago deer hunting when I was having a problem with the rifle that I had brought. It is a sweet little rifle, and will put a deer down. Only downside that I can see is that if you are shooting from the ground, you may have to turn the rifle slightly sideways to eject a cartridge.

Semi-autos, whether AR or not, are a good choice, IMHO. I have a 30-06 Rem 742 and it has served me reliably for years. I believe that the semis are getting more accurate, at least from what I have heard, the ARs are getting more accurate. Sometimes you need a follow up shot quickly.

With that said, I believe that you can't go wrong with a bolt action. They are accurate, and why would you need more than one shot? Actually, I took two deer with my bolt action Sako last year, and one required a quick follow up shot. If you are experienced, you can move that bolt pretty quickly.

RE: .308 lever, bolt or AR style
 

Myself a lever action guy. 308 and 358.