I've heard things about it, but no solid proof of heavy duty bench rests harming scopes. My bench rest has a strap that goes over the buttstock and cinched tight, that's all.

Why do you suppose that is? I'm sure the .243 and 7mm-08 are good for deer, but I don't understand why they'd be better than the .308. I went .308 originally because I'm primarily a bear hunter. The sales people kept pushing other calibers, like .270 on me. They would say "This is an awesome deer rifle that can also take bears", so I would have to correct them and say "I want a bear rifle that can also take deer". The wider bore appealed to me, part of why I now use my .338 mostly for bear.

Looks like a real shooter Butch. Both the rifle and the rifleman. :patriot:

@Idaholewis

That is incredible shooting!! I am just awestruck at a .308 rifle ringing a gong at 750 yards! :hail:

@Calhunter

Thanks... My Savage .308 did all the work. I had it secured in a bench rest, and I just simply peered through the scope, reached up, and squeezed the trigger! LOL!!! :biggrin:

There's very few animals in North America that won't easily succumb to a plain old 180-grain soft point from a .308. Haven't used it on bear, myself, but I love it on deer (slower bullet seems to bring better permanent wound channel for some reason; my 1:10" twist barrel likes them more than 150's) and have heard it's almost impossible to beat on black bear (unless you go up in caliber).

Agreed. I went to the .338 Federal because of the wound channel, not the killing. In 2017 I shot a bear in Maine with my .308. No blood trail. Did I miss?

Nope. When we found the bear, I actually blew the top of its heart off. Much blood inside the bear, but not enough wound channel to not plug up. So I use the .338 for the bigger channel, not because the .308 won't kill.

Also, when I bought a new scope, I didn't want to put it on the .308 because it was "so perfect" that I didn't want to mess with it, so I put it on my "experimental" .338 Federal instead (which came with a cheaper scope too). Wanted a lighted reticle. If you've ever shot black bear with a black reticle, you'll understand why.

I've wondered about that in the past but had never talked to anyone about it specifically.

I'd imagine under certain low light conditions that black reticle would just about disappear on a bear.

-Jake

Guys the problems with the Lead Sled arises from people using too much weight to hold it down. Its simply physics. For every action there's an equal and opposite reaction. When you put too much weight on the sled the recoil energy is less than the energy needed to move the sled and the rifle's stock has to absorb all of it. Depending on the stock's design, material and the amount of recoil generated this has resulted in cracked and even broken stocks. My advice, if your rifle packs a punch a isn't pleasant to shoot during sight in is to buy a slip on recoil pad for that purpose. Once the rifle is dialed in, take it off and confirm your point of impact.
I'm not recoil shy and I like my .45-70s with full house loads for hunting and I shoot them regularly. What I do hate doing is pattering a shotgun with 12 ga 3" or 3 1/2" shells. That is brutal on the shoulder and I've punched myself in the nose with my thumb more than once forgetting to roll it out of the way!