younggun308

That makes all the sense in the world, yet I had never even thought about it.

Cub Slayer

Every time I shot a bear (at six now since 2014), I've had to put the reticle on the bear, then raise the gun so I could see the reticle, and lower it again. I didn't ever miss, but didn't like the process. Same reticle is fine for deer, being brown or gray.

Last two bears were taken with my .338 with the lighted reticle. Makes a huge difference. Totally worth it if you are primarily a bear hunter. My scope has 3x-18x, which is a bonus. I have yet to shoot any animal above 3x.

ButchA

I've seen those lighted reticle scopes, and they are really cool looking for real dark dusk conditions. I'm primarily a deer hunter and never went after bear. I don't think I could shoot a bear (too cute & cuddly, like a teddy bear... LOL...) but then again, if one were to come AFTER ME, then obviously I'm taking action!

It's just great to see that the .308 cartridge is still the most widely accepted, universal, "do it all", type of round out there. Military snipers, home defense, target shooting, game taking, etc... and I've heard that it is among the most easiest to reload too.

Big Uncle

I have a rifle chambered in 308 and have had others in the past. It is a very useful cartridge for most purposes but I never truly warmed to it. I have fired many thousand rounds of this cartridge, the vast majority of them being the military version fired in a M-60 machine gun back in the dark days of my youth. The good old 308 is basically a shortened 30-06 that was designed to feed easily through belt fed machine guns.

The 308 is a fine choice for almost all of this world's game and does a pretty fair job on the target range as well. I can not think of very many circumstances where a 308 would be inappropriate for the task at hand.

Cub Slayer

There's a bit of humor behind why I hunt bears. When the stock market tanked in 2008/2009, we looked for an alternate place to put our money, so we started buying land. When we had some, the wife said "Why not take up hunting?" I always wanted to do it, but having my own hunting grounds was an excellent kick start. Then she said "But I don't like venison, so hunt bears". I thought "Sure".

I'm not a bowhunter (yet), so the "rifle any time" nature of bear hunting (here anyway) also added to the appeal. I'll eat venison, but I too think bear tastes better.

There is also the simple fact that I suck at hunting. Up here, I think its easier to hunt bears than deer. My own record somewhat backs this up - I have taken six bears and one buck since 2014, and I hunt the entire rifle deer season every year. (A bit dishonest here, since some bears came from bear camp - I don't go to deer camp).

Cub Slayer

Incidentally, although I bought a $450 lighted reticle Vortex scope, Bushnell makes (made?) one that I bought to test about two years ago. I think it was called the "Banner". Normally $60, but I got it for $35 with a rebate (which they DID send me). Its a 1" 3x-9x 40mm typical scope with red OR green lighting.

Optically, it looks fine, but I was hesitant to trust my cub slayer to the cheap untested scope. I put it on my AR-15 and it has performed flawlessly, but I'm not convinced it would take the pounding of my .308 or .338. I had a cheap Weaver scope, on my .243 no less, wear out after two seasons. The lenses moved making it impossible to focus. Didn't want to take that chance on a bear hunt.

Nomercy448

ButchA

My Bushnell scope on my Savage .308 is the older model Bushnell Trophy 3-9x40 (now if you go to Bushnell's website, they still have the Trophy, but it is now 4-12x40 for $129 bucks. I knew of the Banner series and Dusk & Dawn series back then, but I wanted to go one model up, and got the Trophy scope. So far after all these years, it is still holding up to anything, any conditions, any weather, and hasn't lost its "zero".

Cub Slayer

"Little"?

I hope you're right, because it seems like a nice scope. At this point, it would probably go on my .308 anyway, which is "cursed" with a perfectly good unbranded Nikon scope. No reason to swap it out other than wanting the lighted reticle. When the Weaver on my .243 died, I replaced it with the Bushnell Trophy I took from my .338.

Memtb2149