I was thinking about why I hunt less these days and concluded it was getting more difficult with each passing year to find a spot level enough to set up my lawn chair and beach umbrella. I don’t mind roughing it, but there is a limit. I remember dragging my first buck a couple of miles back to an old logging road and the car. Up hill, down hill, I think I was so bug eyes excited I ran most of the way dragging that deer through snow and brush. It was also the first deer I field dressed by myself.
People should hunt. Real hunting, not an ATV ride to a tree stand or blind for a wait over feed. It teaches self reliance, independence and a better understanding of nature and animals made for tasty table fare. Who knows, the DPMS GII Compact Hunter may be enough to get me off my butt and out deer hunting, even without the lawn chair.
The current state of cartridge politics…
I was not a fan of the 308 Winchester cartridge. Sure, it has great utility, it is a very effective hunting round and it is highly accurate in competitive shooting. Still, it diminished the 30-06 Springfield’s popularity and suggested the U.S. military needed less recoil and relief from the weight of ammunition. From the introduction of the 7.62 NATO, it was a short slippery slope to the issuance of the diminutive 5.56 NATO to our military. Bad, bad, bad… Pictured left, our manly military cartridges:45-70 Gov’t, .30 Krag, 30-06 Springfield, followed by the 7.62 NATO, 5.56 NATO. Conceding that we live in more diverse and tolerant times, I would like to take a brief moment to formally forgive the7.62 NATO / 308 Winchester for its trespasses and embrace its potential contribution to my enthusiasm for anything that launches a projectile. That said, I am now formally ecstatic about the GII Compact Hunter with its 30-06 Springfield truncation, the 308 Winchester cartridge.
On a more serious note, the 308 Winchester is a do it all cartridge and without fuss. While suitable for long range hunting, here, this compact combination is suited for woods hunting and short to mid range shooting. The Compact’s barrel is shorter than the GII Hunter, the Compact is lighter, but the power generated is more than enough for moose, elk, deer, black bear and hogs short to mid range. As a bonus, the GII Compact Hunter is easy to haul around in hill and mountainous settings.
A Short barrel, a 4 bullet knot
Right – Four of the hundreds of component bullets available for the 308 Winchester. Within a class and intended application, many will do as well, however, these specific bullets fly straight, have a decent BC and are not expensive. These should cover everything from coyote to moose and they were found on the bullet shelves next to the shop’s reloading bench which is always handy.
| Bullet | Number | Weight Grains |
Length Inches |
COL Inches |
| Hornady SP | 3020 | 130 | 0.935 | 2.690 |
| Winchester PP | WB30PP150 | 150 | 1.045 | 2.735 |
| Sierra GameKing SP | 2145 | 165 | 1.175 | 2.750 |
| Nosler Partition SP | 16331 | 180 | 1.260 | 2.800 |
There are more slick bullets for long range shooting, but the GII has a 16″ barrel and the handloads are for woodland hunting; > 50 yards, but < 200 yards.
The road is long, with many a winding turn… that leads us to who knows where1)
I did encounter a few anomalies along the way. I reloaded from a supply of Federal made Fusion, Remington Core-Lokt and Hornady Superformance brass. All brass had been fired once as a component of a factory cartridge from the same bolt action rifle. The Hornady brass was either made from soft cartridge brass alloy, or annealed soft at the factory or subjected to higher than typical pressure levels in factory cartridge form because they were all headstamp flattened or bolt face ejector hole marked. Additionally, the primer pockets were opened up. Consequently, the Hornady brass was relegated to cutaway illustration use.
Primers from the most recent box of Remington 9 1/2 primers opened have been a loose fit in virtually every case tried; very light resistance to seating compared to CCI 200 primers, with one exception. A large lot of new Norma 7x57mm brass has freakishly small primer pockets that will not accept CCI 200 primers without creating the need for ear protection. Subsequently, the two are married exclusively when I assemble 7x57mm handloads.
All of the handloads for this project were assembled with CCI 200 primers and no problems were experienced. I did assemble one round from Hornady brass, with the Remington 9 1/2 primer and that sole example barfed up its primer and ejected it separately and concurrently with the spent brass.
It is easy to get the 308 Winchester to a case full charge with optimal speed powder and to have too much room with faster powder. All of the powders listed below that are listed by their manufacturers for 0.224″ and 0.308″ AR rifle applications are compressed. One heavy bullet Winchester 760 charge was curious as, to the tenth grain, It was both the result of a QuickLoad simulation and a listing in Hornady 8th Edition. In either event the charge filled cases right to the mouth, leaving no room for a bullet so Winchester 760 was dropped from this application.
 |
Warning: Bullet selections are specific, and loads are not valid with substitutions of different bullets of the same weight. Variations in bullet material and length will alter net case capacity, pressure and velocity results. Primer selection is specific and primer types are not interchangeable. These data represents maximum loads in our firearms and test equipment and may easily be excessive in other applications. All loads should be reduced by 5%, and developed following safe handloading practices as represented in established reloading manuals produced by component manufacturers. Presentation of these loads does not constitute a solicitation for their use, nor a recommendation.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bringing it to a close…
The DPMS GII Compact Hunter is an easy carry, good shooting modern sporting rifle. It’s light weight and compact envelop give it an almost lever gun feel. This one is clean. No remnants of zombie killing video games, no extra gunk to break or get in the way of a simple mission, hunting. For folks who have suffer with bulk and weight to get AR 10 performance, the GII gives AR 10 power in an AR 15 size package.
1) He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother – The Hollies 1969
The GII Compact Hunter from DPMS Panther Arms Part 1
The GII Compact Hunter from DPMS Panther Arms Part 2
Email Notification