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I was just looking at the ballistics comparison between the .308Win Federal Match King and .338Fed Federal Ammo to see where my vote really lies.
.308Win is a great caliber and would definitely be my favorite if is was not for the emerging .338Fed that is also supported by factory manufactured ammo. The heavier bullet and comparable ballistics lend to bigger is better. The velocities are nearly the same and the downrange bullet drop is similar but at 200 yards the .338Fed has over 12% more energy. This does not matter for shooting targets but for hunting or combat that 12% could make a big difference.
For the Ultimate AR-10 I feel that it should be as versatile as possible and being able to buy ammo in a local hardware store or scavenge ammo off the battle field means my recommendation is going to be to stick with the tried and true .308 with 7.62 NATO specs.
7.62NATO without question for me. A commercial .308 chambering can prohibit the use of a wider variety of ammo. Plus, if the balloon goes up, NATO ammo will likely remain the only ones still in production, at least in quantities.
The .338 Federal cartridge will likely remain a oddman out round imo. Although I like its paper performance, its not a round I would considering stocking up on or could depend on a serious chance of resupply in a survival type situation. I'm thinking on a longterm practical level in regards to caliber choice. Btw, if I needed more punch out of a AR10 myself, I would probably pester Armalite to produce a enlarged scale AR10 in .50 BMG caliber. Now that would be a joy to shoot if feasible to produce!
Add my vote for the 7.62 NATO round as the chambering. Extremely versatile, accurate, lots of available loadings either factory or for the handloader, adequate for any North American game animal, and relatively plentiful and cheap. There may be better rounds, but if there are then they are going to tend to be more special-purpose numbers rather than all-around ones.
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