Doesn't matter what you're shooting. At that distance, the arc is significant. I was exaggerating on the mortal analogy to make a point.
I looked this up and it turns out, you are right. There is a lot of drop for both rounds at 500 yards. The left hand scale of this chart is in inches. It would have been nice if they had used more contrasting colors but the .308 has about five inches more drop at 400 yards. From the cited article: "Out to 150 yards, there is not any difference between the two rounds that is noticeable. It is not until the 250-yard mark that we start to see some space between the two trajectory lines. Even as the bullets move out to 500 yards, there is only around five inches of difference in bullet drop between the much heavier .308 round than the lighter .223 bullet. Even so, both bullets drop over 50 inches from the muzzle making long-range shots difficult with these two cartridges." I would say 50 inches of drop kind of qualifies as a "mortar shot." I am very surprised by these findings, both because I thought the .223 would run out of gas way before that and because of the overall drop with both rounds. Another chart, for shorter ranges. Again, their color choices could have been better, but the result is the .308 has more drop. From the article: "All rounds would need very minimal adjustments within the 100-yard mark, and there is no difference between the two cartridges that are worth noting. We see that both cartridges all hold around the same position at both the 200 and 300-yard mark and show only a few inches of difference for all of the rounds for each cartridge. We do see a slightly flatter trajectory from a couple of the .223 rounds. The light 40gr .223 round does show a much flatter trajectory than the other rounds, but overall, both show the same loss in trajectory at these ranges, and we are only talking about less than 2 inches of difference at the 200-yard mark. At the 300 yard mark, we do see a more discernible difference between the two cartridges, especially with the 175 and 180gr .308 rounds. There are still quite a few rounds that are clustering around the thirteen-inch drop mark, but there are outliers of much flatter .223 rounds around the nine and eleven-inch mark while some .308 rounds drop to the fifteen and seventeen-inch mark. It’s still not a huge difference between cartridges. We have a lot of comparison articles where there is a much more dramatic difference. We can conclude that the short range trajectory for both of these rounds is very similar to all the rounds dropping between 9 and 17 inches at 300 yards out. We also see that for both cartridges, there are rounds that can give you flatter trajectory or a more pronounced drop in trajectory." One more chart: Average Bullet Drop (Inches) at Long Range Yards .308 Win .223 Rem 100 2 1.53 200 0 0 300 -8.5 -7.5 400 -24.7 -23.24 500 -50.3 -50.4 700 -137.6 -155.2 1000 -401.6 -543.5 Bottom line is I thought .308 was a lot flatter shooting than it is. Of course, the much heavier bullet packs a much bigger punch. It also delivers a lot more recoil, over four times as much according to this article. The concussion blast if you happen to be standing next to someone shooting a .308 is pretty impressive as well. https://www.snipercountry.com/308-vs-223/
Great charts. Recoil can be reduced with proper employment of a muzzle break. Of course, the concussion blast is far more significant as well (and its loud as hell).
Other than the nasty over-penetration problem, I have thought that a .308 carbine would be a great home defense weapon. Provided you can get your hearing protection on. I figure even if I shoot and miss, any intruders will suffer permanent hearing loss. Class IIIA vests will barely slow it down.
Use it on yourself and you won’t need to worry about over penetration. What clown considers 7.62x51 for home defense?! Class IIIA stops 7.62. Fast, small projectiles defeat body armor. It is why FN developed the 5.7x28.
I had a custom semi auto in 45x70 government. One shot split a hardwood 4x4. 5 shots fractured my wrist. I let the guy that made it sell it but he never gave me my share.
Great deal. Free shipping and magpul sights included. These are pretty decent quality rifles. PSA PA-15 16” NITRIDE M4 CARBINE 5.56 NATO MOE AR-15 RIFLE, FDE 26 Reviews|38 Questions, 86 Answers IN STOCK $449.99 Qty: FREE SHIPPINGFree Shipping applies to this item only and not the entire order. https://palmettostatearmory.com/psa-pa15-16-nitride-m4-carbine-556-nato-moe-ar15-fde.html
Don't buy the MOE garbage with the A2 sight post and button-rifled barrel. Buy the FN-barreled upper with Geissele rail: https://palmettostatearmory.com/psa...issele-9-5-mk14-m-lok-upper-no-bcg-or-ch.html Spend another $200 for a complete lower. The above upper ships to your home. The lower is the "firearm" that requires an FFL. YOU MUST run a "pistol" lower (pistol brace) with the PSA/Geissele upper.