16" is the minimum rifle barrel length, by Federal law. Some states have (or had) 18" minimum requirements for hunting.
Many good replies so far, and a couple I have to wonder about.
The .308 was developed to use a 22" barrel. And it was developed to duplicate the GI .30-06 M2 ball ammo. In civilian loadings, it, like the .30-06 have been increased over the GI specs, by a fair margin.
A .308 in a pistol length barrel (14" like the T/C Encore) still has plenty of energy to cleanly take deer at 300 yards. ALL .308 rifles have enough. Worrying about the energy from different rifle barrels is immaterial to the question asked. The 1000 lb energy rule is simply a reference point, and not a real world absolute. Note that some states only require 500lbs of energy for deer, from a handgun! If you can take deer with that, you can certainly do it just fine with more. Game laws are rule for sport, and not minimum limits for what can actually do the job.
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As a point of interest, the G3/HK91 used an 18" barrel. Combat is much the same as hunting, 400m is a long shot for the average soldier.
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As a point of interest, the M14 uses a 22" barrel. The original FAL also uses a long barrel. The original M16 uses a 20" barrel.
Machts nichts. The only place where combat is "much the same as hunting" is that long shots are seldom made by the average soldier. Everything else is vastly different.
When you are talking hunting rifles, .308s are not "average 3 pounds more carry weight...etc". This can be true when you are talking about battle rifles/assault rifles in a military context, but for sporting rifles, its simply not true.
I spent my teenage years hunting deer with w Remington 600 carbine in .308 Win. 18.5" barrel. Blast is harsh, and recoil from the 6.5lb carbine is not inconsiderable. However, it performed very well, and was not a tremendous burden to carry. The same rifle in .243 Win or 6mm Rem is easier on the shoulder, and will do as good a job on deer (dead is dead), but I would choose the .308 if bear or anything bigger than deer were on my list.