Went out today and shot a bunch of wet newsprint and dry phone books. The standard 170 grain bullets from Speer, Sierra and Winchester all want to shed their jackets. The surprising 160 Flextip doesnt at least not yet! The shortened 200 grain Speers, flat-pointed and lightened to 193.5 grains did very well!
Free Video ( YouTube would likely demonetize this one anyway)
The two best flat points for .308 are Swift A-Frame (150 and 170 grain) and Hawk (150, 170 and 190 grain). They will withstand higher velocity of 307 Win, expand nicely and penetrate deeply. Both are very well made.
Last night lathed some 200 Speer Spitzers to a 190 grain bluff point FP and converted some 180 grain Nosler Partition soft points to a 170 grain extreme flat nose. Today I found 170 grain Nosler RN's at the store. So three more to try!
2) 160 Horn 30-30 FlexTip loaded to 2500 with 4064 1.25 MOA
3) 160 Flextips (Enhanced BC for 308 Marlin Express) loaded in blown out 308 Marlin cases to fit 307 chamber and with a short neck to allow these bullets to seat to cannelure, with 4064 to 2500fps and 1.25 MOA
4) 190 grain Speer bullets made from 200 Speer spitzers with 10 grains lathed off the nose making a bluff pointed FN 2 MOA with H414to 2250-2300ft/sec. Moose
5) Hopefully either 170 grain Nosler Partition RN (factory) or 170 Nosler FN made from shortened 180 Partition Spitzers. Will test this weekend with 4064, 748 and H414. Moose and Grizz.
Nice, I have a modern 26" octagon barreled M-94 that I shoot 170 gr Partitions to 2400 fps with RL-15, ringing steel out to 200 yards is cake through the Lyman receiver peep, and you wouldn't believe how those bullets penetrate deer and pigs, not so sure I wouldn't readily use it on elk in the timber.
Loaded some 150 Speer 150 FN into a 06 case, for a retired Marine friend.. for his Garand that he was shooting in local competition... I stress local...
but out of his Garand that was the most accurate load...he had bought 1000 of the bullets on some dirt cheap sale...
he used the same load out of his 30/06 for deer.. and it had no problem dropping a couple of deer with it.. at about 200 yds...
"Minus the killings, Washington has one of the lowest crime rates in the Country" Marion Barry, Mayor of Wash DC
“Owning guns is not a right. If it were a right, it would be in the Constitution.” ~Alexandria Ocasio Cortez
North, Thanks for the videos. It always fun to see what you're working on.
You've got me thinking I may have to pull the 307 out of the back of the safe and try some Hornady 140gr MonoFlex bullets. I had been loading 150gr Barnes previously but it's the off season and I need to visit the range before I get too busy.
Midway has some 140gr blems for sale.
"Camping places fix themselves in your mind as if you had spent long periods of your life in them. You will remember a curve of your wagon track in the grass of the plain like the features of a friend." Isak Dinesen
170gr Nosler Partition RN loaded down to 2,400fps MV in a .308.
Impact velocity about 2,150fps. One shot kill.
Complete penetration on broadside shot. Mad dash, then collapse.
SWEET, hell of a deal Tarbe, two and three feet of penetration on a couple hogs, and four feet on a giant doe deer led me to believe they would work just fine for elk in the timber, good to know about black bear too.
I pushed the Speer 170 HotCor to 2400 in a 30-30 AI. My friend used it to kill a big 300# sow with around 25yds. It made a .25 cent piece exift hole (front of left shouder out rear of right shoulder) drt. I though it looked pretty tough? Of course I never used them in a .308 (307) around 2700+ either.
The best all-round bullet I have found is the Speer 170-grain Hot Core. With close shots I have driven three the full length of our West Texas whitetail. The biggest probably 140lb on the hoof. Two bullets remained under the hide like a big marble. The third exited. These were going between 2,350 and 2,450 fps. Different loads for each deer. The Speer bullet opens up and yet holds together and penetrates quite well.
I have experienced odd entrance wounds with the Leverevolution bullets. With the .30-30AI, .308 Marlin Express and the .307 Winchester the bullet blows the hair off the hide in a 1 to 1 1/2" circle around the entrance hole. On close in shots, under 75 yards, the bullets tend to wad up but they do penetrate and damage tissue. I have read of several elk taken with the .308ME but none were taken at close range.
The old smooth side Barnes was a favorite. The newer TSX works fine but the smooth side bullet was quite accurate in my rifles.
The new Nosler E Tip and the Winchester Ballistic Silvertip are fine deer bullets too. Both deliver bragging accuracy and good performance on deer under 200 yarange.
In my rifles the Hornady 170-grain bullet has such a large meplat it must be seated a bit deeper to chamber due to the short throats, or lack of a real throat, which reduces powder space a bit. Most high performance loads are compressed charges to begin with.
I remember your screen name from Marlins. I have looked at some of the new powders but there is no significant improvement in accuracy. My velocity. Goals have proven to be valid with several rifles over the long term. With the .307, .308ME and .30-30AI you pick your bullet, powder and load to your velocity goal. I would like to talk bullets with the folks at Speer. The 140- 150- and 170-grain Hot Core bullets certainly perform well at 26" .30-30 or 20" .30-30AI velocities. At the 2,350- to 2,450 fps level the bullets expand and penetrate while shedding a rough 1/3 or so of their weight. The bullets are accurate and expand quickly while still appearing to be tough enough to handle bones anywhere enroute. My experience being limited to deer and pigs. There are some very good premium bullets available and they perform well on our light bodied deer. For heavy game they may well be best. For a hunter after deer and pigs the Speer bullets are hard to beat.
Preacher, I have read a few complaints from folks shooting screws loose on the .30-30AI. I have never done so. Have you?
What happened to North 61 testing the 170 partition? I'm extremely curious as that's what I load in the wicked little thirty.
Sorry I got side tracked by a sub MOA new to me Forbes 24B, 25-06 that has stolen my attention. I'll get back to the 307 later in July, in the meantime Layne Simpson has a great 307 & 356 article in the latest (August 2108) Shooting Times. He doesn't test the partition as it's a round-nose and Winchester had cautioned only using FN bullets. Not sure what I think about that but great article none-the-less.
I finally got my new .307 brass and some 160gr 30-30 flex tips to load up, and I'm quite happy with them. I worked up 3 different loads using Leverevolution, and all of them shot quite well. I didn't know how well that bullet would hold up so glad to hear it's performing well.
Ok..finally took out the 307 again this AM. The 160 Hornady Factory ammo continues to kick butt. Accurate, fast and flat shooting. I also tried out the 170 Nosler RN Partition with the same load of 4064 that works so well with the Sierras. It equals the accuracy of the Sierra (1.3") with a bit more pressure and 50ft/sec more speed. It really penetrated well but shed the front core when it slammed into hard paper after penetrating all the wet newsprint. Good wound channel and very straight line penetration. Also tested 180 grain Nosler spitzers with 11 grains of the point lathed off. They penetrated even better but shot into 3" groups.
I wanted to test out the new 307 180 grain F.P. run of factory ammo. The bullets look a bit soft but after the first shot there was a crack in the brass sidewall that was pretty scary. Won't use it again, and didn't test these bullets. Shipping the box back to Winchester.
