Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Favorite long range load in the .308 Win ?

I've been playing with my "heavy .308" for a number of years now. I've kind of "settled" a bit on either a 155 gr. bullet, like the SRA Palma bullet, and the 175 gr. Sierra MK. as my "all around" long rang load for my rifle. Both shoot pretty well.
I haven't tried the competition or other styles in those weights.
What do you like ? What case, primer, powder and charge ?
Anybody compared the 155 gr. bullets from SRA aginst the Nosler Match, or the Hornady 155 gr. A-Max ? How about the various 175-180 gr. weights and styles ?
I'm not planning to shoot game with them, but, if it comes up, how did any of these work for that ?
Between the two, the 155 gr. stuff or the 175-180 gr. stuff, which would you pick if you were to go with just one load for all you LR shooting ? E

E,

With 175/178 look at around 44-45 of Varget, 43-45 Rl 15, or 42-44ish of 4064. All are excellent and thousands of people use these loads or very close to them. Id stick with Winchester brass or Lapua. Primers, I like BR-2 or 210M. You can get 2700fps with these loads in 24in. match barrels. For the 155 bullets look at 46-47 Varget or around 45ish of 4895.

As far as "best" bullet.........wth knows. The 175/178 @ 2700 is around 36min elevation @ 1000yards, the 155 @ 2900 is around 32min elevation. Ive stuck with the 175/178's myself, but the 155's are alot flatter shooting. I shot some 155's out of a stock Savage tactical Sunday, and it took 31min to get to 1000 and it shot very very well. I havent shot enough of the 155's to give an in-depth comment. The 155's im referring to are Lapua btw.

Good luck

I just shot a PR match on the 21st with my 40x, 20" 1:12.

I had started playing with heavy, high BC bullets, but found that 155 are the bullet. With 48.5gn 2520 I am getting 2775 out of a 20 inch barrel at 57K pressure. around 32 MOA at 1K and as accurate as you could like.

I plan to try 155 scenars, which BC at 0.508 compared to the SMK Palma at 0.450. Another possibility if you like a heavier bullet is the Lapua 170gn Lock Base with a BC of 0.525.

Berger and JLK offerings are also worth a look, and beat most of the Sierra offerings of the same weight.

Also, if they are available locally, give a hard look at Vihtavuori powders like N135, N140 and N5xx series. I've found them to be very consistent and super clean.

Loaded rounds in the Lapua brass I have are about .005" larger in neck diameter than those in Winchester brass. This can be an advantage in a chamber with the standard generous neck. The Lapua cases are nearly twenty grains heavier too, so watch out on the top end loads.

mathman

The load my .308 likes the best is 43.5gr R15 w/ the 175gr Matchking and Fed 210M. Averaged .59" for 4 groups. Two of those groups were in the .4s, and the other two had called flyers. But.... I did shoot a .095" group once with 45gr R15 and 155gr Nosler Custom Competition bullets. Gotta investigate that one more carefully, as that's the only group I have shot with that particular load. Lapua brass in both loads.

John

Good info here guys. I just ordered some Lapua brass and Moly coated Scenar boolits, to try out. It looks like backing down a bit for the heavier brass is required. Thanks for the heads up.

I shoot in a factory class and my barrel much preferred the 168 SMK over the 175 SMK. 43 grains of Varget in Lapua brass with Fed match primer gets it done.

Thanks for the imput guys.
One of the things I like about the SMK's is they engineer their bullets to keep up their BC as they fly over the longer yardages. That, and they are very accurate.
Thanks for the tip on the Lapua brass. I do understand that commerical .308 chambers are cut a little generous to accomondate mil surp ammo. So having brass that's a touch thicker in the neck would be helpful. E

Im guess Im the loner but I have had great luck with the 178 Amax over Varget, noticebly better in the wind past 600 yards. I have some bias against the SMK175 due to erratic terminal performance but thats a battle I dont have the energy to get into right now.

I have a rifle with a Shilen barrel that absolutely PUKES the 175 MKs down range. But when I shoot 168's, it knots them up very nicely. Who knows?



Mine is close...

42 grains of Varget in a military match case.

44 grs.Varget,fed.210m,168 Nosler Competition,.010" off the lands,Lapua brass.

Tried some 178gr Amaxes a couple of weeks ago. 43gr R15 gave me a .481" group. That was the only group I shot with that particular load. Also tried 43.5 and 44, but here was a definite trend. The higher I went over 43gr, the less it liked it.

The 175gr MK prefers 43.5 to 44gr R15 in my rifle, with 44gr giving me .431" group. 44gr is getting a little warm, though... Fed 210Ms in all, and all loaded slightly into the lands.

John

My .308 prefers H4895. Tried RL 15 and Varget, H4895 consistently shoots higher speed w/accuracy as well. I use Lapua brass and 45.5grs with 155gr Nosler and 41.5grs with 175 Sierra MK. My loads also jump .140 to the rifling. Standard Deviation is usually less than 10fps. Varget would get up to max, then velocity would slow down with some really flattened primers. If Lapua brass is 20grs heavier thats probably why I cant get more than 42grs of 4064 under 150gr bullet.