Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters 165 and 180 Accubonds and ballistic tips and the 308

Picked up some of these over the weekend for my Kimber Montana in 308 win for a walking around deer and black bear load for the hardwood bottom swamps in eastern NC that we hunt from time to time. Shots will be from 150 to 50 yds. Looking to run them at 2500 FPS or so. Thinking that either of those will equal some dead critters......looking at RL 15 or 4350 as my powder......thoughts?

RL15 or Varget with the 165's at 2,650-2,700. Good performance on medium sized game such as deer and hogs. Don't know about bears, but if it works on a 200-300lb pig, it should work on an average black bear.

J, my thoughts exactly......am ony looking for 2500 or so, but if they go a little faster, that will be fine.

R15 or Varget is where I'd roll as well. That Montana with Varget and 168 NBT's is gonna be a rock star!

Dober

Varget and 165's (or 150's) has been sweetness in every .308 I've loaded for.

Sounds good....need to see how much Varget I have...might need to get some extra. Really want to see what the 180's will do as well

46 gr of Varget gives me 2730 fps with Hornady 165's in my Kimber 308. Accuracy is under 1" for 3 shots. Never tried 180's in the 308.

Varget and R15 are fine .308 powders, but don't overlook H4895 with 165 & 180 grain bullets. Most consider H4350 too slow for the .308, but it works well with 180 grain bullets even if the charges are compressed somewhat.

Thanks Lo. I really am not looking to try to push these fast anyway........Given that that I am using b tips and accubonds, not really needing a ton of speed for em to work......want something accurate and that will put the deer and black bears down, and either of these bullets will take care of that for me....

Either RL-15, or Varget, and the 165's should do great. I've used those for quite a while, with excellent results. The Ballistic Tip should work fine, particularly at the modest velocity you're using. I've punched it through deer before, no problem. Opened right up, and punched through.

My son and I have used the various 165 Noslers on deer and bear in recent years, from a .308 and a .30-06. They all did well. Haven't ever tried the 165 Accubond, not yet. Just the B-Tip, Partition and the good old Solid Base which was a predecessor to the B-Tip.

Regards, Guy

Guy, those Nosler Solid bases were well, solid.........need to go on a scrounging mission to dig some of em up.... You really need to try some of the Accubonds, they are a heck of a deer bullet.....I shoot them alot out of my 270....love em out of it...

That 168BT is pretty solid also, since it is about 50% jacket. I ran them all season last year at 2,620fps (max book Varget load) from a 20" barrel and everything died in short order. I think it was 9 deer and hogs, total. Caught just one bullet on a hard quartering shot, but it dropped the deer. I sold that rifle to my father and he is still killing hogs with my loads. Most just drop with two good holes in their sides.

Jpro-how'd the 168 NBT look that you found? And how far away was the critter that you shot with it at?

Thx
Dober

(reason I ask, I really like the bullet and I have a new 308 on the way)

I have shot a lot of southern (georgia and carolinas) deer with the 180 AB albeit at higher (~2900) velocities. It is impressive

Of roughly 30 deer the last few years i can only recall one that did the death run and the rest hit the ground immediately

I do purposefully aim for bone when i shoot. Same rifle/bullet also took my first elk last fall. He did the snow plow for 10 yards and it was over

Because i cant leave well enough alone, i am switching to the 150 BT at ~3200 this year to see how that works

It was a whitetail doe at somewhere near 100yds. I really needed another for the freezer and she was getting away, so I angled one through the guts and across to the opposite shoulder. I cut it out of her neck just forward of the shoulder. Thinking that jacket weighed something like 70-75gr. It was quite clean inside, so I figure the core slipped when the bullet stopped in the hide. I didn't hunt for it.





I hit several shoulders with that load and had fine results. Big exit holes, lots of blood, short runs.

I have been using the 165 BT with Varget in the 308 for years on deer and bear couldn't be happier, it just works. And I am pretty sure the deer are no bigger here than they are out your way.

Edge, you know those are monsters you fellas have over the in northern Nash county......LOL.......

You know it

If you want to shoot a 165/168 around 2500-2600, then consider IMR 3031. It's real old school, but capable of super accuracy.

I have used IMR3031 in M1A match loads because of the gas system, slower powders will bend the action rod. These loads were and are very accurate but give up a couple hundred feet per second. 3031 is probably not as temperature stable as some of the newer powders but in North Carolina that probably doesn't matter.