Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting White Tail Deer, recommended grain for 308

I bought some Federal Hi-Shok 150 gr factory loads to use this season. The buzz is Federal replaced this design with one that is cheaper to produce, but the Hi-Shok design works very well.

We will see.

I have been shooting 150 gr Red Box Fede3ral as practice ammo out to 400 yards, and it works well. I am thinking that the Hi-Shok at 300 yds and under will be a good deer load.

jim

168 is standard

I've shot more deer with a .308 than any other caliber. I've had good luck with 150gr Remington SPs, but currently use Speer 150gr RN. 150 or 165gr is lots for deer. Premium bullets are not required, unless you need to spend more money. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />




sc

I suggest you rechamber to 300 win mag and then shoot the 180's!

the 150's would be the pick of the litter. they'll get er done!

my pick would a good 150 or 165 depending on what your
gun likes with varget , RL15 or the old standby for .30 cal.
IMR4064

I think that everyone is pretty right on, but one thing to remember is to find something that shoots accurately. Example: I have a Winchester 70 that some guy cut to 18" neat gun, and super accurate - with bullets OVER 150 grain. 165-180 is below MOA from factory ammo. 15 is a little over MOA. 125's are just not accurate, and I have a friend who has the same expereince with his Savage 110 LE w/20" bbl., so find something that is accurate more so than weight.

I shoot a lot of .308 ammo for deer,as the .308 is my usual go to for deer hunting. My pet load turned out to be 49.0 gr. of W-760 with the 165 gr. Speer Hot-core in Winchester brass and Winchester WLR primer. Velocity is no great shakes at 2550 FPS from my rifle's 18.5" barrel, but tell the 250 yard deer that was a bang/flop that the load was no good. FWIW, the same load delivers 2610 FPS from a 22" barrel.
The bullet on the 250 yard deer hit the front of the chest and pass trugh the deer's body stopping at the leg bone on the back leg, breaking the bone. I do believe the bullet would have gone clean through the deer had it not hit that bone. All other deer shot with that load have been complete pass throughs.
Why such a weird loading with a powder that's too slow for the round? Well, my pet rifle in .308 is a Ruger 77 RSI, the one with the Mannlicher stock. I have three of these rifles, all in .308 Win., and none of them will shoot anything else worth a damn, factory or handloads, with two exceptions. One is the 180 gr. Sierra round nose with 48.0 gr. of W-760 and the other is the Speer Nitrex factory load with 165 gr. Grand Slam bullets. Surprise, surprise. When chronographed in the RSI velocity was exactly 2550 FPS and in a Mod 70 Winchester with 22" barrel, 2610 FPS, exactly the same as my handloads. I just load up a batch of the 165 gr. Speers and forget about it.
FWIW. I've given those two loads to others who own Ruger 77 RSI rifles that wouldn't shoot, and the feed back has been great. All have reported good results with that load for decent hunting accuracy. (1.25" at 100 yards, this from a rifle that won't shoot anything else worth squat. The 180 gr. Sierra load does .75" to 1.0" depending on which RSI I shoot it in." The last load has never been chronied although I just might one of these days. My RSIs will not give good groups with any 180 gr. spitzer I've tried, nor will 150 gr. bullets shoot worth a damn.
Frankly, I've given up on 150 gr. bullets as they damage too much eating meat to suit me.
Paul B.

I would recommend either 150 or 165 grain Nosler Ballistic Tips for your 308 Win. But I have killed more deer than I can count with Nosler 125 grain Bt's. It's not so much the grain of the bullet that counts as it is where you place the shot.

I shoot the .308 exclusively for deer. While any "game" bullet will work(well), I have settled on the 165 Nosler BT. Without going into particulars, I will promise you that they will perform wonderfully at any reasonable distance( 10-400 yrds), at .308 velocities, on whitetail deer. I have not found a bullet that will perform as well, overall. But then, they'll all kill 'em stone dead with proper placement. Depends how bad you want to tear 'em up (Light, soft bullets.) or how far you want to track 'em (heavy, controlled expansion bullets).

As several others, I love the .308! All of mine seem to shoot very well with 150 grain Hornady's and yes, they do very well with Reloader 15.