Model 11 Hog Hunter .308 Win, Ammo Test

I think many people have a common goal when it comes to shooting, and that is to have a reliable, accurate, and affordable bulk ammo stock. I finished my journey to find the perfect hunting round, and concluded that my gun loved the Hornady American Whitetail 150gr Interlock best.

Now I am on a mission to find an affordable bulk round to stock up on. I based my option off of what I consistently see to be the top 3 most widely available and affordable rounds recently.

MFS 140gr SP
PPU 145gr FMJBT
PMC 147gr FMJBT

!RESULTS BELOW! :director:

Also some Hornady American Whitetail Results are in this thread. Pictures included.

Keep us posted I'm fixing to by a hog hunter

Not a hog hunter but I have a pretty nice stable of rifles chambered in .308. The one thing that I have found to hold true across the spectrum is that the 1-10 twist barrels seem to prefer a heavier than 150gr bullet. The 165-168s seem to do very well for me from my 1/10 twist rifles. My 1-11 and 1-12 twist barrels seem to do much better than the 1/10 with the 147/150gr class bullets. I think I would start with something in the 165/ 168gr weights.
As far as factory ammo, The Federal power shock "Deer Thug" 165gr ammo shoots very well for me. Only a little larger group and very minimal POI shift between it and Federal gold medal match in a couple of my rifles.

Oh that's interesting and good to know. So far my 1:10 twist Hog Hunter has been very accurate with lighter 150'ish grain rounds. I haven't shot any match grade ammo yet tho. I guess we shall see what happens.

The results are in. I will repeat this test once more to confirm the results soon.

The reason for this test was to find an affordable plinking/target practice ammo that can be bought in bulk online from multiple sources. The 3 chosen for the test were the MFS 140gr SP, PPU 145gr FMJBT, PMC 147gr FMJT.

I had to adjust POA for each round, because I have my scope currently zeroed for my hunting Hornady round.
I had 3 targets up @ 100 yards, and fired 1 shot of each kind of ammo at each target per evolution, and 10 rounds per brand. The idea is so that all 3 types of ammo are shot within the same barrel temperatures. I fired fairly quickly, about 20 seconds between shots. The barrel was pre-fowled, and I did not clean it between any of the shots.

In summary, 2 out of the 3 did okay. All 3 had no FTF/FTE. The MFS was not accurate at all, but it went bang everytime. I will be dropping the MFS out of this testing. When I get a chance again I will take more time into squeezing the accuracy out of the PPU and PMC Bronze rounds. Hope this gives insight to anyone trying to find the perfect target practice round. My experience with this rifle is fairly limited, but with my Hornady American Whitetail 150g SP Interlock I can achieve a 1" grouping for 3 rounds @ 100 yards. I am yet to try Federal GMM to set a benchmark.

http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/i...ps1f7433d5.jpg

MFS 140gr SP (10 shots @ 100 yards)
http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/i...psea11c083.jpg

PPU 145gr FMJBT (10 shots, 2 major flyers @ 100 yards)
http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/i...psd8195069.jpg

PMC Bronze 147gr FMJBT (10 shots @ 100 Yards, 2 flyers, but 8/10 rounds would've made a 1" group about)
http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/i...ps41d718df.jpg

Man go get some heavier bullets and try em out, I think you'll be very pleased. I'll bet those 3 inch groups will shrink drastically no matter how many shots you send in a group.

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Originally Posted by big honkin jeep

Man go get some heavier bullets and try em out, I think you'll be very pleased. I'll bet those 3 inch groups will shrink drastically no matter how many shots you send in a group.

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The point for this is to find a cheap/widely available round. I'm fairly pleased with the PMC with how 8/10 of the shots fired were within a little over a 1" group. The other 2 were probably me not doing my job. We are talking about a .65 cent round here. But you are right, I should try a heavier bullet, like the Federal GMM 168gr HPBT (which is pricey). The only other heavier bullet I know of that can be bought in bulk is the Colt 168gr FMJBT, but that can be hard to find sometimes and I am not a huge fan of steel casings.
Does anyone know of cheap bulk ammo's with heavier bullets that I should try out before I commit myself to a lighter round?

try the atomic 168 nosler custom comp--you can buy it in bulk and it has shot very well out of every 308 platform I've put it through. Your PPU results look pretty darn good to me--that tight group in the center didn't happen by accident. Something else may be going on??

Yeah I did like the PPU as well so I'll be retesting both again and take my time. I felt good about every single shot tho. Those Atomics I have heard good things about but pretty pricey. Not sure I'm willing to spend over a dollar per round for target practice.

Thanks for all the feedback everyone.

The "Cheap Plinking 308 Ammo" is part of the reason I am going to start reloading once I accumulate enough brass.

The PMC has always shot well for me. I can also find NATO surplus all day for .50 a round locally and it shoots decent enough to plink with.

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Originally Posted by japollner

The "Cheap Plinking 308 Ammo" is part of the reason I am going to start reloading once I accumulate enough brass.

The PMC has always shot well for me. I can also find NATO surplus all day for .50 a round locally and it shoots decent enough to plink with.

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Yeah--that theory is good on paper--until you start looking for good powder and bullets and cases, then the math is not so convincing these days. : )

I'd pass on trying the 180g Winchester Power points. When I got my 10 FCP-HS, that was the only ammo I could find. I couldn't find cases so I bought the ammo to empty it. Three minute 5 shot groups at 100 or 200 yards.

I pulled the bullets out of the rest of the cases and tried 168g hornady and sierra boat tails. Instant sub minute groups. No fancy tricks. 2.8 COL using varget.

Try the Norma 150GR TAC ammo, cheap and sub MOA in my 10TR

Here's how I did with the Hornady American Whitetail 150gr SP Interlock today @ 100 yards. Didn't have time to test the PMC and PPU again though.

http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/i...ps27246b0f.jpg
http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/i...pscc856bb1.jpg

That American Whitetail stuff is definitely good enough for deer hunting...

So I went out again today to test both PMC and PPU, and obtained the same results as the first time. The PMC did really well today, it had no flyers and printed a less than 1.5" group @100 yards. The PPU was bit more spread out and had 2 pretty big flyers that were no where near the group.
After 100 yards I went to 200 yards and the PMC blew the PPU out of the water. I didn't get a chance to measure the groups but the PMC would've been close to being a 2" group but the PPU was just scattered.


Could anyone give me insight as to why from a 100 zero, a bullet drops 6" at 200 instead of the 2" written on a ballistic chart? Does my 20" barrel have anything to do with that? I assume that a 2" drop from 200 yards is from a 24"/26" test barrel?

Hello fellow shooters! I just ordered a hog hunter in 308 and should be in this week.

a lot of good information here. I will post some info when I get a chance on the new toy. :cool:

Put a lead lazercast 165gr over 8.2 gr of trail boss if you want subsonic! Sounds like popping a bad of chips and kills hogs with head/neck shots and accurate to about 150 yards

I just picked up my hog hunter and will doing some barrel break in, then some ammo testing for my trip to Florida to get some hogs.

Wow - that Am Whtl is interesting!

One of the cheaper federal lines is the hi-shok 150 grain soft points and the stuff shoots great out of every brand of rifle I have fired it through.If you want to plink,then plink. But if you really are serious about accuracy,get into reloading and then you will wonder why you didnt in the first place.It will save money over time and the true satisfaction of knowing your homemade ammo will out shoot anything commercially made.Keep in mond that ammo made to sammi specs has to fit every rifle and be safe in every rifle ever made in .308.Basically the jump the bullet takes to get to the riflings can be significant.By reloading you control the quality and the components of each and every round that gets shot from that rifle.

Yes it is exactly because of your barrel. Most ballistic charts are created from 24-26" barrels not 20". So if the box say's 2650 FPS then it's probably 2400 out of your 20". That is why factory ammo sucks for anything other than plinking. My first thought was wow your groups are terrible. I would not be happy with 3 MOA at all. But then again for cheap factory ammo it does the job intended. It is Minute of Deer...or Man which is what you should expect for the price.

Hand loading offers so much more in the way of accuracy. Not just in picking the bullet but also in tweaking the charge for your rifle. The factory will always be conservative and on the low side of the charge ladder for liability reasons. Every factory round I have chronoed has been well below their stated speed. For example I load my 175g SMK round to 2620 in a 20" barrel and 2850 in a 26" barrel a full 200+ FPS more than any factory load and much more consistent. My 150's run 3000 FPS!. You can't even compare it to factory. Once you shoot hand loads you only see factory ammo as a source of brass. :p

Sorry to revive an old thread but now that I've been shooting a bit longer I keep getting better and growing from my own mistakes. Over the last couple months I've improved my shooting style and now it is more consistent. My ammo choice is still the Hornady American Whitetail 150g Interlock SP. Today I went out to the range and printed a 5/8" 108 yard 3 round group. Then at 208 yards I put 9/9 rounds into a 3" group. It was windy out and I'm not very good at adjusting for wind yet, but within the 9 shots, there was a 3 shot group of 5/8"! At 208 yards! I was pretty excited. This Hornady American Whitetail for the .308 is amazing stuff. My Hog Hunter loves it.

http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/i...psca83b1ba.jpg
http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/i...ps2c942d65.jpg

That is great! It's very satisfying when you can see improvements. Shooting style can make a big difference. Good Job!

Sorry to bring this thread back from the dead, but I couldn't help but notice how your groups look awfully similar a friend's that has the same model gun. No matter what ammunition he shot out of it, it always shot the same 3" group. We shot some 150gr. Soft point Winchester stuff, 168gr. Hornady match, 147gr. FMJ surplus stuff, and some 165gr. Nosler Accu-Bond propelled by 44gr. of Varget. Nothing seemed to make a difference. Then I had the idea to screw off the thread protector on the muzzle. The groups shrunk to under an inch center to center. Have you tried taking off that and re-testing?

I don't reload, but when I got my hog hunter in .308 I tried lots of different ammo and mine shoots the Hornady interloc whitetail bullet the best also.

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Originally Posted by SUB MOA

Now I am on a mission to find an affordable bulk round to stock up on. I based my option off of what I consistently see to be the top 3 most widely available and affordable rounds recently.

MFS 140gr SP
PPU 145gr FMJBT
PMC 147gr FMJBT

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I have an FCP-SR (.308), and I also have an M14-type, so I have a lot of 7.62 surplus ammo laying around.

In my experience, PPU is OK, but I've had really astonishingly good results with Lithuanian surplus (GGG). It's not widely available or really cheap anymore, but it's worth it.

As somebody else said, you're going to want to try match ammo. MilSurp/Bulk ammo is OK, but the components and performance are inconsistent. Those "flyers" are a sign of this.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SUB MOA

Then at 208 yards I put 9/9 rounds into a 3" group. It was windy out and I'm not very good at adjusting for wind yet, but within the 9 shots, there was a 3 shot group of 5/8"!

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WTH?

This makes me think you don't know how to measure groups... A 9-shot 3" group is a 3" group. A subset of the 9 rounds is NOT a "group."

Late reply to an older thread, but those li'l Hog Hunters really can shoot. Especially when you work up a reload that it likes.
I had the same issue of not being able to find a single factory round that I was happy with. Most were 'hunting accurate' but I get picky about that....

This was a shot a while back, but here's a 3 round group at 500yds.

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y11...pskgcpqbbx.jpg