What grain bullet for 308 FCP

I recently picked up a Savage Model 10FCP (Dick's Special) with 22 inch 1/10 fluted barrel. I'm looking to hit steel at 600, and out to 1000. From the ballistic date I'm looking out I think I'm better off with a heavier bullet, say a 175 grain which will stay supersonic out to 1000 as opposed to say a 168.

Ammo being somewhat scarce, I have some 168's, 175's, and 180's to try out this weekend. Anyone have a similar profile barrel with some data on how each load shoots? I'll report back on how each load shoots out of my rifle.

I don't reload so everything I'm shooting is production. Thanks.

I don't think 1k yards is in the picture. Maybe so.

Federal "Gold Medal" 175 Sierra Matchking ammo is very accurate out to 600yds in my 308.

Dennis. Do you think 1k is out of the picture because of barrel length or just the rifle in general? The majority of my shooting will be at 300, 600 yards.

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Originally Posted by DangerDanJD

Dennis. Do you think 1k is out of the picture because of barrel length or just the rifle in general? The majority of my shooting will be at 300, 600 yards.

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Barrel length and the 308 round.

its too bad your dont load your own. Ive seen a 20" 1/10 go out to 1K with pretty darn good consistancy before with reloads.

IMO...Id see where you land using lighter projectiles 168,s.

Ive seen 150,s reach out no problem.

I'll try out some 168's, 175's and 180s and see where I get. I was just curious if anyone else had some data on production loads with a similar barrel profile.

Im running the Nosler 155 Custom Comp and hitting steel @ 1220 yards. Now I have a 26" barrel. HOW EVER my buddy using the same laod is doing the same thing with a 20"

Keep in mind Palma shooters are shooting 1k with 155s also.

My savage 10FP loves the Hornady 178gr Amax and 178gr BTHP Match. Easily hits 1k. If 1k is your goal, I would stick in the 175 class. My barrel is either 22" or 24" (cant remember) and twist is 1/10

Thanks Spelunk. I'm looking for different loads to try and I'll definitely keep an eye out for the 178gr Hornady.

IF you want to be certain of the bestpossible accuracy of a non custom load...Federal Gold Medal Match...Period. If you read enough reloading posts you start to see where many guys are so pleased with it they try and duplicate it. Their loads usualy run right around 2650 fps

Now there are some guys out there that will load you what you want at a good price. They will even develop the load using your rifle.

1000 yds. use 6.5 or 7mm

Can we move this thread to ammo and reloading?

175 Smk's would be the best choice IMHO
178 Amax would also work
the smk's have been used at 1k with good results

Hit the 1000 yd gong last night on second try (first try didnt have a wind spotter) with 178 AMax's 41.5 gr of Varget, CCI 200, .030 off the lands in my 1/10 .308 Mdl 10 Savage. The REAL challenge was TRYING to hit that stupid chicken at @900 yds. Fourth try right over the back. Other three the wind beat me up.
Good Shootin!

a chicken at 900 is GOOD shootin.

I was able to pick up a few boxes of the following to try out:

Remington Premier MatchKing BTHP 168 grain;
Federal Gold Medal Match BTHP 168 grain;
Hornaday Custom Match BTHP 168 grain.

Hopefully this weekend I can sight the rifle in at 200, then move out a little further. I believe the 168's should work well out to 600 yards. I haven't had much luck finding 175's and I only have about 10 rds sitting at the house. After I run through all the 168's, hopefully 175's will be a little more available again and I can try them out. Thanks for all the responses.

Don't waste your time with 168smk's past about 600 yards. You will leave the range frustrated and will have sent most of those smks into dirt. There is Toms if info and data out there that shows that the 168 has a unique case of dynamic instability as and becomes unpredictable as it approaches transonic velocity. After that, all bets are off. Factory 168 loads will likey go subsonic between 780-850 yards ot of a 22"barrel.
Bottom line, limit yourself to 600 ish yards with that ammo unless you like wasting money.
My pet load uses the lapua 155 Scenars. So long as the wind isn't blowing wildly i have better success with it at longer ranges.
My second choice is the 175 smk.

It will do 1K with the right load.

I had a 19" barreled 308 pushing the 208 gr amax to 2500 FPS over a stout load of RL17.
That is supersonic out to about 1200 yards. The 178 amax would be a good choice for you and its cheap.

I was mostly running the 208 amax for hogs but will be running it out to 1k soon.

The only 175's I can find are some PNW Arms 7.62 Nato 175G SMK HBPT. I may grab a couple boxes to see how they perform but for now I'm leaning towards just focusing on seeing what I can do out to 600 with the 168's, while continuing to keep an eye out for Federal Match SMK 175's and Hornady 178 AMAX.

Most anything will reach out to 600 yards.
Higher BC/heavier bullets will cheat the wind better.

Palma 1000 yd matches are shot using 155 gr bullets.

try OK Weber bullets website for smk's of all flavors

German Salazar and many others have researched this topic. The link below is a search on his site for .308 and many articles popped up. IMHO, and others, to keep a .308 bullet trans-sonic at 1K is very difficult, and with a 22" tube even more so, at safe pressures. I'm not talking a couple shots at unknown size targets but successful competitive shooting.
http://riflemansjournal.blogspot.com...search-results

It is not difficult with RL17.
To do it with extreme accuracy using a very stable powder like H3450 or Varget then yes.

With a 22" bbl I can almost get to 2600 fps with the 208 gr amax over RL17 at 2.95 col and that is a chronographed safe load in my rifle tested in 95dF heat.

Its a hot load, but no brass flow and the primers look good. That is running right at 60-62k

Back off 1-1.5 gr and you are still running 2500 FPS but at about 50k and 2500 FPS with the 208 Amax is super sonic out to 1200 yards.

The tricks are you need a long enough throat and magazine to run at at 2.95" or longer, use Win brass (2 gr more cap than Lapua) and its best if its fire formed and neck sized.

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Originally Posted by tammons

Palma 1000 yd matches are shot using 155 gr bullets.

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That is for international competition. I could be mistaken but the stateside matches are not putting limits on the bullet weight.

1K is easily done with your rifle, so don't get down hearing people doubt it. I'm shooting a 12 bvss .308 and my choice load for OVER 600 meters has recently been Hornady 180gr sst's with 2000MR powder. Very accurate, and has been very reliable.

I tried both Black Hills 175 and Hornady 178 HPBT (not the Amax's). The black hills did great out to 900, but started to really have problems at 1000. The Hornady 178's however did very well all the way out to 1030.

Excellent! The farthest I have been able to shoot so far has been 1250 and the Hornady 180 sst's did awesome. I may need to try the 178's just to check them out.