180gr bullets in the .308

[fgw_in_fla]

Any of y'all running 180's in your .308?
What kind of results you getting & what propellant is working best for you?

I recently put a .308 together. Good results with 125's 150's 155's & 165's.

180's are coming up a little disappointing. Grouping is coming in at 1.5" average at 100yds. Using a standard .308, 26" fluted barrel with factory break. 110 action all stock with accu-trigger.

Is this a borderline weight bullet for this caliber of do they typically run the 180's with reasonably good results?

Thanks guys,
Frank in Fla

[scope eye]

Hey Frank I have shot those with 47gr of Varget - H4895 and RL15 all with good results.

Dean

[davemuzz]

Dean, you've done better than me. I've not shot below a 150gr. because I just use the .308 for whitetail, but I seem to get my best results with either a 150gr. or a 165gr. and Varget. I've tried loading the 180's, but just haven't had any luck with group size.....unless you consider "large" a good size.

Dave

[scope eye]

In they act of full disclosure, those loads were used in a 700 with 5R rifling.

Dean

[fgw_in_fla]

Well, at least I have ample supply of RL-15 on hand. The IMR4320 jus wasn't getting the job done.

Funny thing..... When all else fails, the Alliant "Reloader" powders seem to come thru. RL-15, 17 & 19 are used on a regular basis here.
Guess I'll have a go at it. The burn rates are similar but the powder composition makes the difference I reckon.
Thanks for the input. may the Gods of Brass Longevity smile upon thee.

[scope eye]

Hey Frank I think it was 47gr, in any case it was a full compressed load, and I mean Compressed load I am sure that you will figure it out.

Dean

[stangfish]

I love 'em in a 10 twist. I like the R15 in them as well. But I do not run them that hot.

[scope eye]

I love 'em in a 10 twist. I like the R15 in them as well. But I do not run them that hot.

You stay outta this, This is my sand box. LOL

Spanky

[stangfish]

You can say that living in siberia.

[fgw_in_fla]

BOYS!!!! Settle down or I'll call home & tell your parents.


I've given consideration to leaving the .308 topped out at 165gr bullets since they do real well & use the 180's for the 30.06.
So I have to ask, if I may, many of y'all are hunters with more experience that me & use the .308. Is it worth going to a 180gr. or is the difference negligible when looking at it from the 165gr vs 180gr point of view?

Typical hunting use would be hogs, deer & gator (when necessary). Whatcha think?
Bullets & powder are still a little hard to come by & I hate to experiment on something not absotiveley, posolutely necessary.

[scope eye]

Hey Frank it does not take that many to see if you are on to something, and I heared from a good source that you have plenty to play with, so don't give me that scarce baloney. LOL


I don't want to divulge my source, but he has the letters FISH in his name not necessarily in that order.

Spanky

[scope eye]

I couldn't help but notice that all three of us are here in the middle of they afternoon, goofin off taking shots at each other, aren't we a productive bunch. LOL

Spanky

[fgw_in_fla]

I couldn't help but notice that all three of us are here in the middle of they afternoon, goofin off taking shots at each other, aren't we a productive bunch. LOL

Spanky

This is what its all about. Anyone can work on Monday, have a job & responsibility & all that stuff..... As long as we're all happy.

By the way, when you said I had plenty to play with I got a little worried. Then I remembered we were discussing bullets.

ALright, I'll give ya that. it doesn't take that much to run a little testing. My concern lies with stopping power & knock down power & stuff like that.
I reckon there's one way to find out.

[Roninwolf]

i have a 12 FVSS with 26" fluted 1 in 10 and i shoot 178gr amax's for target and 180gr sierra spitzer's on deer and hogs both with 43.5gr of RL-15 .015 off the lands. my best group so far with the 178"s off bench is one raggged hole 5 shots measured ,48 so minus .308 thats ,182 center to center and the 180's shoot have shot .323 center to center

[Westcliffe01]

I have been working up 185 Berger VLD loads. I have not got any hybrids yet and initially the only brass I could get was Lapua Palma with small rifle primers. Just ordinary CCI 400 small rifle primers too, since I could not get my hands on any CCI450's (or 250's for that matter).

I started at 42gr and have gone all the way to 44.5gr of Varget. Initial loads were sami length but once I got to 43.5 I "found" the throat length by loading to 2.9" chambering and unchambering and changed the OAL to 2.850" (Shilen 1:10 select match barrel).

So far the accuracy node seems to be below 44gr. With the increased length the load is no longer compressed so more is certainly possible.

I have not been happy with my Rifle Basix Sav 2 trigger which I got with the rifle when I bought it. The pivot pin is sloppy and the trigger has a lot of lateral movement. It just does not strike me as an object of precision, if I compare to my Shilen trigger or even the factory accutrigger. At the 43.5 gr mark it was putting 3 rounds into a ragged hole, and I have not been consistent enough to get all 5 per group consistently less than 3/4".

I also have 208 Amax bullets as well as Berger 215's to play with later. And I just got the CCI 450's so I might try them too. Right now I am waiting for a Savage DBM to be fitted to the former blind magazine stock so that I have a "working" magazine system since the blind mag drove me nuts.

[squirrel_slayer]

I never could find any 208 a-max's at the time but I've heard great things about 208's with reloader 17

[fgw_in_fla]

I never could find any 208 a-max's at the time but I've heard great things about 208's with reloader 17

Have you used that combo before? What kind of results didja get?
I didn't think the .308 would comfortably handle the 2o8's.

[thermaler]

I whipped up some 308 loads for my stock axis a while back (other than the stiffening work and slipping a rifle basix trigger on) and I recall having very good results with accubond 180 spitzers driven by 41.2 gr of 4064. This was my "first batch" at .03 off lands so I hadn't played with that but as I recall was getting sub .5 MOA at 100. Sorry, I also did not chrony it yet. Not sure this will help any since you're running a different rig. Both my axis and AR in 308 seem to like bullets in the 168 to 180 range

[fgw_in_fla]

Thanks for the input Therm. I can't exclude the possibility that maybe, just maybe my barrel / rifle doesn't like a 180gr bullet. I've had that happen on a few occasions. Every now & again you'll cross paths with a particular bullet that just doesn't play well with others.
A good example would be my .243.... It'll send 70gr Noslers & 75gr Sierra's thru the same hole. Try a 75gr Hornady SST they consistently suck rocks.
I'll give the 180's one more try in the .308 since I have a batch set up for the 2nd OCW / fine tune. I can always use the 180 grainers my beloved 30.06. They digest quite well in the '06.

[Dennis]

I shoot 185 and 190 grain Bergers. Varget is my powder of choice, 43.5 grains seems to work for me. 185's like to be off the lands and VLD's like to be in a little. Also using Winchester Primers. 10, 11, and 12 twist barrels. All will shoot ragged holes. I just tested a 10 twist 28" barrel last Saturday, also shot ragged holes with the above charge, 185's. 168 smk's also work's for me, 42.5 RL15. Dennis

[fgw_in_fla]

The 165's & the one time I ran a load of 168's - all were pretty impressive. The 180's..... A whole 'nuther story.
What brand of barrel you running Dennis?

And since quite a few of y'll are mentioning Varget, I may have to rethink my strategy. The one time I tried Varget I hated it. Maybe I got a wishy washy batch?....

Dennis, I just noticed the McGowen web address, I guess I know what brand of barrel you're using.....

[thermaler]

Well, I tried quite a bit to get A-max and sst's in 165/168 to go well and couldn't get them to match either the Nosler 180 or berger 168 vld which also shot quite well. After months of looking I finally found some GK's and MK's which I will brew up when I get back down south for the fall--they are 175/180's also. Might be they need more work in fine-tuning the recipe--but these days I can't afford to experiment too much with recipes. Funny you mention it Frank--my Hornady brews were using Varget, but the other better ones were 4064 and RL15.

[Dennis]

Dennis, I just noticed the McGowen web address, I guess I know what brand of barrel you're using.....

LOL, I do have one 308 with a Savage Factory barrel on it. It also is very accurate and I have shot one of my highest MR scores with this gun, FCP 10.

[squirrel_slayer]

Have you used that combo before? What kind of results didja get?
I didn't think the .308 would comfortably handle the 2o8's.

I personally have not. I sold my .308 before I could get my hands on a box of 208's. there was a big thread on that combo on snipers hide a year or so ago. people were loading them out to ~ 3" and cramming 50+grains of R17 below them and getting very impressive results. 2500+ft/sec and some were pushing them up to 2750 If I remember correctly in very deeply throated rifles.

[stangfish]

I have seen it work but they are throating their barrels to load like SS says