Quote Originally Posted by JohnBV1963 View Post
Stockrex, new to the forum so little dated on reply....but.

I have been reloading and shooting the 308 pretty much exclusively for going on 20 years.

For shooting silhouettes, managing recoil so the gun doesn't beat on you, and to be economical, I would shoot the 125 TNT bullet Speer makes. Looking on the internet you can still find them at 99 to 110 dollars for 500.

I have shot about 1500 of those bullets, and have another 4 thousand in the cabinet. With a flat base design they are very easy to tune for most any rifle. The accuracy has been great, very very consistent at 300 yards, staying between 1.500 down to .875 measurements; not the group divided by 3, but actual side to side on the target measurements. I found that a lot of powders worked well in driving them, IMR 3031, 4064, 4320, BLC2, Ramshot TAC, H4198 and of course Varget. Optimum velocity seemed to be across the board at 3000 fps; used Win brass with CCI primers. They had no issues holding the groups out to 600, but of course you fight the wind more with the lighter bullets. Loaded at these velocities you still generate around 850-1000 foot lbs. at 400 yards and wind bucking is about the same as a 168 at 500; if you look at the ballistics, you generally see that when looking at a 168 loaded to standard of 2600 fps, going out through 500 yards, the 125 performance in drop, energy, is almost identical, but at 100 yards less for each. So, what you would expect out of a 168 at 500, is what you get from the 125 at 400. Should work for silhouettes fine. Just a thought.
John, light bullets sounds good, I will keep my eye open for the 125s to get in stock and stash up. I looked and could not find any in stock.
M1 Garand guys use light bullets too for reduced range matches.