Nosler Accubond vs. Swift Scirocco: Which Would You Choose?

[ExpiredMember2019]

I'm going on an elk hunt in Colorado at the beginning of November. I will be shooting a .300 Win Mag in a Remington 700 SPS (26" barrel). Based on my current abilities and past expereince, the farthest shot I will attempt will be 700 yards and that will be predicated on confirming accurate shots at that distance w/ this rifle before I leave town.

I am using commercial/factory ammo and I have my cartridge/bullet combo narrowed down to these two:

1) Remington Premier 180 grain Swift Scirocco

2) Black Hills Gold 180 grain Nosler Accubond

When I chronographed these rounds, I was a little surprised to see that the Black Hills/Nosler Accubond was moving a bit slower than factory specs and about 70 fps slower than the Remington Premier/Swift Scirocco. There was also more variation in velocity from the Black Hills ammo. From one shot to the next, the Remington ammo's velocity proved to be more consistent.

While I am still wringing these rounds out and have not yet tested them for long range accuracy, I would like to hear your opinions on which one you would use if it were your elk hunt. Any opinions? I'll listen to them all.

Thanks

Doug

 

[Varmint Hunter]

If you accuracy test at 700yds I'm sure that one of those loads will be noticably more accurate than the other. Testing at 100yds-200yds only gives a hint of longrange capabilities.

A rifle/ammo combination with PROVEN accuracy builds a lot of confidence when afield.

 

[JD338]

I would go with either the 180 gr or 200 gr AB, which ever one shot the best.

JD338

 

[Spino]

Doug,

Her is a survey I posted a short time back:

http://longrangehunting.com/ubbthreads/s...true#Post115181

 

[remingtonman_25_06]

I agree with varminthunter. Shoot them even at 300-400 yards and 1 of the 2 will be doing noticably better. Thats the one I would go with for a shot out to 700 yards. Accuracy is about the #1 main goal.

 

[älg]

Ditto what others say. Choose whichever one shoots better in your rifle.

Both are bonded bullets with similar terminal ballistics, but my impression has always been that the scirocco expands more ( yielding more energy and a bigger shock) and the accubond peels backward more and penetrates better...just an impression.

I´ve recovered a couple of 150 sciroccos out of a 7 rm shot on roebucks; just killed a big deer with an accubond breaking shoulder and the bullet exited. None failed.

 

[Hired Gun]

I would pass on the Sciroccos for elk. Buddy here planted 3 in the shoulder of a very small bull elk last year. They were 180's driven out of a 300Wby at near 3300 muzzel velocity. Range was between 150 and 200 yards. All 3 shots floored the elk only to have it regain it's feet and continue on it's way until it went out of site. The minimal blood trail stopped after a couple days of tracking. The elk was seen a month later back in the same area with 3 bald spots healing well on his shoulder. This year we will see if he is Partition proof. I have recovered many Accubonds from different test mediums and not one has fully blown up and none more than doubled their diamenter. The Scirocco's hammer out to flattened coins if driven hard enough. I would use them in a 308 Win.

 

[300winnie]

If the Scirocco II will shoot for you I think it would be a great bullet for the application. However, I tried and tried to get the 180 grain version to shoot out of my .300 Win Mag and couldn't get a decent group to save my life. Switched to 180 grain Accubonds and have yet to fire a group over m.o.a. It was the easiest load work up I have ever done.

I have seen a number of elk killed with both the 180 grain and 200 grain version of the Accubond, and I have seen several killed with the 180 grain Version of the "old" Scirocco.

They all died without any complaints /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif

As POP would say "Accubonds Rock"

 

[Jtomlinson]

Same here, I could not get the Swift bullets to perform out of either my .270 or 300 Win mag, switching to the Accubond made a huge difference, load tests continue with the .300 but my .270 now shoots under 1 inch all day and first tests on deer show teriffic results, for me the choice is simply " what weight of Accubond to use"!

 

[ExpiredMember2019]

Thought I would post a range report for those who might be interested. After breaking in the barrel with some cheaper factory loads, I cleaned the barrel realy well and checked both loads at 200 yards. The Black Hills w/ Nosler Accubonds grouped approx 4 inches. The Remington Premier with Swift Sciroccos was a little over 2 inches. I cleaned between loads and gave both of them another chance. The Nosler Accubonds just would not group worth anything out of this rifle while the Swift Sciroccos did great.

At 400 yards, the Sciroccos grouped about 6 inches. Keep in mind that I had a pretty good wind from the 6 o'clock with varying gusts. I set up with the wind to my back to try to minimize its effect but it still got me a little. However, those 200 yard groups were not the wind's fault.

I'm shooting a factory Remington 700 SPS w/ 26" barrel in a H.S. Precision stock. Scope is IOR Valdada 2.5-10X42 FFP wit MP-8 Reticle.

I wish the Nosler Accubonds had worked for me but they just didn't.

The thing I am a little worried about right now is that I have to go buy more ammo and it looks like I will be forced to go with the Scirocco II's. Their website says the load data is exactly the same as the old Scirocco's with the exact same density and profile. I hope all I have to do is go confirm my 200 and 400 yard dope then finish confirming ballistic chart data out to 700.

Any thoughts? Is the Scirocco II ballistically identical to the original version?

Doug

 

[Eaglet]

DougD,
If you can afford it, I would give a try to these to contenders from Federal. One or the other might surprise you!

 

[Spino]

DougD,

Sometime when searching for the right factory ammo it takes more that a few boxes of different manufactures, different Bullet weights etc.. In the past before I started relaoding I used Conley Precision - they custom load your ammo to some pretty tight tollerences. You might want to try the 180 Gr. Hornady InterBond as well. See if you can get ahold of them and ask for Cole - He loves to talk!

http://www.cpcartridge.com/