308 Barnes 130 Grain TTSX/Ramshot TAC

[General RE LEE]

I'm looking to create a youth/tree stand load for my Tikka 308. Hornady SST 125 grains weren't available but I did get some 130 gn Barnes TTSX. I'm looking to load it over the minimum load of Ramshot TAC for about 2950 FPS.

Will this be a mild recoil load for a youth hunter?

 

[Quintus]

That should be a pretty soft shooter and the 130 TTSXs are awesome deer killers. I loaded those for one of my nieces in a little Kimber rifle and at about 90 pounds she had no trouble with the recoil. I believe that load was right around 3000fps as well.

 

[General RE LEE]

That should be a pretty soft shooter and the 130 TTSXs are awesome deer killers. I loaded those for one of my nieces in a little Kimber rifle and at about 90 pounds she had no trouble with the recoil. I believe that load was right around 3000fps as well.

Nice! I think recoil will be light and speed will be forgiving.

 

[tankgijohn72]

I shoot that combo and get around 2950 out of a 20" barreled howa. Pretty mild, a little more than a 243. Much better on recoil than the 12 gauge slugs i shot when i started hunting. Accuracy is quite good. Barnes are excellent deer killers

 

[General RE LEE]

Do you load to Mag length and fire away? My Tikka has a longer throat and my guess is 0.050 off the lands will be outside Mag length.

 

[Hespco]

Awesome deer killers, the Barnes 130gr TTSX? I have a hunting buddy that takes his elk every season with a 308 & the Barnes 130gr TTSX. Never failed. Awesome elk bullet, also..

 

[Quintus]

Do you load to Mag length and fire away? My Tikka has a longer throat and my guess is 0.050 off the lands will be outside Mag length.

They should be ok at mag length. They shoot great out of both my 300Bees with all that freebore and they had a good jump in the kimber.

 

[tankgijohn72]

Likely fine at mag length. I shoot same load from howa 1500 that i think is in the 0.050" freebore range at 2.8"col, and a remington sps tactical with a football field of freebore and get very consistent in the 0.8-1.2MOA range. For treestand hunting as you described i cant imagine it making a bit of difference unless for some reason your rifle wont shoot the barnes and they group 4 moa

 

[Dankno]

Love TAC in heavy (190-208 grain match loads) 308, admittedly I don't much experience with under 150 grainers though. Depending upon how recoil sensitive the shooter behind the trigger is, you'll still be running pretty fast even with start loads.

As another option; I do some reduced loads in 308 for my old man's current wife (shoulder destroyed in an auto collision) and have had great luck with H4895. If it's an option (read; available where you are) you can get some absurdly low charge weights (off the top of my head; something like 60% of max published data, don't quote me though) and correspondingly soft shooting loads with it and remain within published guidelines. Hodgdon has a section on their website with the information on how to go about building these loads safely.

Just another tool in the toolbox. Either way you decide to go, good luck and good hunting.

 

[thatguyshm]

It's my short barreled 308 go to combo. I built a cheap savage 308 with 18" barrel for treestand hunting. Extremely accurate. Right around 3000 fps.

 

[Sgtwest]

I use the 110 Barnes Tactxfb for my 300blackout and they dropped deer nicely. The last one went about 50 ft.

 

[Monteria]

With the 308, you have plenty of velocity for the 130 TTSX. If recoil proves to robust, the 110 TacX are awesome at 30/30 velocity. My nephew whacked a big sambar with a 16" single shot 30/30 and the 110 TacX @ ~2700 the year before last. It went about 50 yards and piled up. Bullet recovered under the skin, far side, and a picture perfect "mushroom". You can actually see the bullet "bubble" in the shoulder in the picture with it laying in the water. The shot was 147 yards.

Dont be afraid of the lighter barnes, if you need them.

 

[General RE LEE]

I wanted to bump this thread I posted a year ago. This load with 46.3 grains of TAC and 130 grains Barnes TTSX has really impressed me. It is very accurate out of my Tikka, minimal recoil, 3050 fps and hammers deer. This load alone has me grabbing my 308 vs my 6.5 Creedmoor more lately. My 12 year old took his first deer with it a couple weeks ago. Pass through and excellent blood trail. Buck was down in about 40 yards.

 

[Varmint Hunter]

Congrats to the young hunter.

My favorite load for the 130TTSX in .308Win is 46.5gr Benchmark in a Lapua case with a Fed 210M primer. Velocity is 3,140 fps and it will normally shoot 2" groups at 400yds.

I shot an 8 pt buck that was walking towards me at a bit over 200yds. At the shot, the buck appeared to be slammed to the ground. It never even twitched after that.