308 Win with 190 - 200's

[4xforfun]

A friend of mine just bought a used Semi custom 308 win with a 1-10 twist and was asking me for some help. I have never owned a 308, so I need to do some research.

He is looking for a semi LR deer rig. I am recomending 190 or 200 grain bergers.

Anyone have any powder recomendations for the heavier bullets?


Thanks,
Tod

 

[J E Custom]

A friend of mine just bought a used Semi custom 308 win with a 1-10 twist and was asking me for some help. I have never owned a 308, so I need to do some research.

He is looking for a semi LR deer rig. I am recomending 190 or 200 grain bergers.

Anyone have any powder recomendations for the heavier bullets?


Thanks,
Tod

The 190s and 200 grain bullets no doubt have the better BCs but in a 308 they are very slow and may not have enough velocity at longer distances to allow for bullet expansion.

160 to 180s work well in a 308 and don't give much distance to the heavy bullets.

While shooting matches with a 308 I found that 168s were best at a 1000 yards and 160 to 165s
were best for hunting out to about 700 yards.

Just my opinion

J E CUSTOM

 

[4xforfun]

The 190s and 200 grain bullets no doubt have the better BCs but in a 308 they are very slow and may not have enough velocity at longer distances to allow for bullet expansion.

160 to 180s work well in a 308 and don't give much distance to the heavy bullets.

While shooting matches with a 308 I found that 168s were best at a 1000 yards and 160 to 165s
were best for hunting out to about 700 yards.

Just my opinion

J E CUSTOM

What experience I do have with the 308 is sitting in the 1000 yard pits all summer and listning to a friends 308 with 168's go subsonic at about 850 to 900 yards and go through the target sidways...IF he even hit the target. We tryed to tell him to switch to a heavier bullet, but he refused...till the last couple of matches. He switcued to the 210 vld and the little 308 turned into a nice little 1000 yard match gun.

 

[FEENIX]

Check out Making A Case For The 308 Winchester and his other posts.

Also, http://www.longrangehunting.com/forums/f19/215gr-berger-hybrid-308win-104197/

 

[J E Custom]

What experience I do have with the 308 is sitting in the 1000 yard pits all summer and listning to a friends 308 with 168's go subsonic at about 850 to 900 yards and go through the target sidways...IF he even hit the target. We tryed to tell him to switch to a heavier bullet, but he refused...till the last couple of matches. He switcued to the 210 vld and the little 308 turned into a nice little 1000 yard match gun.

I under stand what you are saying about the 190s and 200s But they also go subsonic before they reach 1000 yards (About 800 yards) At 308 velocities the loads I used were good to over1100 yards
Because of there starting velocity of over 2800+ ft/sec. It is tough to get 2600 ft/sec from a max load for the 190.

The reference I was making was the minimum bullet velocity for any bullet will be 1800+ ft/sec
for controlled expansion on game. that was the reason for recommending the 165 class of bullet
for hunting.

If your friend is going to keep his range down to 4 or 500 yards, it makes no difference what bullet he uses.

The problem with the 308 has always been case capacity when using heavy bullets. When the matches allowed, At more than 600 yards I shot a 30/338 with 190 grain bullets because of the better ballistics and a 300 ft/sec velocity gain. In fact most reloading manuals don't /wont show anything larger than a 190 grain load because it is not practical for the 308s powder capacity.

In the original post I understood you to say "For Long Range Deer Hunting" and that is why I made the recommendation, Not to start an argument or question you knowledge .

J E CUSTOM

 

[minute of elk]

They won't mag feed in most rifles, but I tried montanamarine's 208 amax loads with R-17 seated around 3", and swear by them. You won't believe how well they group past 1k...

 

[4xforfun]

He endned up buying a Savage, which, from my understanding, is a long action. I would think that feeding wouldn't be an issue.
Not 100% sure about it , though.

 

[Speck]

A friend of mine just bought a used Semi custom 308 win with a 1-10 twist and was asking me for some help. I have never owned a 308, so I need to do some research.

He is looking for a semi LR deer rig. I am recomending 190 or 200 grain bergers.

Anyone have any powder recomendations for the heavier bullets?


Thanks,
Tod

I run 185s and 200s in my FTR rig in competition and use Varget (185s) and Vihtavuori N-150 (200s). Ive also run Power Pro 2000 MR with good results. You said that the rifle will be used for hunting (semi long range). For that venue i would use Berger 185 gr VLD hunting bullets with Varget.......Just my .02

 

[Michael Eichele]

I beg to differ regarding 190-200 grain bullets going subsonic at 1K. I consistently shoot them at less than 100' above sea level and sub zero temps.

The 190s are my favorite all around 308 bullet. You can get fair velocity with R15 and varget but if you want to step it up, N540, N550 and R17 are stellar.