A-max troubles in .308

[leadsender]

Hello everybody, I am shooting a remington 700 sps, everything is stock on it and I have a nikon monarch sitting on top. Now, my problem is I used to only shoot 168gr hornady match bullets through it and it shot amazing groups, I wanted to switch to something that had a little better penetration for hunting (I know it is stated on the box that A-max are not for use in hunting but I figure it should do for vermin). My .308 seems to like RL-15 and Varget so I loaded up 6 RL-15 and 6 varget with with almost the exact same charge and C.O.L as match. My .308 is zero at 300 yards, and with my spotter watching I was hitting 25 to 40 yards low of the target when match was dead on. These two bullets have identical bc and density. Anybody have these same results? Also I am putting the A-max loads and the match loads together usng the hornady loading book.

 

[green 788]

25 to 40 yards low--even at 300 yards, is not going to be a bullet and powder issue... something has gone majorly haywire... scope has malfunctioned or something to that effect...

 

[leadsender]

Green, I read your post and it got me thinking. I bought some more match bullets to load and see if anything changed. Well before I even got the cases preped I opened the new box of bullets and noticed they were a tad shorter then the A-max bullets so I weight the the A-maxs and they re 178grs sooooo. I am guessing some one was at the store messing with bullets or hornaday messed up. what I can't belive is I had no stuck cases or other pressure signs.

 

[green 788]

The 178's are great bullets... if you have an IMR 4895, put 42 grains of that behind them (midrange pressure load) and see if they don't shoot lights out.

Around 44 grains of Varget, or 42 to 43 grains of IMR 4064, or 42.7 grains of RL15 all should work pretty well with those 178's... that's in Winchester brass, and work up to those charges of course.

If I had some 168 AMAX's on hand, I'd trade you for the 178's... but alas, I don't.

Maybe it's a blessing in disguise, as the 178's may do great for you.

When someone is calling your shots with a spotting scope, simply due to the sloping ground it could look like you're 25 yards low, but you're really just 25 yards "short of the target" and elevation-wise you're only two or three feet low, if you see what I mean. Two or three feet of elevation drop could cause the bullets to strike ground 25 yards short of the target, depending on how the ground is sloped.

Good luck with the 178's. They're good bullets...

Dan

 

[leadsender]

Yes thats what I should have said, short not low. I understood what I ment, didn't you