Help

[wbgnt]

I have a remington 700 mss in 308 it shoots 3/4 moa at 100 yards with cheap federal ammo 150gr and with my hand loads it shoots 1 to 1 1/2 moa. i have tried every thing. oh and i'm using hornady 150 gr and have tried 165gr with Varget powder and cci primers. just wondering if anyone has had better luck with anything else out there i dont want to modify the gun. thanks nate

 

[johnnyk]

nate,
Ditch the Hornady bullets and try some Nosler's (Ballistic Tips and/or AccuBonds) or Sierra's (MatchKings). I don't have any faith in Hornady bullets. I know some on here will say different and have had different experiences but I for one will not buy them again. IMO they suck. JohnnyK.

 

[Buffalobob]

I have tried and tired to get my 40X to shoot Nosler partitions or Accubonds into less than 2 inch groups and it just won't do it. It will shoot Sierra 175 MK into less than 0.3 all day long. In the end the rifle won and I just load what it likes. You can spend a lot of money arguing with a rifle.

Try to find a brand and weight bullet that it likes. Varget should be a good powder.

If it likes cheap Federal Ammo then try some expensive Federal Gold Medal match and see if it likes that.

 

[Michael Eichele]

I know that some shooters can have bad experiances with any brand of bullet. It is more like one barrel particularly doesnt harmonicly like one type of bullet or another. That doesnt meen they suck. I for one have shot ALL of my personal best groups with hornady bullets. I have shot one .000" 3 shot group @ 100 yards with the 178 AMAX and more groups under .25" than I can count. My personal best group of 3.48" was also fired with hornaday bullets at 1000 yards. Trust me, these bullets will perform in most rifles.

If you are new to reloading, you may be getting alot of runout on your necks which can contribute to poor accuracy. Runout is when the necks become crooked due to full case sizing through an expander ball. You may need to get rid of the expander ball in the die and resort to another form of neck sizing. You may need to sort your cases by weight as well. Make sure you have a consistent powder scale. Also try the Federal Gold Medal Match 210 primers over the CCI.

BB said it best. Let the rifle tell you what it likes.

I will list some bullets you could try and I assure you one or more will make your rifle happy.

155 SMK, SCENAR, AMAX
168 SMK, AMAX
175 SMK
178 AMAX
190 SMK

For hunting:

150-180 ACCUBOND
150-180 INTERBOND

Also powders you should try are:

RL-15
Benchmark
4064

Varget is a great choice but I have owned 308s that didnt like VARGET either.

 

[britz]

you may want to discuss your loading technique and case prep. Loading bullets with varying seating depth by a few thousanths will hurt accuracy, as will runout.