.308 155gr

[hollywood]

Has anyone loaded some of these up?  How did they do? Accuracy,velocity and what you shot with.  Thinking of trying them against my smk 168. All thoughts are appreciated.

[tolbndfishin]

I cant speak from experience in a 308 win load yet, but i have shot a box of 50 of them in my 300wsm a while back.  I'll have to pull out my load data for it, just to give you some idea, but i reckon you're not that concerned with that info other than the velocities and consistency there.  I will say they were quite a pleasure out to around 500 (didnt shoot them beyond that, that i can remember), consistent as the 168s and 190s (which is the load i prefer for anything beyond 600 anyway).  I didnt load them close to max load, cause they didn't like that kind of pressure out of my gun. I might even have some targets in the binder too.  All that rambling to say, it's a nice weight/bullet, I'll be loading some up once i finish the mega 308 build next week while i wait on my scope to be delivered so might have some more info to discuss in a couple/three weeks if things go as planned.

Russ

[hollywood]

That would be great I will keep a close eye on the thread for updates. Was looking at my ballistic calculator and saw that with the higher velocity and bc they should theoretically out perform the 168s. Just don't know what to expect for velocity out of a gas gun.

[jeffreyC]

I have run across some shooters with the opinion that the 155 gr is a better long range bullet than the 168 gr and if you want to improve on it you need to go up to the 175 gr.

The 155 gr is used in the International Palma Match competition which is  shot at 800 yds. 900 yds. and 1,000 yds.

[hollywood]

I've now tried some berger 155 & 168 hybrid.  Can't get either to come close to my smk.

[tolbndfishin]

If i may ask, why the bergers and not the smks?  Just a question.  I know the max load was never great in accuracy out of my 300wsm, but 1.5gr shy put everything into a dime-sized hole at the default 100mtrs.  Makes me wonder why they wouldnt perform similarly in a lr308 if the rifle is capable with the 168s.  Twist shouldnt be too high for the 155s if it stabilizes the 168s, but could be.  And yes, i know some rifles just don't like some weights. Ill have to do my own loads to find out, but now am curious.  What was your criteria for judging satisfaction with the bergers? (range, consistency, groups, velocity, etc)

Russ

[hollywood]

Group size.  I don't think it's the weight difference I believe it's the shape of the bullet. The "hybrids" are a mix of a secant and a tangent ogive.  So far they seem to shoot just like there normal vld out of my gun. For what ever reason it likes the more blunted nose of the smk. Only have a few of the hybrids left to try but still have a couple hundred of the vld. Tried them for there higher bc, but if it don't shoot it don't shoot. 

[tolbndfishin]

how many loads did you play with?  Seating depths, crimping, powders?  I probably wont be buying them, but was curious as to the methods for future reference.  Thanks  and yes, the last statement is accurate. "the bullet doesnt lie" i think is how ive heard it phrased.  Lol

Russ

[hollywood]

Seating depth the same. 2.790 just under mag length. No crimp. This time I tried the same xbr 8208 powder that pushes the smk's. Before with the strait vld I had tried varget and h4895 all with multiple .5 gr increments. The best so far is that .75 group. They were usually around 1.5 or so. They did not like near max load. You change sample packs of them 12ct from "bullet proof" retailers. That's what i did for the hybrids. Wish I knew about them when I ordered the boxes of the vld, now just an expensive paper weight.  :)