308 shooters.....

[303carbine]

What is your favorite bullet weight for hunting and why..........??
Mine overall is the plain jane Hornady 165 Interlock flatbase, more weight than the 150 grain and a little faster than 180 grain.:budo:

[Mohr74]

Ive had good luck with 150 grain partitions myself.

[trooper]

I have always used sierra 150 gn boat tail spitzers or spitzers. 42 gns of RE 15, federal case and a CCI 200 primer. My velocities are low but the groups are very tight. best achieved group was 3/4 " at 200 meters/ 5 rounds.:sHa_shakeshout:

[bulletman]

We use the plain jane Hornady 150 grain Interlock flat base. I'm told it is the most popular of the .30 calibre Hornady lineup.

[7mm08]

165gr Accubond. I dont reload for the .308 yet, and thats the bullet Nosler loads in its custom ammo. It is very accurate in my rifle so I never tried anything else. Dont fix something that isnt broken.

[FallAirFever]

I am loading 165 grain Sierra Gamekings SPBT. In Win brass, with WLR primers and good dose of H4895. I am happy with the accuracy and performance on the 2 deer I have shot this year. Hope to try them on my cow elk as well and see how they do on larger game.

Same thing as the OP as far as bullet weight 165gr seemed a nice middle of the road for a 308 Win.

[MadMarty911]

165 grain Hornady SST's worked best in my rifle

[Dean2]

130 Grain Barnes TSX over 4895 and a CCI mag primer. 3150 FPS, great penetration and knockdown power. Have killed deer, moose, elk and bear with them. All one shot, and will hold about 2" on a 3 shot group to 400 yards, depending on wind.

[Mr Hawken]

i must be missing something.i always thought about sectional density and with 130 gr there is not much there.i used to use a 30/06 165 for deer and 180 for elk/moose.my wife bought a .308 and i recommended the same for her.

[7mm08]

130 Grain Barnes TSX over 4895 and a CCI mag primer. 3150 FPS, great penetration and knockdown power. Have killed deer, moose, elk and bear with them. All one shot, and will hold about 2" on a 3 shot group to 400 yards, depending on wind.

Hey Dean, just curious...have you compared drop difference at 3-400 yards between the 130's and a heavier Barnes bullet, or have you only shot 130's at that range? Kinda curious about the 150 or 165 MRX compared to the lighter ones at longer ranges.

[Homesteader]

i must be missing something.i always thought about sectional density and with 130 gr there is not much there.i used to use a 30/06 165 for deer and 180 for elk/moose.my wife bought a .308 and i recommended the same for her.

Sectional density is far less of an issue with the newer mono metal bullets compared to conventional bullets. I believe Barnes used to say something like you could drop down 1-2 weight steps, and still get the same, or more penetration. So if you usually shoot a 165g in a 30 cal conventional, then a 130g tsx would likely give similar penetration.

[Flight01]

My rem 673 likes the 165 Sierra Game King BTSP. Shot a 4" group from that hunting rifle at 500 yards.

[Hotwheels81]

Speer 180gr hot cores over Varget in my .308 or over H1000 in my 300wm....

180's buck the wind a bit better and group better then 150-168gr bullets in my .308.

Funny... Most folks want a fast bullet that's not too heavy.... I prefer a heavy bullet that's not too slow...

[Dean2]

Hey Dean, just curious...have you compared drop difference at 3-400 yards between the 130's and a heavier Barnes bullet, or have you only shot 130's at that range? Kinda curious about the 150 or 165 MRX compared to the lighter ones at longer ranges.

So yes I have. The 130, sighted at 300 yards, has a max mid range of 4.4 at 175, is 10.3 low at 400 and 28.2 low at 500. Full value 10 mph wind is 14.6 at 400 and 24.1 at 500.

The 165 MRX has a higher BC but is only doing 2700 fps. Zeroed at 300 is has a max mid range of 6.1 at 175, and is 13.4 low ar 400 and 36 inches low at 500. It does have .8 at 400 and 1.6" less wind drift in a full value 10 mph wind at 500.

The 130 and 140 grain bullets are very common in 270 and 7MM Mag for the same reason. As you can see, the lighter bullet moving a lot faster is much flatter, and nearly as wind resitant as the more commonly used 165. This means that from 25 yards to nearly 400, you can pretty much point and shot on deer or anything bigger.

Also, as Homesteader said, with the mono bullet SD is not nearly as big a deal, and really tthe difference is negligible between 130 and 165 .308 bullets anyhow, being .196 vs .248. If you really want to bump SD you need to go to a larger bore size.

[Tactical Lever]

165 seems like the best balance for the velocity. Not a fan of varmint weight bullets for big game. An extra 25% sectional density is nothing to sneeze at. Much easier to get good bullet performance when you start in the right velocity range.

The short light bullets start out faster, but quickly shed velocity losing the advantage they had. Out at longer range, the lighter bullet has less momentum (inertia) and is in a different velocity range than when it started; and has a bigger proportional velocity drop than a heavier bullet that started slightly slower. The bigger the drop, the more you are expecting of the bullet technology.

130 would be about right for a 7.62x39, 165 for .308, 180 for 30-06, 200 for 300 Win. And I would add about 10-20% for tough stuff at close range.

If I didn't want to eat it or did not care about penetration I would go lighter. But this trend toward super light weights seems something akin to asking your sports car to pull a 5th wheel. Sure, it's got the horsepower....

[Dean2]

TL

You theory is partially correct, at 500 yards the 130 grain bullet is still doing 1928 fps, and the 165 is doing 1781, so the 130 has shed proportionally more speed, but the fact remains that the 130 is still traveling faster by 160 fps, even at 500 yards, and is shooting a full 8" flatter.

Energy is not what kills game. The hole, and it being in the right place is what matters. As long as the penetration and expansion are proper the hole will do its job. If energy really mattered no muzzle loading round ball or arrow would ever be effective at killing anything.

There are two ends of the spectrun that work, smaller caliber .24, .25. .284, .308 and speed, or larger bore and big heavy bullets. Small caliber, slow moving heavy bullets like the 30-30 work fine to 1 or 200 yards but poor choice beyond that.

If you want to be able to use heavy bullets that kill efectively,and trajectory beyond 200 yards is not a consideration then shoot a 45-70, or 458 Winchester. If you want heavy at a distance 338, 375 or 460 Weatherby, but you pay the price in recoil with the last three.

[Puma]

I like the Hornady 165 gr SST in my Rem 660. They fly at about 2550 fps from its short barrel.

Im looking forward to seeing what they do out of my P&H 1100 lightweight ;)

Puma

[303carbine]

[QUOTE=Tactical Lever;1657761]165 seems like the best balance for the velocity. Not a fan of varmint weight bullets for big game. An extra 25% sectional density is nothing to sneeze at. Much easier to get good bullet performance when you start in the right velocity range.

The short light bullets start out faster, but quickly shed velocity losing the advantage they had. Out at longer range, the lighter bullet has less momentum (inertia) and is in a different velocity range than when it started; and has a bigger proportional velocity drop than a heavier bullet that started slightly slower. The bigger the drop, the more you are expecting of the bullet technology.

130 would be about right for a 7.62x39, 165 for .308, 180 for 30-06, 200 for 300 Win. And I would add about 10-20% for tough stuff at close range. QUOTE]



This formula is exactly what I use for 30 caliber, 165 for 308 Win, 180 for 30-06 and 190 and bigger for the big 30 cal magnums. And tougher bullets for those close up shots on heavy game. The 165 seems to be the best of all for the 308 anyways.

[Tactical Lever]

TL

You theory is partially correct, at 500 yards the 130 grain bullet is still doing 1928 fps, and the 165 is doing 1781, so the 130 has shed proportionally more speed, but the fact remains that the 130 is still traveling faster by 160 fps, even at 500 yards, and is shooting a full 8" flatter.

I pulled a few numbers for you, using a 125 gr. bullet and a 165 gr.; both Nosler ballistic tips. Rather than work out the exact energies, velocities, and drop, I used the excellent universal tables by provided in the 6th edition.

This of course meant slight rounding of the numbers; in this case slightly up for the light bullet, and slightly down for the heavier in starting velocities.

I used max published velocity for both from the same book.

125 gr. Velocity Energy Drop 165 gr. Velocity Energy Drop
Muzzle 3285 3022 2910 3081
100 3023 2498 2704 2671
200 2763 2176 0 2516 2290 0
300 2518 1735 -5.7 2336 1938 -7.1
400 2285 1468 -16.9 2164 1773 -20.7
500 2065 1224 -34.9 1999 1465 -41.7
600 1857 950 -60.8 1840 1250 -71

Same bullet, same manufacturer, loaded to the same intensity, the 165 gr. bullet stands out with more energy all the way (and past) 600 yds. 21% more energy at 400, and a whopping 31% at 600. With only 1.4 inch difference at 300, 3.8 at 400 and even at 600 only 10.2.

But concerning drop, let's face it; a little past 200 yards we will want to be using range finders as about 1 in 100 of us can tell the distance between 500 and 600 yards in the field.

Energy is not what kills game. The hole, and it being in the right place is what matters. As long as the penetration and expansion are proper the hole will do its job. If energy really mattered no muzzle loading round ball or arrow would ever be effective at killing anything.

Of course shot placement is key, but as you mentioned, it doesn't help when you lack penetration by using a bullet with low sectional density.

You wouldn't shoot a bear (or goose) with #12 would you? So why hamstring your big game rifle with a varmint weight bullet?

There are two ends of the spectrun that work, smaller caliber .24, .25. .284, .308 and speed, or larger bore and big heavy bullets. Small caliber, slow moving heavy bullets like the 30-30 work fine to 1 or 200 yards but poor choice beyond that.

Since you're talking about 500 yards, the 30-30 loaded with a 170 gr. round nose, zeroed at 100 yds. will still be as effective (or more) than the 130 gr. spitzer at 500. The 30-30 will actually be flatter at 300 than the .308 at 500, and deliver the bullet at 1375 fps for about 740 ft./lbs. But at these speeds, the 30-30 still has half again the momentum due to the heavy bullet.

I know of a couple riflemen that have harvested their deer cleanly at 300.

If you want to be able to use heavy bullets that kill efectively,and trajectory beyond 200 yards is not a consideration then shoot a 45-70, or 458 Winchester. If you want heavy at a distance 338, 375 or 460 Weatherby, but you pay the price in recoil with the last three.

If you want to use light bullets, use a .243! :)

[Tactical Lever]

125 gr. Velocity Energy Drop 165 gr. Velocity Energy Drop
Muzzle 3285 3022 2910 3081
100 3023 2498 2704 2671
200 2763 2176 0 2516 2290 0
300 2518 1735 -5.7 2336 1938 -7.1
400 2285 1468 -16.9 2164 1773 -20.7
500 2065 1224 -34.9 1999 1465 -41.7
600 1857 950 -60.8 1840 1250 -71

Sorry for the crappy looking table; not sure how to make it work.

[Alta_Redneck]

I shoot 165gr accubonds for hunting, I tired the 165 gr trophy bonded tips and my rifle wouldn't group them very well at 200 yards. My groups went for 1.5" with accubonds and hornady to 6-7" with the trophy bonded tips.

[catnthehat]

165's for everything.
Cat

[rusty]

a friend of mine shoots 180 accubonds@2717 fps 5'' low @300 yds.I did'nt believe him at first but seen him chrony them..true he told me the pwder but I forget..

[High-Rider]

Ive been shooting 150g superformance sst's on whitetails mulies elk wolf & coyote. If find them to be deadly accurate in my TC Icon. I dont take marginal shoots tho...

[High-Rider]

I was just reading back some posts Holly Cow doesnt anybody like eating venison? I like to leave a little meat on my mount..

[MartyT]

I use Sierra 165 hpbt gameking and 150 gameking as well as Speer 165 gr Deepcurl. The Speer is as accurate in my rifle as the Sierra 165 but the Sierra 150 gr I have dialed just right. All consistent under 1" though. No problems on deer with the Sierras at all but haven't tried the Deepcurls yet on game. Maybe this year.

[Tracker34]

I'm not set up for loading 308's yet. Mind you I don't have time anyway. Best accuracy I have from my BLR is from Winchester, 180gr pointed soft point an silvertips. Might not be the best quality ammo, but my rifle likes them the best.

[303carbine]

I tried some 190 Sierra Hollow Point Matchkings out of my heavy barrelled Remington 600 Mohawk in 308 yesterday,the 190's shot into a 1/2 inch at 80 yds.
The 165 Hornady's shot 7/8ths with three out of four touching.
I also tried some 130 grain Speer Hollow points, they shot just under an inch.
The last two shots of the day were with 165 Speer's, they nearly touched at the same distance.
I never thought that the big 190 grain Sierra bullets would stablize out of the 308, I guess you never know till you try.
Next.... some 220 grain Hornady round nose.:scared0018:

[Cappy]

I know lots of guys who shoot 208gr Amax's out of their .308's and I'me pretty sure those are longer then the 220gr round nose. You shouldn't have a problem. It really depends on your twist rate and then how fast you can push them.

[graybeard]

Caliber: 308 win.
Ammo: Federal; Trophy Bonded; 165 grain factory ammo.

I shot a mulie last year and the weight of the bullet I recovered was 163 grains. It was picture perfect; as the 4 petals folded over just like it looks in the magazines....

Good luck with your search and testing.

[jim summit]

Call it my MDD load......

Moose Drop Dead. :lol: