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Match Rifle Bullet Choice?


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This post is really aimed at (pun intended!) those of you who shoot match rifle at Blair Athol or Bisley.

 

What are the current favourite bullet weights and manufacturers chosen by you?

And it did cross my mind as to whether 155 Grn was ever used in modern match rifle matches these days?

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The higher BC 155s such as the Sierra 2156 and the Lapua Scenar can give excellent results at 1000 and 1100 but not so good at 1200, where a heavier bullet is indicated. There is plenty of choice, but which one will work best in your barrel will depend on factors such as twist and throat length.

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  • 1 year later...

FTR competitors found the same thing (re 155s) in the once a year 'Long Range' national F-Class round at Bisley with its 1,100 and 1,200 yards stages. The 185gn Berger Juggernaut has proven a minimum requirement for 1,200, but most of the top ten use the 200 or 215gn berger Hybrids.

 

(That really is a challenging target at these ranges - it's the standard 1,000 yard F-Class centre, so a 10.5-inch dia. 5-ring and just over 5-inch 'V'.)

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FTR competitors found the same thing (re 155s) in the once a year 'Long Range' national F-Class round at Bisley with its 1,100 and 1,200 yards stages. The 185gn Berger Juggernaut has proven a minimum requirement for 1,200, but most of the top ten use the 200 or 215gn berger Hybrids.

 

(That really is a challenging target at these ranges - it's the standard 1,000 yard F-Class centre, so a 10.5-inch dia. 5-ring and just over 5-inch 'V'.)

 

Laurie, at the risk of asking you to repeat yourself, what powders are the best choices for these bullets?
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Viht N150 is pretty well the norm for the 185 Berger. I don't know what people are using these days with the 200/215. It used to be Viht N550, but people may have moved on from that. In the USA, H. VarGet is widely used - it is a very flexible powder and the 'Extreme' temperature insensitive technology is very important to competitors there especially with the very highly stressed loadings often seen with these bullets.

 

Lapua small primer 'Palma' brass is essential to get decent MVs as well as offering smaller ES values for extreme distances, and as George B says, chamber freebore is a major issue. Whilst the older Berger 210gn BT can just be accommodated in a longer-throated 'general-purpose' chamber that can also use 155s, and the 185 Berger Juggernaut BT will easily fit into this set-up, the long heavier Hybrids need the rifle to be built for them.

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No - I prefer N150 over N140 in nearly all bullet weights in 308. I long used N150 with various 155s with very good results, albeit at lower MVs than people use nowadays in FTR. (However, I saw a very experienced international shooter use the 155.5gn Berger BT and a massively compressed load of N150 in the Palma case during 100 yard testing last year. I was astonished at the MVs he got with a tiny extreme spread - very small groups too.)

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