Gentle advice needed on 308 load

[Alan17hmr]

Hello

 

I'm trying to get the best out of my R8 in 308, have once been down to 5 shots in just under an inch at 100 yards, and im struggling to repeat again for confidence

 

I cannot load to close to the rifling as COAL stops my magazine feeding

 

I could single load but want to use my magazine

 

Don't feel I've found a sweet spot yet with 46.2 of RL15, Lapua cases, hornady 150 grn SP

 

Not enough Varget for sale yet, have Ramshot Tac to try along side RL15 just in case

 

What suggestions do we have out there other than patience as my range time is a struggle sometimes

 

Regards

 

Alan xxx

[jcampbellsmith]

Alan

Two suggestions. Try some factory ammo and see how the rifle performs with that. Secondly, get someone who can shoot to check out your set-up. I find it frustrating when folk shoot my kit better than I can, but it certainly highlights where the issues lie.

Regards

JCS

[kent]

If you are regularly producing such accuracy in other rifles only then look to the load or the gun. In fairness most half way decent loads will go 1" at 100yds. As above can anyone shoot this under 1" and can it be done with high quality factory? I usually test a new rifle with a range of good factory initially, its hard to send a gun back with a report of "it wont shoot" when you have been feeding it home loads without this benchmark

[onehole]

About an inch is probably the best you are going to get out of the Hornady head in question.?Get some quality match heads and work up loads with Berger or Lapua Scenars to test your rifle.Sierra matchkings worth a try too.Pretty much guarantee you will see tighter groups unless something else is amiss.

[Tackleberry]

Alan, very frustrating particularly for such a quality rifle, I would hope not but you may have to live with the moa accuracy, but there are some variables of course to play with first. I owned a steyr tactical elite, tried all sorts and it would just about hold 1 moa, sold it and had a rifle built in the end (the purpose of that story was even the more pricey rifles just sometimes won't sing).

 

Bergers as previously mentioned are very good if your just shooting paper and vermin, if you're onto deer try the nosler 150grain ballistic tips, slightly more expensive but I run them through my 308 and they shoot1/3 moa all day long. I am in the same position with h4895 as you with varget and have gone for rl15 also.

 

So, be happy with the groups and get some trigger time to tighten them, vary your (if it was me ) bullets first, try vihtavuori powder also if your struggling.

[duey]

sierra Gamekings arer more tolerant to a jump to the lands if you need a hunting round

I uise Vhit N140 up to 47gr max but start about 45gr

found a sweet spot with gamekings at arounf 80thou jump

also if you have access to a chrono then aim to get velocity upto 2800 - 2850fps with whatever load you use and this will generally get reasonable results

 

would expect to achive 1/2MOA with 308 at 100yds as minimum with above combo

 

good luck

[shooter79]

About an inch is probably the best you are going to get out of the Hornady head in question.?Get some quality match heads and work up loads with Berger or Lapua Scenars to test your rifle.Sierra matchkings worth a try too.Pretty much guarantee you will see tighter groups unless something else is amiss.

Good advice here. Hunting rounds only need to be within the inch. If you don't want to spend massive money on premium bullets then try the Amax, i get great results using the 155 grain.

Carl.

[Offroad Gary]

If youre precious about getting closer to the lands you can put a long action (30-06 or similar) magazine in and the bullets will be able to be seated longer. I used to run a 243 r93 with a 25-06 mag. My 308 blaser loved speer 2023's and 44gn n140 and 125 ballistic tips and 49gn h4894, that was with col of 71.5mm from memory due to mag restriction. I never needed to seat longer so didnt try, shot .3's all day long.

[Foxshooter]

Try 42gr N140 behind a 168gr Amax

 

Mark

[tackb]

168 Amax with 45g varget , I've yet to find a rifle that doesn't shoot that load seated to max col ?

[kent]

My own experiences show me jump length don't matter much with hunting type bullets, just make them straight and shoot them straight. Sure the over all construction and component choice (bullet of choice, powder etc) matters but jump length will not be the make or break in achieving 100yds MOA performance, good factory rounds will generally prove this. The issue of jump with these bullets is often a mental rather than physical factor in increased accuracy.

Just as an aside, have you tried your current load on paper at more distant ranges? Is it holding its measure of accuracy, diminishing, turning into a shotgun or even improving some ?