shooting 308 175gr. smk's

[drafter58]

Hey folks I'm new to the forum and was wondering if anyone with a Remington SPS 308 20" bbl. has had problems with SMK's at 400yds or more? At 100yds it will shoot 1/2" groups. Took it to the range today and burned 50 rds and hit a 14" plate maybe 10 times. The more I shot the madder I got. I tried everything and could not get it to group. Using 44.5 Varget and Lapua brass with Federal Primers. Any thoughts? I'm new to long distance shooting but 168gr SMK's shoot great.

Thanks Kent

 

[rchman]

Have you tried factory FGMM 175 rounds to compare as a baseline?

 

[drafter58]

No I haven't

 

[Bangin_steel]

What is the twist rate of your barrel, and what is the 175 suggested minimum twist rate? That would be the first thing i would look. Might be losing to much speed.

Hey folks I'm new to the forum and was wondering if anyone with a Remington SPS 308 20" bbl. has had problems with SMK's at 400yds or more? At 100yds it will shoot 1/2" groups. Took it to the range today and burned 50 rds and hit a 14" plate maybe 10 times. The more I shot the madder I got. I tried everything and could not get it to group. Using 44.5 Varget and Lapua brass with Federal Primers. Any thoughts? I'm new to long distance shooting but 168gr SMK's shoot great.

Thanks Kent

 

[coldboremiracle]

Shoot the 168's then. There are any number of possibilities that could cause your problem, perhaps some more details would be helpful to find the cause of your inconsistencies.

 

[drafter58]

Thanks for the comments guys. Twists rate is 1:12, from a bipod, 10mph wind 1/4 value, temp 95 degrees, dang thing was driving me nuts. I have a Millet TRS which has been a good scope. 2500fps according to Strelok. My elevation was fine but could not get left to right to work. Scope maybe?

 

[vegasjeepguy]

I have much better luck with 168s than 175s. My 175s were all over the place and I figured I had issues since I was first starting to reload. My 168s are grouped nicely at .5 to .75 MOA. Eventually I'll give the 175s another shot as my reloading skills and technique seemed to have improved

 

[Sako man]

Hey folks I'm new to the forum and was wondering if anyone with a Remington SPS 308 20" bbl. has had problems with SMK's at 400yds or more? At 100yds it will shoot 1/2" groups. Took it to the range today and burned 50 rds and hit a 14" plate maybe 10 times. The more I shot the madder I got. I tried everything and could not get it to group. Using 44.5 Varget and Lapua brass with Federal Primers. Any thoughts? I'm new to long distance shooting but 168gr SMK's shoot great.

Thanks Kent

Very interesting. In my experience with that exact gun is that they love the 175 smk and it's really the best bullet for that particular barrel. We could commonly nail ISPC at up to 1180Y with 175smk and the 20" barrel. the LTR loves those as well. Now, it's possible that 44.5 might be too hot. Back down to 43-44 and see how it goes, otherwise your ingredients are excelent. Lastly the SMK and those boat tail type bullets like to be loaded closer to the lands. Another interesting thing is the 175 actually can tighten up past 100 as the bullet start to spin in more of a concentric pattern around the long center axis.

Now the most obvious possible problem is how well do you have your fundamentals down? Do you normally print over three rounds at 1/2 at 100? My experience is that 1/2 is about what you can expect maximum out of a well broken in SPS. They are really great guns for the price.

Don't know where you were shooting but how windy was it? At distance even a <5 MPH crosswind will be a game changer.

The other thing to check is your parallax on your optic, if thats not dialed in for 400Y then your zero will shift around when ever you move your cheek on the cheek rest. Doesn't matter where your aiming at that point if that setting is incorrect. It's not just good enough to be in focus but you have to move your head around slightly to make sure that the reticle is in sync with the target.

 

[drafter58]

Thanks for your reply sako. I know part of my problem the the basics since I'm just learning. If it was my pistol I would be fine. What you said about the powder charge is something I thought about. My best group was actually with 44 grains. I will try that next and work on my fundamentals and see what happens thanks for the great advice.

 

[Sako man]

Thanks for your reply sako. I know part of my problem the the basics since I'm just learning. If it was my pistol I would be fine. What you said about the powder charge is something I thought about. My best group was actually with 44 grains. I will try that next and work on my fundamentals and see what happens thanks for the great advice.

OK, well if you can shoot a pistol well then your gonna be good to go if you get the rest in alignment, that trigger control will take you far.

Good luck.

 

[Arbiter]

I'm willing to put money on the scope being bad.

That, or you're massively over-compensating/under-compensating for wind values.

The load doesn't sound unusual, and you'd be hard pressed to bugger up the loaded ammunition badly enough to be missing a 14" plate at 400 yards.

 

[Dacam]

A ton of guys shooting 175g SMK are charging it with 43g of Varget and or there abouts. Try backing your charge weight down a bit and see if you groups tighten up.

 

[Icallem]

The more I shot the madder I got.

Thanks Kent

This never helped me. When it happens (and it does) I just load things up and go home, as it will be better another day. Or at least I hope so!

 

[billyburl2]

My bet is the scope as well! Either that or the rings, check all connection points and try again.

 

[broylz]

I would double check the base and rings for tightness.

 

[Danco411]

Something is fishy. 44.5 Varge should be way more than 2500 FPS. 44.5 Varget loads in Laupa brass run almost 2700 in my 20" Savage. I'm now using 43.5 of RE15 at 2650 for my accuracy load and it's really good with the 175 SMK. Like the others stated I would back down a bit and see what happens. You may be just off your accuracy load. Another thought is to check your muzzle crown closely. See if there are any knicks or erosion. Could be the culprit for esoteric accuracy problems.

 

[Jethro3898]

Parallax in your scope may be to blame?

 

[lte82]

If you are using 2500 fps in strelok to get your come ups you are probably shooting over the target. The difference in drop at 400 yards between 2700 and 2500 fps is about 6 inches. Try coming down 4-6 clicks and try it again.

Just for fun, were you hitting the top of the plate or just all over it?

 

[biner626]

That was my exact load in the same rifle(yours may vary). My wife shot a F/TR midrange match with it and scored 547-4x. Are you "forcing" the rifle on target?

 

[tylerw02]

You probably need to tune your load a little bit. 100 yard groups really don't do much in the grand scheme of things. Do a ladder test at 300 and you'll come up with something more useful.

Also, how many times has this brass been fired?

 

[gstaylorg]

Kent,
In addition to the above suggestions, I would add that you might try using a target that is a little bigger and/or at slightly closer distance. I routinely practice at 600 using 18" Shoot-N-C targets. I black out all the lines/numbers with a fat black Sharpie, leaving only the middle red aiming center. Unless the mirage is really bad, it is very easy to see the holes at 600 yd through either the rifle scope and spotting scope. With the pasters, I usually get 3-4 uses out of one before it's shot out. The main problem with shooting at a 14" steel or other smaller target as you described is that if you miss, you get little or no feedback as to what's happening with your rounds. Bring it in closer as was suggested and/or use a larger target that will give you information about your impacts that you can use to analyze what is happening. Even with a good dirt backstop, misses give very limited info as to what's actually going on.

 

[tylerw02]

If you've fired the brass more than 3-4x, it could be time to anneal.

 

[FN in MT]

43.1 of VARGET with 175's was absolutely MY Rem 700's sweet spot.

Upon reading your initial post my first thought was your powder charge is too high. I'd drop down to 43.0- 43.5 and try that.

 

[John1911.com]

Hey folks I'm new to the forum and was wondering if anyone with a Remington SPS 308 20" bbl. has had problems with SMK's at 400yds or more? At 100yds it will shoot 1/2" groups. Took it to the range today and burned 50 rds and hit a 14" plate maybe 10 times. The more I shot the madder I got. I tried everything and could not get it to group. Using 44.5 Varget and Lapua brass with Federal Primers. Any thoughts? I'm new to long distance shooting but 168gr SMK's shoot great.

Thanks Kent

Once you get done fiddling, if you really are down to thinking it might be the scope, you need to bring it back to 100 and shoot ladders and or boxes.

TTR

 

[islandermyk]

Maybe bring your charge down.
I'm at 43.0 gr of Varget with my loads and I could group these rounds less than 1/2MOA when I do things right.
GAP REM 700 22" Bartlein 11.25... I know.. I know.. but I've seen similar if not better groups with my same loads on "other" stock REM 700's.
When I was up to 44.0+ gr... and passed 43.8 the rounds were going all over the place and opened up the faster they went out the barrel.
With the loads I'm on now.. I can generally get out as far as 1100+ yards (given I do my part).
With that in mind I'm getting an average of 2631 FPS out of 5 shots.
Here's a 3 shot group at a hundred with my loads.