I have been wanting to develop a good load for 175 grain .308, shooting out of my 700 LTR, so I loaded up 42 gr IMR 4064, 175 SMK’s, Federal cases, with Federal primers. I generally shoot 168’s out of this rifle but have been thinking about trying something different. I normally get about ½ MOA out of this rifle to about 500 yards with the 168 SMK’s, so I was curious how the 175’s would shoot. Today was encouraging, as my 100 yard group was ½ MOA, about a ½ inch high. I crono-ed the rounds and they came out with an average speed of 2511 fps, vs. 2509 that I normally get from FGM 168’s. I wasn’t able to get much data for longer range grouping as we were shooting on steel at 300 and 400 yards, but with the 175’s I was making good center hits on the 4 inch steel targets. One thing I did notice was that the 175’s pushed by the 4064 seemed to be a little smoother, and shot very well. The 42 grains of 4064 is a starter load and I hope to eventually work the 175’s up to 2600 ish without a loss of accuracy. I was wonder if others had any experience with this combo they could share.
First time Out with 175 SMK .308
- Thread starter mb3
- Start date
Thanks for the info, I am going to start working up and hope to find the sweet spot around 42.7 or so. So far I like this combination of powder and bullet weight.
Thats my goto projectile, I use nothing else for my .308. I absolutely love them, now if I can just get em for a reasonable price below $40/100. My load is 43.5grs of IMR4064 in a Lapua case and Winchester WLR Primer seated at 2.825". Enjoy buddy, youll never go back to 168s again, especially when you go past 500yds where these projectiles truly outshine the 168s.
