16" .308 Projectile

[jfields]

I am thinking about starting load development for a 16" REPR. I am looking for suggestions on a bullet that will be used primarily for hunting white tails and feral hogs. I am torn between going light and fast or sending the heavier bullets a little slower. I would not be comfortable taking a shot past 400 yards, so I am looking for terminal performance to be good to that distance. I have a ton of 178 AMAXs and 175 SMKs, but I have always heard that these do not perform well as hunting bullets.

Any Suggestions?

Thanks,

Shaky

 

[RyeDaddy]

Re: 16" .308 Projectile

Of the two you have on hand I'd go with the 178 Amax. There's nothing wrong with them on whitetail. Any bullet will work, especially for 400 yards or less. I've used 155 Amax, 155 VLD's and 168 Amax's on deer out of my 16.5" 308. All have worked and shot beautifully. This year I'm shooting Berger's new 168 grain Classic Hunter and expect it will perform like a VLD on game.

For long range target shooting as well as hunting it depends on how much elevation your scope has. Fastest I can get a 168 in my 16.5" barrel is 2550, I can push 155's at 2750 FPS. The 155 drops less but the 168 still beats it in the wind. I only have 10 mils useable elevation from a 100 yard zero, which can get me to 900 yards with the 168's (in theory), which is farther than the longest range I have access to so I go with less wind deflection.

 

[azimutha]

Re: 16" .308 Projectile

I can only speak from experience regarding whitetails, antelope and elk. Non-hunting .308 bullets I used once on all three resulted in:

An antelope shot at 200ish yards...looked like an RPG hit it where the exit wound was located on the rib cage. A whitetail shot at 325 yards dropped like a rock and no wasted meat (the one success story here). A large, older cow elk at 125 yards ran for 150 yards even though we discovered later her heart was pulverized. That sucked. I've always used 165 gr. Accubonds since then and have never had an elk move more than 20 yards.

I've had to do two follow-up shots with Accubonds on a bull elk shot at 290 yards. He walked about 10 yards and laid down but didn't expire right away. I shot a cow at 40 yards and both rounds penciled through...no bullet is perfect. But stick with hunting bullets.

 

[judgedelta]

Re: 16" .308 Projectile

For whitetails, I prefer the Sierra 165 boat-tail hollow point, loaded with 41.5 of IMR 4895, or a similar load with RL-15 (.308). The hollow point leaves a blood trail Ray Charles could follow; if you don't drop Bambi on the spot. If you don't like the hollow point, the similar 165 spire point is hard to beat. Both shoot almost as good as a 168 match king in either my LMT MWS or my BAR 30-06