167gr Scenars vs 168gr BTHP

[Nikon147]

Last year my closest friends and I did a guys trip to the CMP Range in Talladega for a long weekend. In addition to the incredible range weekend, I took advantage of their remarkably reasonable Ammo Prices to stock up my ammo cabinet. I picked up a bunch of the Creedmoor Sports 308, and grabbed both the 167gr Scenars and 168 BHTP. Great stuff, Lapua Brass, and chrono'd remarkably consistent.

I have a Remington 700 in a KRG Bravo, that loves FGMM and ELDMs in 168, but heard really great things about the Scenars so I figured I'd give them a shot.

I'm seeing significantly larger groups with the Scenars.

With the 168gr FGMM, my rifle is a solid 3/4 MOA gun with me behind it. No real issues, it's been super consistent. It performs the same with the 168gr Creedmoor Sports too.

With the Scenars I can't seem to get a consistent group below 1 MOA.

The ammo is high quality, and the results seem to be consistent even between different boxes. I thought it was me at first, but have ruled that out.

Has anyone else had this experience between the two?

 

[demolitionman]

Is the rifle bedded to chassis? If your not a hand loader, chances are Devcon bedding would be about the only option besides some sort of goofy barrel tuner device. You could cut your barrel down little by little and have it re crowned to see if a different vibration node would help that scenar. . . . Probably be cheaper just to start handloading. Good luck.

 

[Nikon147]

Is the rifle bedded to chassis? If your not a hand loader, chances are Devcon bedding would be about the only option besides some sort of goofy barrel tuner device. You could cut your barrel down little by little and have it re crowned to see if a different vibration node would help that scenar. . . . Probably be cheaper just to start handloading. Good luck.

The original rifle is a Remington 700P that was a police trade-in. I moved it to a KRG Bravo Chassis which is aluminum bedded.

It usually shoots consistent between the various versions of 168gr rounds (BTHP, SMK, ELDM, etc). Even the hunting rounds in that range are pretty consistent.

I just didn't expect to see such a noticeable difference going from a 168gr to 167gr.

I don't handload/reload, and I understand to get the max performance I'd need to tune the rifle or a work up a load. I was really just wanting to know whether people had also seen such a dramatic difference in performance just switching from the traditional 168gr projectiles to the Scenars, in factory loads. I've heard nothing but good things about the Scenars generally.

 

[CerebralDistortion]

Well, your rifle doesn't seem to like the factory loaded Scenars. That's what it is sometimes.

One could argue that it is the powder, the amount of it or the bullets that are the "problem".

Scenars generally work well for me and if one powder does not give low ES and precision I use another. Since you don't reload, try another gun or trade them for something else.

 

[Ndbowhunter]

Have never tried, but a tuner might be the ticket here