.308 Winchester

[turkey_creek]

Do keep us posted. I've got a box of them myself, but I haven't loaded any yet. Waiting on my jug of varget to show up.

I was intrigued by the bullet, as well, until I found my gun likes the 169 SMK. Might be a fun exercise to load some up and see if they’d do well enough to be competitive.

I was looking at the Hornady data yesterday, and they don’t actually have load data for the 174 and Varget in the manual.

 

[Rob01]

I was intrigued by the bullet, as well, until I found my gun likes the 169 SMK. Might be a fun exercise to load some up and see if they’d do well enough to be competitive.

I was looking at the Hornady data yesterday, and they don’t actually have load data for the 174 and Varget in the manual.

Just use the 176 ATip or 178 ELD data.

 

[Mean_Man]

I did an extremely lazy load development for my 308, ended up loading:
44.0gr of Varget, 168gr ELD-Ms, .020 off lands, WRE LR primers, sellier bellot brass.
Over 55rounds my ES/SD looks like 50/13fps, getting 2499fps (average) from a 16" barrel.

Groups at 100y & 300y look pretty good but at 500y & 600y I'm getting a lot more vertical dispersion that I'd like.
If I wanted to bring this down what should I do?
-tune powder
-tune seating depth
-different projectile (might be at edge of stability)
-better brass
-better dies (FL Hornady dies, but thinking bushing dies)

I'm a little worried the 168 ELDs are on edge of stability at distance (Berger calculator would suggest this), so a different projectile could be worth trying.
Of course could try turning my load (seating depth and/or powder) and could try for a bit more velocity, don't want to change from Varget if I can help it.

My guess is my brass isn't great so should start there, and invest in better dies. No point in speeding time and money on a bunch of different tests if my brass isn't very consistent. But at same time a 50fps ES probably isn't all down to the brass.

Shooting on some electronic targets i some decent wind I'm happy with .7moa vertical at 300y, but 1.8moa of vertical at 600y isn't great.

300y
View attachment 8786136

600y
View attachment 8786135

I’d change brass or bullet, change nothing else pick one of those two, then go from there. Obviously better brass won’t hurt anything. Measure H20 capacity though, some brass like my M118 brass is lower than usual capacity, you might be higher in pressure than you expect at that powder charge.

Also in my experience the 169gr SMK outperforms the 168, but your dispersion being what it is, I don’t think is due to the projectile… your rifle either HATES the SMK projectile which I doubt, or something else is up.

How often do you practice?
What rifle?
What’s your rate of fire like?

 

[XP1K]

I was intrigued by the bullet, as well, until I found my gun likes the 169 SMK. Might be a fun exercise to load some up and see if they’d do well enough to be competitive.

I was looking at the Hornady data yesterday, and they don’t actually have load data for the 174 and Varget in the manual.

Just use the 176 ATip or 178 ELD data.

In that weight class of bullet, I just dump 45gr of varget and don't liok back. Works pretty good in my rifle. My brothers trg22 likes it also with a 175 tmk.

In regards to @beetroot high es and vertical at 600, I'd probably be looking somewhere else. Myself, I really struggle with more traditional stocks. If I dont stay on top of myself, I tend to get vertical.

I shot this group at 600 with my 6 dasher and some really poor loads (they did group well at100) running an sd in the low 20's and es in the mid 50's.

 

[Rob01]

I wouldn’t go right to 45grns with that bullet and brass combo. I’d start around 43 and work up personally. Probably find the load near 44 or so.

 

[XP1K]

I wouldn’t go right to 45grns with that bullet and brass combo. I’d start around 43 and work up personally. Probably find the load near 44 or so.

Thats the smart play. I should note that I was using sig hybrids and lapua brass. Probably try it with wcc here in the near future.

 

[Rob01]

Yeah Winchester brass is the largest internal. I used to use 45grns with it and the 178 AMAX. With Hornady brass I am usually at 44grns.