Range Report 73gr .398 g1 bc vs 77gr .340

[ssteve]

So I am fairly new at reloading for precision and just looking to finalize a load and load up a bunch for some varmint and target shooting I am looking to do over the next couple months. I have narrowed it down to hornady's 73gr eld-m and noslers 77gr bthp. Both shoot to the same accuracy, about 1/2-3/4 moa with a SD of sub 10. The node I am going with puts the 77gr at 2670fps, and the 73gr at 2700fps.

I am using hornady's 4dof and its accurate to 300 yards with both using whatever data hornady input from the doppler.

with a 100 yard zero this is what the 4dof spits out for each.

300 yards, 15mph wind full value from 9oclock:
73gr eld---------> 1.05mrad elevation, 1.15 windage
77gr bthp ------> 1.13mrad elevation, 1.30 windage

That's from my last time out shooting that load and it was pretty spot on. If I was to bank on the 4dof being accurate further out with the data I am giving it, then 600yards would look like this:

73gr eld--------> 4.51 elevation, 2.73 windage
77gr bthp------> 4.85 elevation, 3.04 windage

Being a novice at this I look at those numbers and it seems at face value like the eld is the clear cut choice here right? Is there something I am overlooking? Energy means little to nothing to me as a vast majority of shooting will either be target, squirrel or coyote's.

 

[SporterII]

So I am fairly new at reloading for precision and just looking to finalize a load and load up a bunch for some varmint and target shooting I am looking to do over the next couple months. I have narrowed it down to hornady's 73gr eld-m and noslers 77gr bthp. Both shoot to the same accuracy, about 1/2-3/4 moa with a SD of sub 10. The node I am going with puts the 77gr at 2670fps, and the 73gr at 2700fps.

I am using hornady's 4dof and its accurate to 300 yards with both using whatever data hornady input from the doppler.

with a 100 yard zero this is what the 4dof spits out for each.

300 yards, 15mph wind full value from 9oclock:
73gr eld---------> 1.05mrad elevation, 1.15 windage
77gr bthp ------> 1.13mrad elevation, 1.30 windage

That's from my last time out shooting that load and it was pretty spot on. If I was to bank on the 4dof being accurate further out with the data I am giving it, then 600yards would look like this:

73gr eld--------> 4.51 elevation, 2.73 windage
77gr bthp------> 4.85 elevation, 3.04 windage

Being a novice at this I look at those numbers and it seems at face value like the eld is the clear cut choice here right? Is there something I am overlooking? Energy means little to nothing to me as a vast majority of shooting will either be target, squirrel or coyote's.

I would say at this point cost is the missing parameter

 

[ssteve]

Same cost. $21 per 100. To make shipping and everything offset I would need to order a couple thousand of the noslers to get it any cheaper really.

 

[Mordamer]

73 ELD is a great choice. The older 69 and 77 grain HPBT design has been far surpassed by newer designs as far as ballistic efficiency is concerned. The 73 grain ELD also expands nicely on small game, but a 77 HPBT can tend to pencil straight through.

 

[ssteve]

Yeah I am mostly concerned with accuracy as terminal ballistics aren’t that important for this round. I’ve also shot some bobcats and coyotes with smk’s and never been disappointed