Anyone here load Berger 185 Hybrids?

[exx1976]

My rifle is a 1:10, 20" .308. My goal is to shoot it at 1000 yards at paper (F-T/R), or, as long as I can with that short barrel, whichever happens first. I WILL eventually rebarrel this rifle with something longer, but for now, this is what I have.

This weekend, I'll be shooting at 500 yards.

Year round, the range 3 minutes down the road has 100 yards. May-October I have access to 300 yards within about 45 minutes of here.

My question regarding this bullet: I've read a few different places that some of the Bergers (and other VLD/hybrid type) bullets take a bit to "go to sleep", and may not print well at 100 yards, but work exceedingly well at 300 and beyond.

Has anyone else experienced this? The Bergers are not here yet (probably next week), and then I also have an order for a bunch more waiting on PVI to process.

I'm wondering if I should even bother trying to do load development with them at 100 yards, or if I need to wait for that 300 yard range to open. I don't want to go to the time, trouble, and expense of laoding a bunch up only to not have the proper range to shoot them at.

Looking forward to any and all feedback.

Thanks guys!

 

[herro_prease]

I used Berger 185 HPBTs, but moved back to 175 OTMs. I couldn't get the velocities I wanted - not because of pressure, but because of lack of case capacity. I started crushing kernels long before I got to pressure sign.

 

[ksthomas]

I'm using them in a similar situation (20" AR-10 for Long Range Service Rifle competition) but haven't shot them in a match yet. The guns (there were at least four of us on our team who built them) were built around the 185 Berger. We went with 9.3" twist cut-rifled barrels, specifically to deal with the lower velocities we knew we'd see with the 20" barrel. Essentially, we just took the specs that USAMU was using when they built their M110s for the Long Range team. No point in reinventing the wheel, and they've got these guns working quite well at 1,000 yards already.