F T/R Competition Berger 215's

[damoncali]

I decided to jump ship to the T/R side of F class, and so I'm looking for a little input. Anyone using the Berger 215's for T/R? Expected velocity out of a 32" barrel? Do you need to run stupid pressures to move these fast enough out of a .308? Small primer brass? Enquiring minds want to know.

The nice jump in BC over the 200/210's is what caught my attention.

 

[haroldwilson]

I was going to try them in one of my barrels, but I really don't have the freebore to run them. I actually have a box I am going to sell if you are interested.

A couple of guys I shoot with have used them with mixed success. One shot a clean at 600 yds with them. If you aren't on top of your bipod technique and shooting form, you can get vertical with them. They may be on the upper edge of what you can expect to shoot out of a .308. If you can control the vertical, they are great in the wind.

You really need something in the neighborhood of .200 freebore and a 10 twist or faster.

 

[Down South]

I've been shooting them for the last 4 months.....I use large primer lapua brass, with a 30 inch 9.25 twist Brux im running 2570 ftps (freebore about .260 to .270).....They are very finicky on the bipod, you can't muscle the gun (at least i can't do it and get away with it).....Vertical problems can and will happen if your form/technique isn't just right.....I still get vertical at times (unexpectedly), with that being said i have shot some VERY good scores at 600 & 1000 yard matches with them......Day in and day out the 185s & 200s are more consistent vertically but do get pushed around more in rough conditions, most guys that tried 215s went back to the lighter bullets.....All i can say is give them a try, you might get good results and like them or you might hate them, only one way to find out!

 

[damoncali]

When you say vertical is a problem, is it just a matter of the extra recoil or is it because the bullets are on the heavy side of reasonable for a .308 or what?

 

[Down South]

When you say vertical is a problem, is it just a matter of the extra recoil or is it because the bullets are on the heavy side of reasonable for a .308 or what?

Could be both, not sure.....All i can tell you is that they don't hold vertical quite as tight as the lighter bullets do (for me at least).

 

[30cal user]

200 hybrid is the way to go
43.5 gr varget

 

[ballisticdaddy]

Could be both, not sure.....All i can tell you is that they don't hold vertical quite as tight as the lighter bullets do (for me at least).

I was not able to get the 215's anywhere near as consistent as the 185 or 200.20x. Honestly I believe it has to do with case volume being very similar to pushing 90 grain VLD out of a .223

 

[Peterpan]

I use the 215s in my 300 wsm s, and love them. But I just don’t think you’d get enough speed out of them to warrant using them in a 308 win. I personally don’t load heavier than 185 grainers in the 308.

 

[XTR]

This is an ancient thread but...

...I personally don’t load heavier than 185 grainers in the 308.

Not to be obtuse, but pretty much every serious F-TR compeditor switched to 200 grain bullets in about 2014.

Bryan Litz won the FCNC in '15 shooting 215s, and there have been/are a few notable exceptions running the 215s here and there (Nicolas Montin runs them, and this yr several of the best Canadian shooters are running them) pretty much every one of the top 50 to 100 F-TR shooters is running either the 200H or the 200.20x.

 

[Peterpan]

This is an ancient thread but...





Not to be obtuse, but pretty much every serious F-TR compeditor switched to 200 grain bullets in about 2014.

Bryan Litz won the FCNC in '15 shooting 215s, and there have been/are a few notable exceptions running the 215s here and there (Nicolas Montin runs them, and this yr several of the best Canadian shooters are running them) pretty much every one of the top 50 to 100 F-TR shooters is running either the 200H or the 200.20x.

Not to be rude, but I don’t give a rats ass what others shoot. I care about what shoots best in my specific rifle. My gun won’t group the 200.20s for crap unless I use h4350 and even then it’s nothing to write home about. I think sometimes people care more about shooting what’s new and popular rather than shooting what works best In their own gun.

 

[XTR]

If the 185s work for you then by all means use them; for club matches I've used 178 Hornadys because I had a bunch.

If you run the 200.20 or the 200H somewhere from 2625 to 2675 most people find they can get them to shoot extremely well. The 200H has a reputation for being somewhat easier to tune than the 20X but I have not found that to be the case.