I am really surprised by how poorly the lighter bullets shoot in my little 308 AAC 700 rifle.

Shot another 4 inch 100 yard group. Glad I didn't load 1000 rounds.

For those that have the same rifle, what bullets have you had good luck with?

That is rather weird. What twist/chamber is the AAC?

Any 308 should shoot well with bullets from 110 to 190 with standard 1/10 to 1/13 twist barrels.

A really fast heavy bullet twist ( 1/8 or 1/9) maybe hard on light bullets though.

read up on the Palma Matches and how well the 155 gr Palma bullets shoot out to 1000yds.

It is a 1 in 10.

I have never had good luck with bullets lighter than 165 in a 1 in 11 or 1 in 10 barrel in the 308 or 30-06.

The RWS copper matrix load of frangible bullets for he ARs also shoots 4-6 inch groups at 100 yards.

What is crazy is that the 168 Sierra Match King is a less than .75 inch load. I need to load some 175 Lapua Scenars.

165 grains is the lightest I prefer to shoot at longer ranges, with my preference being 180s.

Yup, I'd change bullets too if the best I could do was .75" at 100.

Factory barrel, five shot group .691. Not horrible, but we will see what heavier bullets will do.

quote:

Originally posted by Big Wonderful Wyoming:
It is a 1 in 10.

I have never had good luck with bullets lighter than 165 in a 1 in 11 or 1 in 10 barrel in the 308 or 30-06.

The RWS copper matrix load of frangible bullets for he ARs also shoots 4-6 inch groups at 100 yards.

What is crazy is that the 168 Sierra Match King is a less than .75 inch load. I need to load some 175 Lapua Scenars.

The 165s and 168s don't work at 1,000 yards. Everyone in our club shoots the 155s if they're Palma shooters or the 175 and heavier bullets.

Shot Palma matches for number of years and did use the SMK 155 Palma bullet and it does very well with 13(some also use 14 and 15 twist) twist and muzzle velocity at 2950fps. Obviously wind is/can be an issue at such matches, 8,9, and 1000yds. and to shoot the little bullet you need to be on your game reading/adjusting for the wind. Last Palma rifle I had was basic Rem.40X action and Krieger 30" barrel with 12 twist and preferred bullet was the SMK 190 bullet which many said would not remain super sonic at the 1K mark, but it did just fine. Reason was simply that in a given wind the heavy bullet gave me a one ring advantage. 190 would catch the outside of 10 ring whereas the 155 would drift to the 9 ring. Best score I had with the 155's for Palma was 439-441 and highest score of 446 was with the 190's so made me a believer. If interested, loads were Lapua brass, 210M primers, IMR4064 with 155/46.2, 175.44,2 abd 190/42.2 of powder. Loads taken from older Sierra manual and stated as "accuracy loads" and hey worked for me.
In my LRB M14 w/ 12 twist barrel and reduced loads from those above, the 155 will hold 1moa w/ the NM sights and such rifles are not as accurate as a well built bolt gun, but not bad at all.

Thanks for all the information gents. This was kind of a parts gun, and still is. Testing what I can do, and how things perform with it.

So far I am happy with the KRG stock, not overly happy with the Timney two stage (but it works ok), and pretty happy with the Weaver 3.5-15.

there's a reason (or two) why the only accuracy shooters who are required to by match rules use a two-stage trigger.

A couple of things:

1. Palma guns have long barrels for two reasons: sight radius and velocity. The 155gn bullet needs to being stepping pretty fast to do well at 1000yds. I shoot them for Palma but in my shorter PRS guns I shoot 175-190gn bullets. The AAC has a midget barrel so the 155gn is not my ideal proposition in that setup.

2. Measure your throat. The last AAC I worked on for a friend had an absurdly long throat. The Palma 95 chamber was spec'd the way it was to allow 155gn bullets to be seated near the lands.

3. There is nothing wrong with a two stage trigger and guys don't shoot them just because they have two. They have made a resurgence and there are a couple of really good ones out right now.

4. I doubt it's a twist issue. I have a pair of 1-10" Benchmark barrels that will drive 155gn bullets into tiny groups. We (the Army) have done a lot of long gun testing and have found in the past few years that with guns using twists as fast as 1-8" you can see increased potential for downrange precision over guns with 1-11" or 1-13" from 175gn bullets at supersonic velocity to 240gn bullets that are sub.