Hi, I am seeking for accurate and as flat as possible trajectory load for HDY Moly coated SST 180gr in .308W 24" barrel with 11" twist.

It looks good with 39gr AA2460, Sako brass, CCI LR primer, light crimp to groove. speed is 2470ft and group was sub-MOA.

Please suggest what might be better. Powders I can easily get in local stores are mostly Accurate and Vectan powders, may be Vihtavuori.
Thanx.

seems you should be able to get better velocity than that, unless you are using a short barrel, I am wondering why you are using a 180, not a bad thing but for open country I would go with a 150 or a 165, you should be able to get up near 2800 with a 165 and a 22,inc tube. My .308 likes IMR-4064 but most seem to love RL-15 witch is what the military snipers use. Varget is another good choice !!! tj3006

Ditto to Thomas' post.

Why the 180 at that speed? That thing is going to "drop like a rock."

Reloader

If it were me, I'd think more along the lines of 150/165 grain Interbonds...

The SST is a deer bullet and one should use a heavier jacket bullet for bigger animals.

One can boost the 180 grain bullet to 2,800+ '/sec in a 24" barrel without much fuss at all. RL 22 and H-414 and H-4831 will all do it for you.

Agree with Reloader.

Rather go for bullet with much less weight, higher velocity and controlled expansion.

The GS Custom HV's will make your .308 a fairly long range rifle.

Visit GS Custom's website for more detail.

The heavy SST should be a good choice for most game at long range. The hard thing to do is to estimate the wind drift and not the trajectory these days what with lasers and handy data.

The sharp meplat and resulting high BC will be ideal from what I know about the requirements so far. All that is needed is another powder that will get the velocity up. A drop tube is not that hard to use once you find one.

We still don't know what the game or ranges are to start picking specific bullets.

Steve will probably chime in here aty any moment but think about VVN-540 or 550 with a 168 hpbt sierra. the 180 sst is robbing case volumn but 2460 is too fast burning for heavier bullets. AA4350 would be yet another option.

I have chosen 180gr because of hunting wildboars and deers and I still believe that heavier bullet is better for this kind of animal, I have good hunting results with it for standard ranges, it is accurate, and game do not leave. But I would like to make the trajectory as flat as possible, even with such heavy bullet, drop compensation is not problem, I use Leupold Mk4 8,5-25x50 Illuminated MilDot.

If you want a flat 30 cal for long range look at a custom 300 ultra with a 28" barrel. Or .......even 300 wby or 300 win..or one of the new short mags. There's only so much you can do with a 308. unless it's a 308 norma.

quote:

Originally posted by lofter:
If you want a flat 30 cal for long range look at a custom 300 ultra with a 28" barrel. Or .......even 300 wby or 300 win..or one of the new short mags. There's only so much you can do with a 308. unless it's a 308 norma.

I am not searching for "magnum calibers" (on our company range we have .338Lapua) I just want to keep my .308 and shoot 180gr SST as fast and as accurate as possible, from this rifle for standard hunting purposes. Question was what is the best load for it.

quote:

Originally posted by M.Fox Jancik:
Hi, I am seeking for accurate and as flat as possible trajectory load for HDY Moly coated SST 180gr in .308W 24" barrel with 11" twist.

It looks good with 39gr AA2460, Sako brass, CCI LR primer, light crimp to groove. speed is 2470ft and group was sub-MOA.

Please suggest what might be better. Powders I can easily get in local stores are mostly Accurate and Vectan powders, may be Vihtavuori.
Thanx.

Don't think you'll do much better than this, 41.3grs. of RE15(If you can get it) will give you a bit more velocity, but probably not enough to show a difference. For the game you're after 165SSTs or Interbonds will give you a better trajectory, something you already know, and the game won't know the fifference between 15 grains in bullet weight. Jay

Sierra and Nosler have a somewhat better reputation for making bullets for accuracy. Their bullets also boast high BCs with superb hunting bullet qualities. What exactly do you plan to hunt with this load? By the way, the latest Nosler reloading manual has some "super" (maybe too super) loads for the 308. You might want to check them out. For example, Nosler posts 2718 fps with 180 gr. bullet with 44 grs. of IMR4064 and 24" barrel - WOW!

Thank you for tips, I usualy hunt European Deer, Mufloon, wildboar, and varmint. Friend of mine uses 150gr Brenekke TIG and he is happy with it as well so may be I´ll try 165 and 150gr as well. Now I have aprox. 400 bullets to go, so I´ll experiment with it and I´ll post results here. Our company range is only 150m long, but close to me is also 300m so I can try it.