What is your favorite hunting bullet for your .308 and what animals do you use it on?

180grs Lapua Naturalis against roe deer, fallow deer, red deer and wildboars.

165 Sierra GameKing for whitetail deer.

whitetails.....Hornady 150 SST or 165 interlock!
It's a first class achiever.

I have been using the 308 for several years and I have tried a lot of different bullets.

"Regular bullets work fine on deer/antelope sized game.

However my favorite for all round use is the 165 gr Trophy Bonded Bearclaw.

If you shoot small game like a bobcat or coyote and want to do a full body mount it does not "blow up" the pelt.

It also works great on game as large as wildebeest and zebra.

The new 180 gr Barnes MRX also worked real good on 2 kudu, and a bushbuck.

Ray
I have shot a lot of deer and antelope, and a few pigs with a 165 HPBT Gameking, it is a good bullet.

Federal 150grn Nosler Ballistic tip: Anythings that Georgia has to offer, besides bear.

handwerk,

I got three, the 150 gr. Rremington Bronze Points & Nosler Ballistic Tips and the 165 gr. Sierra HPBT Game King. I don't use these cartridges myself since I don't have a .308 Win. but I load them for my buddies - they keep coming back for more! Each claims the load we worked up for their rifles is the best combination of accuracy & terminal performance.

Roe Deer, Fallow Deer, Red Deer & Wild Boar.

I also agree with NE 450; that the .308 Win. is a cartridge that seems to work good on Deer size game without using "premium" bullets - the standard vanilla-flavored stuff works just fine.

I have had three of them and tried different bullet's fron 150gr to 200gr. My favorite hands down was the 165gr Hornady SP. It shot best out of my rifles between Speer, and Hornady and wasn't as soft as the Sierras. Deer and elk.

The .308 is one of my favorite rounds, I like it for deer with most any bullet 150 grains and up , but for the most part I use 165s. And just about any Hornady sierra speer or remington bullets will do fine for deer or smalish black bear.
If you want to shoot somthing bigger use a partition or an X bullet...tj3006

Just the best! .308 GS Custom HV 130gr.

Impala, Blesbuck, Bluewildebeest and Kudu.

More about it here.

150 and 165 grain plain old Hornady Spire Points will do all you want up to elk.

Anything in Texas that I take the 308 huntin for gets 150gr Nosler Partitions. 46gr of IMR-4064.

If I could only have one bullet for the .308 Winchesters which I hunt with it would be the Nosler 165 BT. But I would really love to try the Accubonds in the 150 grain weight because the 150 Partition nearly edges out the 165 BT. The great majority of our hunting is Eastern timber where shots are under 100 yards, and the cartridge is more than needed for the whitetails and Black bears we have taken. It is a very long list the animals my wife and I have taken with this loading.

I load 130 gr. Barnes Triple Shocks, for my
Savage Striker, and it flattens northern
whitetails like a lightning bolt. I also
shoot the sam load in my .308 Win. chambered
BAR...Same effect, just a bit more velocity.

Squeeze

165gr Speer Hot-Cor for deer/elk. But soon testing some 165 Seirra Game King and 165 Accubond...

Years ago, I bought a bunch of Berdan primed military surplus ammo from Argentina from one of the discount mail order places loaded with 150 grain soft nosed bullets. I got lucky and it turned out to be pretty accurate ammunition. All the deer I've shot with my 308 died with one shot of this stuff; I wish I knew where to get more since I'm now getting a bit low on it.

I like Hornady bullets as they have always shot real good for me in all rifles, but I really like Barnes bullets for tough stuff. My .308 is a model 600 Rem. Because of the short barrel I am getting 2750fps with 150 grainers. Do the Barnes tsx open well at lower velocities and has anybody here ever shot an elk with one? I have used the old regular Barnes X in my 7 mag to kill elk and oryx in New Mexico, but have never tried them in the .308. How about that 130 grain, also?

165 gr hornady SPBT.

My loaner is a Czech M98k 308 by way of Israel. Others have hunted whitetail with it loaded with 150 gr cup and core bullets, handloads or factory CoreLokts. I've used a borrowed Sako 308 loaded with 150 gr softs (from PMP IIRC?) on red hartebeest and impala. My son wants the loaner for use as an iron-sighted rain rifle. Unless he wants to handload for it I'll recommend 150 gr CoreLokts.

Hornady 165 SSTs. Great for most anything. If I was going to be shooting moose or had to use the gun for big bears then I'ld go to a Nosler or Swift partition in 165.

These are the SSTs from a Remington LTR...





They shoot just as well as the Federal 168 Gold Metal Match and 150 fps faster...and a lot less expensive.

Bob

That is a great looking rifle! I don't think it is possible for that group to measure .35 center to center, however, unless those bullets are touching-correct me if I'm wrong. I would never shoot an SST on anything bigger than deer. I have shot deer with them and they come apart. They are great on deer, buy anything bigger is worthy of a Nosler, Barnes, Swift etc.

I have used 165 grain Trophy Bonded Bear Claws in the .308 Win. with good effect on game to 300 pounds.

Hornady 150gn interbonds for all the deer species.

150gr Ballistic Tips have worked just fine for me on most Australian and NZ medium sized game.

I will check the group again when I get home...but since the side of the paster is 1" the ctc is less than .5"....

I agree, especially up close I would not want to use the SSTs on anything bigger than a caribou. I would switch to either an Interbond 165 or one of the Partition style bullets. I chose the 165 SST as it has a better BC than the 168 Sierra that also shoots extremely well in the .308s I have and is a better game bullet.

Bob

That is still a great group, RJM, no matter what it measures! Very consistant with no stringing.

165 Partitions max load Varget. capt david

185gr lapua mega or norma vulkan 180gr for moose!


Nordic

Hornady 150gn interbonds

quote:

Originally posted by RJM:
Hornady 165 SSTs. Great for most anything. If I was going to be shooting moose or had to use the gun for big bears then I'ld go to a Nosler or Swift partition in 165.

These are the SSTs from a Remington LTR...





They shoot just as well as the Federal 168 Gold Metal Match and 150 fps faster...and a lot less expensive.

Bob

Yes they do. Hornady 3032 150gr are just as accurate as Match ammo up to 100yds in my rifles.

quote:

Originally posted by sbhooper:
That is a great looking rifle! I don't think it is possible for that group to measure .35 center to center, however, unless those bullets are touching-correct me if I'm wrong. I would never shoot an SST on anything bigger than deer. I have shot deer with them and they come apart. They are great on deer, buy anything bigger is worthy of a Nosler, Barnes, Swift etc.

I just rechecked that group...ctc from the top left shot to the lower right is .36" and .35" to the lower left shot...

These two groups were shot on the first two outting with the rifle... .4" and .25". This was with Federal 168 grain Gold Metal Match...

Bob



...and to think I thought about selling this gun...

Don't sell it!! Great shooting.

For deer the 150 grain ballistic tips.But in reality,for deer, any bullet well placed will do.I have killed a bunch with plain ole core lockts.For heavier game a nosler partition

RJM that is one sweet looking rifle.I came real close to buying one myself.

Bill

Bob
Is that a factory bbl on that LTR? In the picture it looks like it is "swamped" on the end.

165 grain Hornady BTSP, I've been shootig these since 1982 or so for deer, elk, antelope, coyotes, ground squirrels, etc.

Zapped a moose dead with my .308 and 180g Core Loc.

I generally hate Core Locs, had crappy to very crappy performance on deer and antelope sized game with them out of my .250 and .243, but this year a Core Loc was all I had at the time (grabbed the wrong box of handloads when I headed out the door!). The 180 worked (and more importantly held together) so for this year, it is my favorite load.

Usually I like a 165g Barnes X.

MG

What kind of velocity are you getting on that Barnes load, Madgoat?

Well I'm not setting any land speed records...I've found my rifle likes 39 grains of IMR 3031 with that 165g Barnes. I would guess it is going around 2600 fps. I'm not really a fan of IMR powder, and need to try some H380 in that gun. I use it in my .243 and .250 and have had excellent results.

MG

Try a max load of Varget. It is a fantastic powder and I get 2650 out of a Rem 600 barrel with Hornady 165 BTSP. I am going to buy some Barnes triple shocks shortly to see if I can get more velocity as they state. I am considering the 150 grainers as I can get a little more speed and they should still really thump an elk.

quote:

Originally posted by sbhooper:
Try a max load of Varget. It is a fantastic powder and I get 2650 out of a Rem 600 barrel with Hornady 165 BTSP. I am going to buy some Barnes triple shocks shortly to see if I can get more velocity as they state. I am considering the 150 grainers as I can get a little more speed and they should still really thump an elk.

Thanks for the info Would that be a max load of Varget out of a Barnes manual?

Good hunting,

MG