Gentlemen,

I was hoping to pick your brains about the above bullet in the 308 Winchester.

I have just bought my girlfriend a SS Sako 75 varmint in the 308 for range work (I have spent months trying to steer her towards a Sako TRG which was ultimately turned down on the grounds of looking "too severe"..... ) but shaking it down at the range over the weekend I have a strong hankering to use it as a foul weather high-seat gun.

The principal quarry would be foxes and small, sub 150 pound, deer in all probability at some range. With that in mind I am thinking fast and light with a corresponding flatness of trajectory.

I have obtained some 125 grain Sierras and with either H4895 or BL-C (2) hope to get about 3100 fps for a pointblank range of about 250 yards zeroing 1.5" high at 100.

So am I using the best powders for the speeds I want and will the bullet the right one for the task chaps?

With thanks,

A

I'm sure it would work fine but there are a lot of bullets with a higher BC that would be better if you are shooting long range and there is wind.

A friend uses a 125 in his .30-06 for deer....

It works for him....but he's a rib cage only shooter.....it really don't take much to break into the boiler room when all you have to do is get through a rib and a single layer of deer hide.

I'd personally use a 150 but it's your hunt...have at it!

H4895 and BLC-2 would be my choice as well,choice of slugs will depend on how much of a jump they need to make before hitting the rifling and how well they make the trip.Deer capable lite weights are not as hard to get these days as they once were,,,I am thinkin' on the same in my .308 for my 10 year old girl as the m96 Mauser is too light for her with heavier bullets,recoil wise.GOOD LUCK!!!

quote:

Originally posted by scottfromdallas:
I'm sure it would work fine but there are a lot of bullets with a higher BC that would be better if you are shooting long range and there is wind.

Thanks for the reply Scott, I do take your point about the heavier bullets having a better BC but I am hoping that to 300 yards or so, I'm not talking about taking very long shots here, there won't be too much difference in drift between the 125gr and the 150s?

The main thing I need is flatness as the main targets will be foxes that usually dart in and out of hedges giving only a few seconds to shoot. I was rather hoping that the fast light bullet would enable me to just point and shoot rather than mess about with range estimation.

quote:

Originally posted by vapodog:
A friend uses a 125 in his .30-06 for deer....

It works for him....but he's a rib cage only shooter.....it really don't take much to break into the boiler room when all you have to do is get through a rib and a single layer of deer hide.

I'd personally use a 150 but it's your hunt...have at it!

90% of my deer are shot broadside through the ribs as we tend to shoot for meat over here.

My main concern is whether or not the bullet would be explosive at 308 velocities on deer given reasonable shot placement.

The main use for this rifle would be foxes but the whole point of using the 308 as a varminting gun is the ability to also take deer as targets of opportunity.

I have Speer and Hornady 150 gr bullets to try if in people's experience the bullet is unsuitable.

quote:

Originally posted by Panzerschmied:
H4895 and BLC-2 would be my choice as well,choice of slugs will depend on how much of a jump they need to make before hitting the rifling and how well they make the trip.Deer capable lite weights are not as hard to get these days as they once were,,,I am thinkin' on the same in my .308 for my 10 year old girl as the m96 Mauser is too light for her with heavier bullets,recoil wise.GOOD LUCK!!!

Good stuff mate, thanks for that.

I'm taking more and more new shooters out these days and noticing that the my 06 with full house loads is a bit too much gun , especially for the teenagers. I was thinking of loading the 125 gr to 2850 fps, to mirror my normal 165 grain load in trajectory, for them. That load should also moderate very well.

30 to 35 years ago I shot a few deer with that bullet Hit them in the ribs it makes mush out of the lungs and heart. They don't run far I wouldn't use them on hard angle shots or shoulder shots. They were shot out of a 06 at max vel. I don't remember the load but at that time I used a lot of 4064 and Bal C.

Hit a fox with them you'll have half a fox on one side half on the other. They are not fur freindly. They really tear up the smaller stuff.

Load them down to around 2300 they make a great beignners load. Not much recoil kills well

quote:

Originally posted by Ghubert:

quote:

Originally posted by scottfromdallas:
I'm sure it would work fine but there are a lot of bullets with a higher BC that would be better if you are shooting long range and there is wind.

Thanks for the reply Scott, I do take your point about the heavier bullets having a better BC but I am hoping that to 300 yards or so, I'm not talking about taking very long shots here, there won't be too much difference in drift between the 125gr and the 150s?

The main thing I need is flatness as the main targets will be foxes that usually dart in and out of hedges giving only a few seconds to shoot. I was rather hoping that the fast light bullet would enable me to just point and shoot rather than mess about with range estimation.

You should be fine with 125s. They may be a little explosive if you get a close shot but most 125s will be. You could move to a 130 TSX or even the new 110 TTSX but they are pricey.

never used that bullet on game, i think it'd be to fragile for anything other than a perfect broadside shot. i have however shot a hellovalot of PD's with a 308 125 gr sierra. sure works well on them.

For thin-skinned Florida deer I use 125gr Nosler BT's in my 308. My powder of choice is Varget(49.5gr). Running at 2890fps this load shoots MOA at 200yds.
The last buck I shot was at +/- 100yds;100% penetration, ran about 20 steps and piled up.
The Bal Tips are the only bullets I have tried in this rifle. Your Sierras are probably a good choice. Most Sierra bullets shoot well if your rifle likes them.
GOOD LUCK and GOOD SHOOTING!!!

quote:

Originally posted by p dog shooter:
30 to 35 years ago I shot a few deer with that bullet Hit them in the ribs it makes mush out of the lungs and heart. They don't run far I wouldn't use them on hard angle shots or shoulder shots. They were shot out of a 06 at max vel. I don't remember the load but at that time I used a lot of 4064 and Bal C.

Hit a fox with them you'll have half a fox on one side half on the other. They are not fur freindly. They really tear up the smaller stuff.

Load them down to around 2300 they make a great beignners load. Not much recoil kills well

Thank you sir, the foxes I shoot are for the protection of the pheasants on my friend's shoot and so fur damage is not a problem. I'm shooting them with Speer 150gr BTSP at around 3000 fps from my 06 at the moment and standard operating procedure with that is also liberal distribution about the countryside as well.

quote:

Originally posted by scottfromdallas:

quote:

Originally posted by Ghubert:

quote:

Originally posted by scottfromdallas:
I'm sure it would work fine but there are a lot of bullets with a higher BC that would be better if you are shooting long range and there is wind.

Thanks for the reply Scott, I do take your point about the heavier bullets having a better BC but I am hoping that to 300 yards or so, I'm not talking about taking very long shots here, there won't be too much difference in drift between the 125gr and the 150s?

The main thing I need is flatness as the main targets will be foxes that usually dart in and out of hedges giving only a few seconds to shoot. I was rather hoping that the fast light bullet would enable me to just point and shoot rather than mess about with range estimation.

You should be fine with 125s. They may be a little explosive if you get a close shot but most 125s will be. You could move to a 130 TSX or even the new 110 TTSX but they are pricey.

Thanks buddy, however those Barnes bullets are no less than 3 dollars a pop over this side of the pond.....

I think that if i'm mainly after deer I'll take the 06 out instead.

They will work like a charm if you slow them down...load on the bottom end of the scale with those and you'll be much better off with them holding together on deer and not blowing up as much on Mr. Fox. There is only about 2" of drop differential between 2,800 fps and 3,100 fps at 250 yards...

Thank you for all the replies Gentlemen, replying to the thread on Berger bullets and reviewing this one has given me an idea on how to perhaps better phrase this question.

Regards,

GH

Great load if yu don't plan on selling the fox fur or eating too much venison.

Larry Gibson

Ah, negative on the former but the latter may be an issue.

We will be eating the meat, usually at the next driven day shoot lunch.

I've in fact just been ticked off for whacking a doe through the shoulders with my '06. It was shot 2 weeks ago and the shoot captain has just rang me up and given me bollocking as he had to throw the front half away....


I may take 450/400's advice, which to be fair to him has always been good, and download to 2800 or so.

What sort of velocities were you getting the blow ups at Larry?

Don't have any experience on game with them but they have proved very accurate for my shooting buddy and I out to 400 yds. Both of us shooting them out of Rem. 308's.

As you don't seem to want to download to reduce recoil then it might be useful to know that I'm getting 3000fps from 150 grain Hornady spire points from a 308W and with very little effort. You really wouldn't be getting much advantage over that with the 125 grain loads and I'd guess that by 100 yards they would be as close to the same speed as makes no difference.

An RFD local to me was pushing the 125 grain Nosler BT for deer and I was interested in what he had to say but then I noticed that he had boxes of them on the shelf, and little else. If you were so inclined the 150 grain loads might give you a bit more authority for very little, if any, trajectory change compared to the 125 grain loads.

Have loaded these bullets for my grandchildren's .30-30 Thompson-Contender Carbines. Velocity has been just over 2600fps. They have been wonderful mule deer doe bullets.
Have also Loaded these down slightly in .308s. Again, great for that use.

quote:

Originally posted by the jigger:
For thin-skinned Florida deer I use 125gr Nosler BT's in my 308.

That same bullet is exceptionally accurate in my 300 Savage.

quote:

Originally posted by Ghubert:
Ah, negative on the former but the latter may be an issue.

We will be eating the meat, usually at the next driven day shoot lunch.

I've in fact just been ticked off for whacking a doe through the shoulders with my '06. It was shot 2 weeks ago and the shoot captain has just rang me up and given me bollocking as he had to throw the front half away....


I may take 450/400's advice, which to be fair to him has always been good, and download to 2800 or so.

What sort of velocities were you getting the blow ups at Larry?

I was pushing 3100 fps out of 24" barreled bolt gun and 2900 fps out of M1A gas gun. Very accurate bullet and great for "varmint" shooting but very destructive. They work very well when loaded down to SKS/AK velocities, except for up close shots under 75 -100 yards.

Killed a lot of coyotes with them when fur prices were down but went to another cartridge and smaller bullet when priced went up to maintain fur value. Hada jack rabbit run straight away from me once, jumped up from my feet. I had the M1A and went into a off hand position and setteled the front sight at 6 o'clock on it's black tail (looked like a Decimal Bullseye) and broke the trigger when it was right about 40-50 yards. The 'bit (a "bit of it went here, a 'bit of it went there, etc.) exploded and the head and neck blew up and forward perhaps 30' into the air. It was quite impressive!

I loaded them down to 2300 fps for my daughter to use in a small .308W carbine when she was 12. She killed 3 mule deer with them that way. Closest shot, about 60 yards, had some excessive meat damage but the 200 yard shot was picture perfect for bullet expansion and penetration.

Larry Gibson

quote:

Originally posted by 450/400:
They will work like a charm if you slow them down...load on the bottom end of the scale with those and you'll be much better off with them holding together on deer and not blowing up as much on Mr. Fox. There is only about 2" of drop differential between 2,800 fps and 3,100 fps at 250 yards...

So thought I but the actuality was appalling bullet expansion - ie none.

Used in my moderated 308 under IMR30301 for a MV of 2,700fps. The bullet has a BC of a brick so when I shot a roe doe at 200yards it was actualy going slower than my 2,600fps 150gr loads. The doe walked off, came back, looked over her shoulder at me, walked off and was found in the process of dying 10 minutes after the shot. Good double lung shot with FMJ holes in and out.

Your rifle's heavy, got a moderator and will be used from a high seat - 125s will make very little difference to recoil. Use a full house 150gr deer load.