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308 win for elk

guys i need to do a load work up for 308 win for elk hunting 300 yards or less. i was thinking of barnes 165 ttsx and maybe 4064 or varget.

what would yall recommend?
 
Varget is my go-to for 308 Win. IMR 8208 XBR is also good in 308 Win if you can find it.

There is 150s and 180s of the TTSX also you might want to try.
 
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I helped my best friend prepare for his first Elk hunt out west. He's not a shooter, just a hunter and uses a Win Model 88, level action 308 Win, that's about 60 years old.

I got him some Nosler Accubond ammo, 165 grain. He got his Elk, 5x4, first shot kill, at about 175 yards.

On powder, I loaded and hunted with the 308 Win for many years, but just PA deer and bear. IMR 4064 and Varget are excellent powders for this caliber producing fine accuracy and velocity.
 
I’ve tried 165 SST also 165/168 btsp on deer, I’m not crazy about either one. I’m trying Accubond next in hopes of a good Elk load.
All the mentioned powders shoot good, plus RL-15 and VV140. My personal favorite for speed is a 155 class bullet with H4895. They haul ass and shoot small.
 
YMMV....but if I were in your shoes I'd be launching the 138gr Hammer HHT to 3050 fps +

At 350 yards, it will still be over 2200 fps and over 1500 ft lbs
 
Been hunting elk with a 308 for as long as i can remember. Shoot a 150gr SGK or the 150gr Sierra round nose with RL15. Shot placement trumps horsepower.
so just regular cup and core bullets? not even bonded?

im going back and forth between monos and accubond.
 
With any bullet you have to ensure your bullet impacts within the bullets performance/velocity window. That is especially important with the barnes copper bullets. Whatever you load make sure you chronograph it and plot the data to your farthest distance willing to shoot thats inside that window. If you head over to a forum called rokslide you will find lots of info from guys who have used just about every bullet. A trend I see is ttsx/tsx bullets penciling through at range. Thats not my opinion just a trend observed from reading many post. Seems wound channels are small for caliber. However they obviously recovered the animal in order to observe the wound channel. Just my advice on it.
 
IMR4064, Yes just plain cup and core bullets they will do the job just fine as long as they aren't pushed too fast as LiveFire stated. I guess it's the old adage of, if it ain't broke don't fix it.
 

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