.308 Suitable to 1000

[Bamban]

2018 Interservice at Quantico, long range aggregate service rifle, the winner is a Reservist shooting the only M14 in the midst of AR10s. 11 Xs at 1000 is pretty impressive in my book. He was shooting 185 Juggernauts, 308 obviously. The old cartridge through an old platform can still do it.

 

[Dusty Stevens]

2018 Interservice at Quantico, long range aggregate service rifle, the winner is a Reservist shooting the only M14 in the midst of AR10s. 11 Xs at 1000 is pretty impressive in my book. He was shooting 185 Juggernauts, 308 obviously. The old cartridge through an old platform can still do it.

View attachment 1055252

A finely tuned m14 is a thing of beauty. The AR is taking the easy way out. If more cats shot them they would win more. All i hear is theyre not competitive anymore- well theyre damn sure not going to win if nobody is using them.. sad really.

 

[johnfred1965]

MrBottleneck, If you read Laurie's post, you can skip most of the rest, His shooting knowledge is a goldmine. The only thing I can add, is if you like your .308 and shoot it well, then use it, that is what it is for. There may be other better choices, as many have pointed out, but you should dance with the one ya brung! It sounds like you have a good load going, but again, for a .308, there are probably hundreds of combinations that will work well. Good luck and good shooting.

 

[retired]

dusty,
it takes less money, less work, and less maintenance to make an ar10 shoot well.
you can rebbl in mins vs hours.

A finely tuned m14 is a thing of beauty. The AR is taking the easy way out. If more cats shot them they would win more. All i hear is theyre not competitive anymore- well theyre damn sure not going to win if nobody is using them.. sad really.

 

[Dusty Stevens]

dusty,
it takes less money, less work, and less maintenance to make an ar10 shoot well.
you can rebbl in mins vs hours.

Like i said its the easy way out- like everything else these days i suppose. I can see it i just dont like it. I put around 1k rounds/yr thru an m14 of some type. I have one with me every day im not working. I can safely say if i had one gun only thats what it would be. No bigger fanboy than me i suppose

 

[retired]

i fell in love with the m14 around 1990. finally bought a clone, built to the hilt.
sold it without ever firing a shot after the match build, bought an ar10 and never looked back. i like accuracy over wood and good looks.

Like i said its the easy way out- like everything else these days i suppose. I can see it i just dont like it. I put around 1k rounds/yr thru an m14 of some type. I have one with me every day im not working. I can safely say if i had one gun only thats what it would be. No bigger fanboy than me i suppose

 

[270WinDude]

precision is inherit to the nut behind the trigger.

I can't find the nut on mine where is it?

 

[eric32]

I can't find the nut on mine where is it?

Keep looking!!! You'll find it. Maybe.

 

[MrBottleneck]

The 308 is very capable in the hands of the shooter who excels in wind reading. But then, I've heard it said many times that those who shoot 308 well are the best shooters.
I currently shoot the 185 Berger Hybrid ahead of a healthy dose of Alliant MR-2000, loaded in Lapua LP brass fired off by Federal Gold Medal Match primers. My barrel is 26" and 10 twist. This has proven to be a very capable load at 1,000 yards and has scored fairly well at 1,250 yards (longest distance I have access to). I have experimented with Lapua Scenar 155 and same powder. Results show promise but , as I still have a bunch of the Berger Hybrids, I have not pursued this load.
I can assure you that, as long as I own a rifle, I will own a 308. That is just (in my mind) the way it should be.

What kinda fps you getting out of your 185Berger Hybrid out of you 26?

MrBottleneck, If you read Laurie's post, you can skip most of the rest, His shooting knowledge is a goldmine. The only thing I can add, is if you like your .308 and shoot it well, then use it, that is what it is for. There may be other better choices, as many have pointed out, but you should dance with the one ya brung! It sounds like you have a good load going, but again, for a .308, there are probably hundreds of combinations that will work well. Good luck and good shooting.

Yep, read every word and I might mention as I said I am shooting the 175TMK so, according to Laurie thats sounds like Im headed in right direction.

Shot again today and was real happy with 42gr of Varget at 2700fps.
Although 42.2 not so happy with. Granted this was virgin Lapua so, we will see after this next firing.

Thanks for all who chimed in and offered up advice to my OP

 

[shoot4fun]

What kinda fps you getting out of your 185Berger Hybrid out of you 26?

2777 FPS with a SD of 4.

 

[Eric Leonard]

when I was shooting 308 I used the 155 Scenars and 8208 or H380,,it surprised me how well it shot at 1,000 compared to the 175-180 gr loads,,I never got around to trying the 200 class bullets before switching to the 6.5x47 for my 600-1000 yard shooting,,

I do still use 308 for my Tn woods deer hunting

 

[shoot4fun]

when I was shooting 308 I used the 155 Scenars and 8208 or H380,,it surprised me how well it shot at 1,000 compared to the 175-180 gr loads,,I never got around to trying the 200 class bullets before switching to the 6.5x47 for my 600-1000 yard shooting,,

I do still use 308 for my Tn woods deer hunting

Early into the testing on 155 for my rifle but I was getting very promising results with 2000-MR and Scenars out to 1,000. Velocity was 2,970.

 

[BW64]

Rem 700 SPS 26" Criterion by Tim Smith & John Armstrong. 175 SMKT 43.7 Varget 2770 & 195 SMKT 41.6 varget 2585 & 175 SMKT 43.5 IMR 4064 2830. All doing equally well on 1 MOA targets @ 1000. I've even had the 175s out to 1880 with 2 sighters & 3 of 5 hits on 24" target. The gun is a freak. It just shoots!!

BW

 

[Bart B.]

Any cartridge and load that produces repeatable pressure curves and muzzle velocities will drive pins at long range. Pins have smaller heads than tacks.

Some compromises may be necessary.

 

[dcali]

First of all, the .308 is ALWAYS appropriate for everything. Even rimfire matches. It's sort of strange to me that they make other calibers.

But, back to the question of getting the most out of it at 1000, what you really want at 1000 is a high BC 185-200 grain bullet, or even a 215 if you're adventurous. Thanks to F TR, there are a bunch to choose from. Just be careful about throat length - some of the heavies need to be seated pretty long to take advantage of. A good place to start is the Berger Juggernaut (aka OTM) 185.

 

[Bart B.]

But, back to the question of getting the most out of it at 1000, what you really want at 1000 is a high BC 185-200 grain bullet, or even a 215 if you're adventurous.

Here's what one adventurous person did.

David Tubb shot 250 grain Sierra HPMK bullets 2150 fps from a 308 Win chambered rifle's 1:8 twist barrel in the 1988 Palma Team tryouts the year before. Beat the pants off the others using lighter bullets in somewhat windy conditions.

Their new 30 caliber 230 grain HPMK should do better.

 

[dcali]

Here's what one adventurous person did.

David Tubb shot 250 grain Sierra HPMK bullets 2150 fps from a 308 Win chambered rifle's 1:8 twist barrel in the 1988 Palma Team tryouts the year before. Beat the pants off the others using lighter bullets in somewhat windy conditions.

Their new 30 caliber 230 grain HPMK should do better.

The trouble with the really-heavies is the drop. There are some weird less-intuitive results with lower than normal velocities, though. We tend to forget how rapidly drag force increases with velocity. Run the numbers on a 200 grain hybrid (or similar), fired at 1000 fps. The damn things will hit the ground before they hit 950 fps.

 

[Dusty Stevens]

 

[Steve Blair]

The trouble with the really-heavies is the drop. There are some weird less-intuitive results with lower than normal velocities, though. We tend to forget how rapidly drag force increases with velocity. Run the numbers on a 200 grain hybrid (or similar), fired at 1000 fps. The damn things will hit the ground before they hit 950 fps.

Depends upon the goal. Shooting unknown distance, less drop will yield less error. Shooting known distance, it makes little difference. Note the two attached charts. Both are loads that I've shot from F-TR rifles. The 230 Hybrid total drop is ~25% more than the 155 Hybrid at 1000 yards, but the 230 Hybrid maximum ordinate is only 16 inches higher. My experience is that the vertical difference is of no consequence in 1k KD shooting. The lateral wind displacement difference is a big deal. Both have advantages and disadvantages.

 

[Bart B.]

The trouble with the really-heavies is the drop. There are some weird less-intuitive results with lower than normal velocities, though. We tend to forget how rapidly drag force increases with velocity. Run the numbers on a 200 grain hybrid (or similar), fired at 1000 fps. The damn things will hit the ground before they hit 950 fps.

500 grain lead bullets leaving 1200 - 1300 fps from 45 caliber black powder rifles were first used in the mid 1870's in what's now the Palma matches. Their target bullseye was a 3 foot square black on white paper scoring 5 points.

They didn't hit the ground until they bounced off the painted iron plate 800 to 1000 yards away.