308 with 168 amax

[BradY]

Starting to load some 168 amax for my remington SPS varmint in 308. Ive put the factory barrel back on and with its long throat, this bullet looks to be about perfect for the chamber. Going to have a go at some long range varminting and field shooting.

Im working with winchester cases and varget with federal gold medal match large rifle primers. Starting around 43gr and working up slowly.

Does anyone have any experience with the 168 amax preferring a jam or jump? At the moment im going to load it just touching (have to load single shot but thats ok)

Thanks

 

[Laurie]

I've no experience with the 168 A-Max, but other weights usually seem to shot fine with 15 thou' jump despite their being secant ogive shape bullets. The only A-Max I put into the lands is the 208 which is a true VLD and I reckon best to treat it as such - but who knows it might respond really well to a bit of jump too.

I'd caution against setting COALs to just touch unless you measure / batch your bullets and / or measure each loaded round with callipers + a bullet comparator and adjust COALs to a common value. The problem with setting the OAL to 'just touch' is that small variations in many makes of bullet straight out of the box can see a few thou' variation in ogive position, that aggravated by any sloppiness / problems with the press and seater die. You can end up with a bullet 2 or three thou' 'out', the next just brushing the lands, the one after that maybe 3 or 4 thou' 'in'. Throat erosion will quickly change your original set-up too, and (finally), how much do you trust your OAL measurement system? The Hornady (previously Stoney-Point) system is really handy and pretty accurate, but not 100% accurate. As a result, I'm a great believer in being sure I'm always properly 'in' or 'out' and regard 10 thou' as a minimum either way.

 

[Shynloco]

If I may suggest, it's not the bullet alone that will dictate whether you'll get best accuracy with a jam or a jump. From my findings over the years of reloading for several calibers, including my .308, the rifle has "told" me which of the two or however far off the jam, will work the best in a PARTICULAR rifle. I believe you'll need to work up from the jump and check your target after you've shot a couple of groups. And since you mentioned switching back to the factory barrel, I recently took off the factory barrel and put on a Match Grade Hart (1:10 twist). My Rifle BTW is a .308 Ruger M77V in which the factory barrel HATED the jam and loved the max jump. Now with the new MG barrel, it is producing fantastic groups (@100 yds) with the jam. Both barrels got the same bullet from the same batch, Sierra 168 gr HPBT. BTW, if you decide to try it, might I suggest that if you go to 600 yds and more, go to the Sierra 175 gr HPBT which will perform better at the longer distance. Good luck and have fun!

Alex

 

[Kermit in Va.]

They shot good in my brothers with 44grs.
I seated'em 5th's off.


Kermit

 

[jhord]

My 700VS never seemed to give a hoot about jam, slight jump, or mega-jump with the 168 Amax. I just load them to mag length now and heck with it! Shoots great.

 

[Laurie]

Alex,

I agree with what you say about barrel sensitivity. I usually start at the 15 thou' out mark with non VLDs and you usually find a load that'll work well, assuming the barrel likes the bullet of course. Sometimes, they just don't and jumping / jamming spraying incantations around over the rifle and ammo, none of them do any good.

Just on this issue, I was looking at German Salazar's .30-06 load recommendations recently as I'm about to have a little play with the old Aught-Six and was surprise to see him jam bullets that I would have always tried jumped, eg the 190gn Sierra MK. I'd have to go back to his data which I've printed off (but as usual in such cases, 'temporarily mislaid', a euphemism for 'lost') as my memory says every suggested load uses jammed bullets - but I may be wrong on that.

 

[BradY]

Interesting thoughts. I will have to back the rounds off a good 80 thou to get them to cycle in the mag which would leave about a 75 thou jump. Ive loaded a ladder test with them jammed like I would start other VLD load testing so will see how that turns out. Can always tweak them seating depth wise after powder charge is determined.