light .30 cal bullets

[NZ_Fclass]

Well, the thread is about lightweight 30 cal bullets. Yes, A 165 is a light bullet too, in the long range game but not what I'd consider a light 30 cal bullet, overall. Maybe just a different mindset that creates a different understanding of what light actually means in this context. Hell, either of us could be right or wrong in this context. That's the beauty of the 30 cal, a huge array of bullet weight selection for different disciplines and they(most) all work well.
Since the thread is 13 years old, I doubt it's worth arguing about. Lol!

Good point. I'll watch out for threads that discuss the properties of flint and patch materials in future. ( Absolutely no slur on our black powder shooting cuzzies!)

 

[gunsandgunsmithing]

Good point. I'll watch out for threads that discuss the properties of flint and patch materials in future. ( Absolutely no slur on our black powder shooting cuzzies!)

Lol! I'm honestly not sure how to take that. The world record .0077(under 10 thou) five shot group at 100 yards was shot using 114gr bullets. So what are you saying?

 

[NZ_Fclass]

Lol! I'm honestly not sure how to take that. The world record .0077(under 10 thou) five shot group at 100 yards was shot using 114gr bullets. So what are you saying?

Old threads

 

[TIMO]

Currently working on a light bullet load in my .308 as well. Here are two 3 shot groups with Berger 115 FBT at 100 yards. I didn't get enough time to finish my testing, but will resume when I can and the weather permits. These Bergers are jumping a very, very long way as this rifle is my F-T/R rifle throated for Berger 215s that I am repurposing for some of my local club level short range matches. It looks like it may show some promise with some additional testing.

Some rifle specs;
Remington 700 action
Krieger 1-10" 5R, Heavy Palma 32"
Jewel trigger
Sinclair aluminum benchrest type stock
Sightron 6.5-20x42 (going to swap out to Sightron 36x BRD for remainder of testing)


Tim

 

[Abolt2]

My 308 loves 125grain Nosler Bt’s and Accubonds over 49grains of Varget

 

[Treerat-sniper]

I know this is an old thread.... So, I bought some older110 Sierra HP bullets. My 308 has a 1/10 twist. I may have an old '06 target rifle with a slower twist. Do any of you guys shoot this bullet at 200 Y or less? And what kind of accuracy do you get?

I have shot these over H4895 & get stellar accuracy out of my old 700. IIRC 100 yd groups were well under an inch.

 

[cmysix]

155.5 Berger full bore Palma shooters love them at 1000 in a.308

 

[D2x shooter]

Well, the thread is about lightweight 30 cal bullets. Yes, A 165 is a light bullet too, in the long range game but not what I'd consider a light 30 cal bullet, overall. Maybe just a different mindset that creates a different understanding of what light actually means in this context. Hell, either of us could be right or wrong in this context. That's the beauty of the 30 cal, a huge array of bullet weight selection for different disciplines and they(most) all work well.
Since the thread is 13 years old, I doubt it's worth arguing about. Lol!

Has anyone tried the 100 grain Lapua bullet in a 300 BlkOut Semi auto or Bolt gun.

 

[gunsandgunsmithing]

Has anyone tried the 100 grain Lapua bullet in a 300 BlkOut Semi auto or Bolt gun.

Yes, maybe about the time this thread was started. Lol! They did not shoot well at all for me but it was a long time ago. Still have a few somewhere.

Edit...Found em. I think they are the older g477 Cutting Edge design. Just saw that they have introduced a new 100 gr. bullet but I have no experience with it.

The cutting edge bullet was a weird looking little sucker.

 

[3Ackleys]

Has anyone tried the 100 grain Lapua bullet in a 300 BlkOut Semi auto or Bolt gun.

I have shot a lot of them- buy them in 1000ct boxes. 300 Blackout 1 in 17" twist heavy barrel bolt action. I shoot them in our club Schutzen matches- 200 yards offhand. CFE Black is the best powder I have tried.

 

[Oso]

I have shot a lot of them- buy them in 1000ct boxes. 300 Blackout 1 in 17" twist heavy barrel bolt action. I shoot them in our club Schutzen matches- 200 yards offhand. CFE Black is the best powder I have tried.

I have questions..

What are rules for a Schutzen Match?

Why/How did you select 300BO for this use? Not judging … honestly intrigued.

1:17 not 1:7 twist??? Your slow twist makes it a dedicated supersonic 300BO.
< I have a 1:15 twist in my 300HAM’R.

 

[LVLAaron]

Berger 155.5 Grain FullBore is one of my favorite bullets.

 

[Will Henry]

In my 14 twist barrels, I shoot 150 Sierra MK's, 168's and Lapua 167's. All perform well with the 150 being best. In the 12 twist barrels, 155 Lapuas are great. In a dedicated SR rifle, I might try the 100 Lapuas. WH

 

[P1ZombieKiller]

I have questions..

What are rules for a Schutzen Match?

Why/How did you select 300BO for this use? Not judging … honestly intrigued.

1:17 not 1:7 twist??? Your slow twist makes it a dedicated supersonic 300BO.
< I have a 1:15 twist in my 300HAM’R.

I have a 300 BO in 1:17.
I have several 300 BO's (2 dedicated super, 2 dedicated sub, and 1 hybrid)
This one is wearing my old 30br HV barrel and I rechambered it in 300 BO so my wife and small kids could hunt with it and have a reduced recoil rifle.
It shoots the 125 SST's phenomenal at 2300 or 2400 fps (I forgot which).

 

[dellet]

I have questions..

What are rules for a Schutzen Match?

Why/How did you select 300BO for this use? Not judging … honestly intrigued.

1:17 not 1:7 twist??? Your slow twist makes it a dedicated supersonic 300BO.
< I have a 1:15 twist in my 300HAM’R.

I have a 300 BO in 1:17.
I have several 300 BO's (2 dedicated super, 2 dedicated sub, and 1 hybrid)
This one is wearing my old 30br HV barrel and I rechambered it in 300 BO so my wife and small kids could hunt with it and have a reduced recoil rifle.
It shoots the 125 SST's phenomenal at 2300 or 2400 fps (I forgot which).

No such thing as a hand fed 300 Blackout that can’t shoot subsonic. When you get into twists slower than 1/15 expanding bullets are limited.

Maker has a 110 subsonic bullet that he lists as 1/12 required, I’ve shot it in a 1/15 with acceptable results. It did not fully expand to triple diameter at 950 fps. It might be marginal in a 1/17. The faster twists help the bullet open up at lower velocities.

Just about any bullet designed for 30 carbine will work as a sub in a 1/17, expansion is a problem.

All else fails use 86 grain 30 Mauser/Luger bullets. Many of those will expand at subsonic velocities.

If it’s a cast bullet, you can approach 150 grains.

In a 22” barrel, light supers 110/125 grains speeds of 2700/2500 are on the table.

300 BLK loses much of its performance and versatility in an AR.

 

[Oso]

I am 300BO fan. I have a couple of 300BO bolt rifles (1:7.5 twist) that shoot supersonic ammo very well. A few years back (2018) I decided to shift to a dedicated supersonic setup, which was solved with a 300HAM’R (1:15). Honestly, at that point in time it didn’t even occurred to me to have a custom barrel (slow twist) spun up for supers in 300BO. The HAM’R was a plug and play answer with increased velocity (300BO +P). A few more years of experience with 300BO and a fair amount of interaction with Dellet has helped me close the performance gap between 300BO and 300HAM’R.

As Dellet pointed out there is a combination(s) of bullet and twist rate that work/perform well for a subsonic load. Admittedly, I have a tendency to equate larger caliber subsonic with heavy bullets. When pursuing lighter projectiles I tend to step down into a smaller cartridge or smaller caliber.

My name is Oso… and I have a cartridge addiction. I will try to do better.

 

[dellet]

I am 300BO fan. I have a couple of 300BO bolt rifles (1:7.5 twist) that shoot supersonic ammo very well. A few years back (2018) I decided to shift to a dedicated supersonic setup, which was solved with a 300HAM’R (1:15). Honestly, at that point in time it didn’t even occurred to me to have a custom barrel (slow twist) spun up for supers in 300BO. The HAM’R was a plug and play answer with increased velocity (300BO +P). A few more years of experience with 300BO and a fair amount of interaction with Dellet has helped me close the performance gap between 300BO and 300HAM’R.

As Dellet pointed out there is a combination(s) of bullet and twist rate that work/perform well for a subsonic load. Admittedly, I have a tendency to equate larger caliber subsonic with heavy bullets. When pursuing lighter projectiles I tend to step down into a smaller cartridge or smaller caliber.

My name is Oso… and I have a cartridge addiction. I will try to do better.

We’ve talked about this before, I’m at the opposite end and try a lot of things with the same cartridge. Always fun conversation

It really just depends on your sense of humor. Some how I picture an 86 grain bullet at 1000 fps from a 1/17 twist as flying like a knuckle ball. The bullet is .308x.500”

Light subs are just plain fun to shoot. An 86 grain bullet at 1050 fps in a 6 pound rifle has about 3X the recoil impulse of a 22LR in the same 6 pound rifle. That puts it slightly less than a 22 Magnum in the same 6 ponder. The big difference is retained energy. The 86 grain bullet has as much energy at 300 yards as the 40 grain 22LR at 25 yards. You can actually hear the steel ring

So on the light bullet side, 86 grain @ 1000 fps and 7,62X25 Tokarev performance, up to 3000 fps in an 18” barrel.

Mid weight Supers, if barrel length is the same, you pretty well end up with 30-30 performance with 110-175 grain bullets. Certainly better than 30 Carbine. In a hand fed action all of these are on the table as subs. Basically the velocity range on the top end is 2500 fps for the 110 and 2000 for the 175 in a 16” barrel.

Heavy bullets velocity drops off pretty quickly, but a 265 grain cast at 1400 fps is a respectful load.

The AR 15 is a big limiting factor for the cartridge. The magazine length limits some supers and pressures needed to cycle the action make subs under 150 grains not very interesting.

So with people shooting the “same cartridge” with a 200 grain difference in bullet weight and a 2000 fps difference in velocity, not to mention almost a 20” difference in barrel length where the same load can be 500 fps difference, or tailored to be the same if a subsonic load. I just don’t understand the mentality that a single powder or twist rate would work without disappointing results somewhere along the line. But it does explain why so many people have pretty mediocre results and others consistently have sub MOA result across a broad range of loads.

 

[Mike TackleBerry]

I have a 1-10 twist Krieger HV barrel on my Stiller Predator, .308 cal.

for some reason it seems to like very light bullets, the .123 gr Lapua FMJ is shooting .1" 3 shot groups at 100m but at longer ranges it's not a good bullet for competition.

the 167 and 185gr Scenar is shooting .25" 3 shot groups at 100m

what other light .30 cal bullets are available ? something I can use in competition ?

What cartridge is this for?

 

[3Ackleys]

I have questions..

What are rules for a Schutzen Match?

Why/How did you select 300BO for this use? Not judging … honestly intrigued.

1:17 not 1:7 twist??? Your slow twist makes it a dedicated supersonic 300BO.
< I have a 1:15 twist in my 300HAM’R.

The rules are: we shoot 25 rounds per target and 2 targets total offhand at 200 yards. Targets are 18"x20" (I attached a picture below)
Because participation was getting lower every year, they started letting non-traditional rifles shoot in it. They call us "high power" so pretty much any thing that isn't a black powder cartridge rifle is ok. So I have shot 22lr, a Sako Vixen HB 222 Rem, a 25-6.5 PRC, a pre 64 M70 '06, an AR15 5.56.

All the HP shooters are in a seperate class from the Trad. The 300 BO I have is very commpetitive- I usually finnish in the top 4.
I settled on the 300 BO because I was looking for low recoil, least amount of powder burned (cut down on heat off the barrel) and a large dia. bulllet(easier for my spotter to see @200.
It is a 1-17" twist 1" diameter 26" long- a heavy gun is better for offhand. I don't shoot it subsonic- 2200 fps. I have tried different loads that are slower, but this one shoots the best. I think it is a starting load of CFE Black.

We shoot in the winter out of a heated Schutzen house. Maybe when I semi retire in a couple years I will buy a traditional Schutzen rifle. Just no time to start casting bullets etc.

 

[Oso]

My hesitation / hang-up with subsonics is a hunting perspective… if I were to use them hunting pigs or deer I want clean ethical kills at reasonable distances. This is reason I haven’t really focused much time on 300BO subsonic, especially light weight subsonics for plinking.

Don’t get me wrong I have been flirting with idea of subsonic range play (100-300 yards). Over the years we have periodically brought out Heritage single shot rifles (.44 mag downloaded ammo) for fun days at range.

Your insight has been invaluable, and has helped me forgo purchasing other cartridges. You’ve helped me talk my brothers out of or at least postponed purchasing/building an 8.6BO and laid to rest their interest in a .510 Whisper. Instead, I’ve got then contemplating a more reasonable compromise… a 1:5 twist barrel for increased rotation for use with shooting 175gr - 240gr subsonics.

Monkey Wrench - 1:17 barrel for supersonic & subsonic loads for 85gr - 125gr bullets?! Sounds like I need to do a Remage Setup.

What is fastest twist that a hard cast bullets will perform reliably and not baffle strike?