White Tail Hunting Load for 308 Winchester

[Rustystud]

I have hunted White tails for 40 plus years. For the last 10 years I have used a short barreled model 7 Remington. The current configuration is a 20" Broughton 1:12 5C barrel, Chambered with 95 Palma Reamer then throated an additional .050", with a Harrell's Radial Brake, a pillar bedded, glassed in lug, McMillian BDL edge technology stock, Jewell Trigger.

The load consisted of the recommended load from Barnes Bullet Company, Lapua brass, Wolf, LR primers, 45.0 grains of H-4895, Barnes 150 grain Tipped XXX, with COAL 2.810".

All I can say is sub .5 moa 2850 fps.

I have shot 4 deer this week at 115-125 yards and they either dropped in their track or ran less than 60 yards.

I have been very impressed with the Barnes bullets, all complete pass throughs.
Nat Lambeth

 

[walley2960]

Nice work. It is great to have confidence in your gear isn't it.

 

[DR1586]

Nat,

Give the 165 Sierra HPBT Game King a try. I use that bullet in my 30-06 over top of IMR 4895 and I have a deer rifle that shoots under .5 MOA with deer ammo. The bullet has performed well on everything from whitetails, coyotes, black buck antelope and pigs.

 

[ShootDots]

DR, there is another nice thing about the Sierra 165HPBT Gameking.. It has a "blunt" sloping ogive and in my Kimber Longmaster, I have to actually seat it deeper than 2.800 to keep it from running into the lands! Therefore, you can seat them as close to the lands as necessary to increase accuracy.. Now admittedly, their B.C.s are not the best in the business, however, they are fine (trajectory-wise) for 300 yards and their accuracy is exceptional...

 

[K22]

The load I've used for many years is 44 grains of Varget, 150 Sierra Pro Hunter, Federal 210 match primers.

The Sierra Pro Hunter is a no frills bullet but very accurate and deadly on white tail.

 

[Panzer22]

165 Nosler Ballistic tip, 43.5 H4895, wolf LR primer, in an SBS case. Very accurate, 2800 Fps, from a 24 in M700 5R. Exactly .5 mil low at 100 from my 175 zero. Dial it up .5 and then use your chart for the 165.

 

[stacy]

47.5GRS IMR-4064 W/155GR VLD HUNTING BERGERS WLR PRIMERS OUT OF MY 20'' CARBINE WEARTHERBY SHOOTS THIS COMBO IN THE .4'S 3 SHOTS.

 

[Down South]

My hunting rig for whitetails and hogs is a 22 inch barreled 308 loaded with 168 VLDs, 44 gr. Varget, Fed 210M primers loaded to 2.810 OAL to fit in the mag. Very accurate load and deadly on game. I hunted with Barnes 180 gr tipped triple shocks and still do in my 35 Whelen running them at 3000 ftps but from what ive seen the VLDs tend to drop em even better and im only running those 168 VLDs in the 308 at 2650 ftps. I have yet to have a deer run more than 30 yards with the VLDs, most drop on the spot. With the barnes bullets i've had does run 75 yards. Im talking about lung shots not shoulder, neck, etc. shots.

 

[2506]

In my 308 which is a Rem. 700 trued action, Heart tight neck target taper 21 1/2" barrel in a glassed Brown Precision stock. It was built many moons ago as a hunter bench rest class rifle. I have found that Federal match case, CCI BR2, 46 grs IMR 4895 and a 125 Nosler ballistic tip that runs right at 3000 fps muzzle is a deers worst nightmare. It shoots bug holes and drops deer in their tracks 99% of the time out to 300 yards so far.

 

[lightman]

Like K22, my whitetail load is a 150gr Sierra, but I use 4064 instead of Varget. These have worked well on everything from South Arkansas deer to the big guys in Canada. Match grade accuracy is possible with this bullet. Lightman

 

[DMascari]

165 Speer Soft Point Boat tail, IMR 4895 44.5 grains, COAL 2.795.

I picked these bullets up on a whim and picked that load out of the Speer manual. It was middle of the road in charge.

My Dad and I use this load in both our deer rifles, a first generation Browning BAR(mine) and an old Winchester Model 88 (his). We were impressed with the accuracy of this load easy sub MOA, but when we finally shot deer with them they have dropped right in their tracks or went no further that thirty yards.

Really impressive performance.

 

[rjs]

Suppose i will add my favorite hunting load for the 308 its 44.5 gr varget with the sierra 165gr spbt GK , it shoots sub MOA if i do my part and is a real hammer on whitetails.

 

[XTR]

I use a 7-08 now but a few yrs back I was hunting with a 308. I used 165 SGKs and 44.9 gr of Varget. In my rifle I found that the HPBT SGK was slightly more accurate than the SPBTs but I somewhere read that the HPBTs had thicker jackets and were more designed for magnum speeds, whether it's true or not I'm not certain, but I never shot a deer with the HPBTs, the SPBTs work fine and were getting out there at about 2800 or so if I recall correctly. It's been a yr or two since I reloaded hunting rounds for a 308 since I switched to the 7-08.

 

[Joe C]

Nat,
Thank you for your post. While I shot three deer last week with my bow, rifle season is coming up and I am working on switching to the Barnes 150 myself. I'll be shooting them out of a Win M70 Extreme Weather I traded for recently. I'm going to try to tag out this week with my bow but if not, now I know where to start to get the Barnes to do the job.

 

[AckleymanII]

Brother, I, and nephews.......

with various 308's have killed 30+ deer with 50-52g of Win 748, and the Sierra 135g Single shot pistol bullet. I have killed two bucks over 200 lbs with this load, velocity is in the 3150-3200 fps area. This load with the 125g Nosler and 125g Sierra shoots very tiny groups less than 1/2". Same load with the 130g Barnes Tipped triple shock, same accuracy.

Another load that just drops them in their tracks is 44.0g of R#15 with a 150g Hornady sp or BTSP, mashemflatmagnum load!

 

[XTR]

When it comes to shooting white tails the truth is that pretty much anything you can load into a 308 will work, and will probably shoot well enough to hit in the vitals at the under 200 yards that most shots are taken.

 

[M14AMU]

Nosler 150 gr. Accubond/46.5 grs. Varget, Win case, Wolf LR primer.

 

[newgun]

XRT you hit the nail on the head! But a pet load sure is nice and I too have had good luck and good times with Barnes blue tip bullets. Try a head shot with one. I think that is were the drt came from.

 

[treeman]

+1 for K22's load 150 gr pro hunter is an awesome bullet out to 300+ yards always dead right there for me

 

[Joe C]

Nat,

Just wanted to pass on my experience today with Barnes bullets. As aforementioned, I've never used them before but wanted to try this for the upcoming rifle season here in NE.

I prepped some LC brass and used BR2 primers. Then I took three loads with me for my new M70 Extreme Weather .308 with the 150g TSX bullets. Powder was H4895. 44.5g had a bit of vertical stringing. 45.3g had wild vertical stringing. 45g was shooting them in the same holes at 100 yards...off the top of my truck with sand bags no less. I seated them at 2.805" as 2.810" was too long for my rifle chamber.

Thanks again for sharing your op. Hopefully I'll see a couple deer to connect on this weekend!