That was then, this is now. Several years ago I bought a .308 for my youngest son, as a gift for one celebration or another. We immediately began working up loads for it and learned that it liked Reloder 15 powder and 165 grain bullets. This shouldn't have come as any great surprise because lots of .30 caliber rifles like bullets in the 165-168 grain class and RL15 is a good powder for that weight bullet. In his rifle 43.0 grains of RL15 and a good 165 bullet turned in better than MOA accuracy at about 2600 fps.
Then, early in December, I bought a .308 of my own. It's a Handi-Rifle and the only reason I bought it was because the price was unbelievably right. Not surprisingly, it likes that same load, turning in 1.5 inch groups and giving me an average 2550 fps out or the short 22" barrel. This isn't a max load by any means, but if you can tell me that a deer will know the difference between being hit by a bullet at 2800 fps and 2600 fps, I'll question your sanity. I could probably load it a little hotter, but I don't intend to shoot a game animal past 200 yards anyway, and if the little rifle is sighted 2" high at 100 yards, it'll be down just 1 inch at 200 yards. Recoil is very manageable with this rifle with this load and accuracy is certainly acceptable.
I like the Sierra GameKing bullet in all the .308 calibers. It's a good, sturdy, conventional bullet. It's priced right, which means about half what a "premium" bullet costs these days. I consider the GameKing a premium bullet and intend to keep my hunting well within the limits I've set. I can't see spending more money on a bullet when the ones I trust are priced so very reasonably.
5 comments:
Actually, Pop, we use a 168 grain bullet in my load. ;)
-Joey
Yeah, the MatchKings are 168, but I thought I loaded some GameKings for that rifle? What did I send you last time?
Matchkings. The Gamekings are very accurate, but the Matchkings squeeze a little more out of the load. They're the ticket.... at least in my rifle.
There's a Marlin XS7 in 308 in my future. The 1 - 12 twist should work fine with cast bullets, namely the 311041.
I've got two .308's, the Ruger #1 my wife gave me for Christmas the first year we were married (1968) and a weary old Chilean M12/61 Nato. It started life as a Chilean M1912 long rifle made by Steyr of Austria. A near clone of the German Gew. 98 in 7x57mm. In '61 the Chileans bought a carload of 2-groove Springfield barrels, reconfigured 'em to Mauser profile, cut 'em to 23" and installed 'em in twenty or so thousand M12 recievers, cutting the stocks to K98k proportions. It's a good rifle, sufficiently accurate and lots of fun. It has started many discussions and a few arguments about its pedigree.
I'd hate to be without either one of 'em.
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