Thread: 308 bush pig loads

Originally Posted by grandpamac

Greetings,
Hodgdon lists loads and velocities for a 15 inch .308 in their pistol section.
GPM.

That’s the data I usually go to.

I just use 165gr hornady BTSP out of 18inch for the the bush going not very fast and they nothing walks away.

168 amax 42 gns of 2206h is my go to was initially done as a reduced load for a friends kids but it shoots so well we didn’t bother doing full noise loads again

CFE223 is a great powder in 308 if you're looking for speed. Even with a 168g its capable of 2800fps (as far as Sierra manual suggests) with 47.0g.

Originally Posted by kiwijames

CFE223 is a great powder in 308 if you're looking for speed. Even with a 168g its capable of 2800fps (as far as Sierra manual suggests) with 47.0g.

I reckon you'd be right on that. H335 is similar to CFE223 and winchester 748. The Lyman max load there is 45.7gn giving 2714ft/s. Worked up (safely of course) I reckon you'd hit 2800

Originally Posted by kiwijames

CFE223 is a great powder in 308 if you're looking for speed. Even with a 168g its capable of 2800fps (as far as Sierra manual suggests) with 47.0g.

My son has a 16inch Tikka 308 and I might load up a few for him. Does anyone have a CFE223 load for 150’s? I have CFE for my 22-250 so might as well use it. I’ll probably use 150SSTs and try and match the super performance load

Originally Posted by Bobba

If you want to try something light go the 130ttsx. Have this zeroed at 200m and 165g sst zeroed at 100m for the longer shots.

Semi right. 110gr TTSX and 47gr 748. Just dynamite. Seated to top cannelure.

It doesn't matter if a Bush Pig is a sub 150m rifle (most of the time a lot closer)

pick the powder something less popular is always good as you can always get it
popular powders sell out fast don't overthink it

pick the bullet as @Makros says the 150-game king is a fantastic option I've seen his rifles in action
but any good soft point from 130-180 will do fine doesn't matter what

load at book max for the given powder and zero the rifle
if it shoots 2moa or better at 100 your golden
speed also doesn't matter 2700 isn't going to kill it any more than 2300 or even less

People tend to overthink hunting loads a lot. The fact is it doesn't need to be a sub moa rifle with blistering speed to shoot an animal for the table unless your shooting long range but you're not doing that with a 16"308

Nice temp stable powder, 2208 or 2206H are ok but the comment about availability is fair. Having said that, all components are getting skinny on the ground to unobtanium from time to time, so running the popular ones generally means that someone somewhere has some to spare to tide you over the gap...

Some of the 150gr pills can be a little bit variable in performance, by that I mean a little fussy (narrow range) on the impact speed at which they are designed to work. This can mean a particular range at which they will kill reliably without impacting something solid, or not blowing up leaving a shallow slow killing wound. A lot of this relates to the size of animal you are hunting, if you are looking to target everything from goats to wapiti-cross deer that can be where the issue can creep in as that is a really big range of animal weights and construction.

Some of the 150gr pills will work fine in that situation for that matter too, so it's a trial and error thing!

I've gone to the 165gr Interlock or SST (think Interlock with a poncy plastic tip, looks flash) as they seem to have a much wider range at which they are happy to do the hunting bullet thing, other people report similar results and there isn't much of an issue with that I've found with any extra recoil over the 150gr - or I can't tell the difference anyway.

I have two loads for mine - 150g Interlock at 2820 fps with 47g 2208 and 180 grain interlock RN at 2612 fps with 45.5g 2208.

Either of these loads in your 16 inch barrel would be going at the lowest I would say 2600fps for 150g's and 2400fps for the 180's - which is exactly what a .303 always did - at its' best.


If you want something specific: You could drive a 170 grain Interlock FN (.30/30 bullet) at 2400 fps with 2208 or 2206 or BM2. (I checked with Hornady themselves over the velocity performance window and they said this bullet was good up to 2500 fps.)

The factory superformance 150 sst goes good in my short barrel (14.5"), still get over 2700fps which is quick enough to make it versatile out a wee way but slow enough it doesn't get all explodey up close

Those sst pills are pretty explosive anyways,I swapped to interlocks in the 150s.

The 150 grain Interlock is a great bullet in the .308 or .30/06

Don't over think it

Common/popular powder.
Common/popular bullet.

They are popular for a reason.

150g Gold Dot 44g 2208. 16" barrel. I can't imagine they'll be moving that fast, but it doesn't really matter. They retain their weight quite nicely from the ones I've recovered. Nothing has walked away yet. Shot this young fella tonight at about 70m. He was looking back so it went through his throat first.