Thread: .308 reloading starting point

Originally Posted by bjp

If you are mostly bowling over goats, what sort of ranges are you shooting them at? What is your barrel twist? I was just thinking that instead on focusing on speed, you could just find a load that shoots well and stick with it. Will the 100 fps slower really matter?

I've done some numbers for my 16" barrel 308, compared to my 24" 308, velocity drops off more with the lighter projectiles (125gn) than it does with the heavier ones (168gn), I was trying 2208 and 2206h, both about the same performance.

For my 16.5" Bergara 308 I shoot 168gn A-max with 43gn 2206h, around 2520 fps. Same load is 195 fps faster in the 24" rifle. Either one will do the job though

20-400 yards often fairly decent wind factor too (well for me anyway). Stock Tikka barrel think it’s 11 twist. I’m not doing it for speed just if I’m going to do things I like to try get all the good out of it rather than just a little. I was tempted to move up to eldm/x but cost becomes a factor and if the SST do the job we’re ok. All the ammo I’ve put through it kills stuff pretty well if I do my bit. Do a bit of gong shooting and I find groups open up quite a bit beyond 300yards with SP so if I can reduce the margin of error I reckon I’ll be a bit better off.

I’ve got a pretty decent idea of where I’m going with it thanks to a few on here and decent dose of reading just need some time to put it all in to practice.