Thread: New Shooter

Recently I took the plunge and bought a new Tikka T3 X in 308 Win. I put a 3.5 x 10 Leupold on it in Optilocks. This action trigger registration but that was going to happen next year when license renewal comes up anyway.
Anyway I went with a 20 inch barrel suppressed as I didn't want to lose to much velocity. I decided on Hornady 165 gr SST bullets figuring that these should work well at 308 velocity and not be to explosive.
After loading up several test rounds using 748, AR 2208, and AR 2206H I settled on 43.5 grs Of AR 2206H for a average velocity of 2730 fps which generates the same (2730 ftps) energy which still has a remaining energy of over a 1000 ftps at 625 yards which is more than needed for this rifle.
We tried it out at 606 yards and shot a pretty good group (for me) the white square on the drum is about 8 ''so its about a 7 inch group.
Shot a hind last weekend with it at 297 yards so its on the board after a unlucky encounter with a big sambar stag where my shot only managed a smear of blood the size of a bottle top. It was a difficult shot in a block of pines that hadn't been pruned and there were branches everywhere, had I hit him in the intended spot (neck/head joint) he wouldn't have gone anywhere.
I am more than happy with the rifle/scope and its proving to be a good shooter.

Neat rifle scope / ammo / combination !!!

Good horsepower in a light pointy easy to get on target harvesting machine

Are you considering alumina caps to keep the scope clear on drizzly days or when clambering through wet scrub ?

Originally Posted by 7mmsaum

Neat rifle scope / ammo / combination !!!

Good horsepower in a light pointy easy to get on target harvesting machine

Are you considering alumina caps to keep the scope clear on drizzly days or when clambering through wet scrub ?

Not at this stage but may consider it if I need to. Tell me did any pictures come through? from my end it didn't look like they loaded.

No pics but we do want to see.

Don't know what's up I have posted pictures in the past but not recently, so I know the procedure, when I got to the upload part the attachment didn't show in the post where as in the past it would. Not sure what to do.

Click it again and wait.....sometimes takes two minutes from my phone..annoyingly it will often double up photo if clucked again.no drama to remove it all the same.

Looks like it may work this time on my I pad

The other day I picked up some 308 Win 185 gr subsonic rounds. I thought it would be interesting to see how they worked despite them costing $4.50 a round. Today I tried them out, first I set up a target at 50 yards and dialled on 7 moa. The guys at Tauranga Hamills said that it usually takes 6-8 moa to bring them on to 50 yard zero. First shot was a little low so I bought it up one more moa to 8.
This put the bullet slightly to the right but at a good height.
I then went out to 100 yards and dialled a further 6.3 moa and took a shot which landed the bullet at about the right height again but a little further right than the 50 yard shot.
My scope only has about 14 moa total so that is my limit. Speed I registered on the Garmin was 953 fps average and they are super quite through the suppressor.
I did try to recover a projectile by lining up 5 3 litre milk bottle with water. The shot penetrated 4 bottles and cracked the last one but the projectile disappeared into the hillside so I couldn’t see how it opened up. Looking at the holes through the bottles there was expansion but it was limited.

This was my target , the lowest was the first shot, followed by the one just right of red centre after adjusting sight to 8 moa elevation.

These are the specs of the cartridge on the back of the packet, note that they quote 1060 fps but I only got 953 fps average.

Nice set up. Been running a Tikka supervarmint docked to 20 inches and suppressed for years. 42.8gr of 2206H get sub half moa and 2700 fps with 168gr TMKs. Hammers shit at all reasonable ranges

Brought another Kimber last week. Kimber Hunter Pro in .308, had Custom Guns cut the barrel down to 21inch
Had them shoot some Superperformance 150 grain through it and the average speed on the Garmin was 2940 which I was pretty surprised at - great for factory ammo
accuracy was fantastic also for 3 shots

Today I managed to retrieve a projectile from my 308 using the Winchester Subsonic rounds. First I fired a round with the grain and the bullet penetrated the pine ring of about 12 inches then disappeared into a tree, bugger $4.50 gone and no result. Next I shot across the grain and it pulled up in about 6 inches (dry pine) The pictures shows little expansion
Not sure how these will work on animals but hopefully they will expand enough to kill cleanly.

Will be interesting to see how they go on animals, I'd be trying to hit some bone looking at that bullet.

Originally Posted by Mooseman

Today I managed to retrieve a projectile from my 308 using the Winchester Subsonic rounds. First I fired a round with the grain and the bullet penetrated the pine ring of about 12 inches then disappeared into a tree, bugger $4.50 gone and no result. Next I shot across the grain and it pulled up in about 6 inches (dry pine) The pictures shows little expansion Attachment 257400Attachment 257401
Not sure how these will work on animals but hopefully they will expand enough to kill cleanly.

Yeah expansion on that could be better for sure. Hopefully they perform a bit better in soft media, not sure I'd want to shoot an animal with that as is.