308 loads for deer

[Swamprat]

If a manufacturer made a .308 in a 140 grain bullet I would be all over it if it patterned well.

I use 150 gr Core Lokts and have for close to 3 decades, groups great and have killed deer from 30 yards out to 270 no problem. Those bullets if you hit them right will put out a freight train blood trail but most usually go either DRT or 20-40 yards

 

[tigerfan]

If a manufacturer made a .308 in a 140 grain bullet I would be all over it if it patterned well.

I use 150 gr Core Lokts and have for close to 3 decades, groups great and have killed deer from 30 yards out to 270 no problem. Those bullets if you hit them right will put out a freight train blood trail but most usually go either DRT or 20-40 yards

I shot core lokts too until academy put a reloading set on clearance for $149. Gave me a good excuse to shoot more.

 

[kma281]

I went the other way from most. 180gr Nosler Accubonds with some 8208XBR in my 308 Rem 700 SPS. I call it my "Bang-Flop" round. The image is 3 shots at 100yrd. Bed'd factory plastic stock, Shilen trigger, Talley rings and bases.

.

 

[Jester896]

I don't mind providing my actual formula.

I saw the charge and powder above...you did share the other info I was looking for.

I am limited in my AICS mags I use in my .260 and .308 to about 2.859 IIRC. I might have to try a Savage Action one time if the factory mag will let you run one out to 2.900. Yes, 200 is a CCI LR primer.

That's kinda interesting on the 4064 load...that is under book minimum and the OAL of the Partition bullet.

 

[Swamprat]

Will say every gun maker in same caliber will shoot different. My .308 is close to 40 years old when S&W got in the long gun game, Think at that time maybe Sako? was building them for S&W Dad bought it for me at an auction....NIB for maybe 170 bucks.

This gun is a tank but this gun is probably the most accurate I own and I have a .280 Browning A-Bolt in .280. Have 2 Savage 110's in 243 and 22-250 and those are tack drivers. Thinking extra weight has something to do with it.

I am not a gun collector by any means, just have a few that perform for my needs

 

[sogafishin]

150 grain Hornady Interlock pushed with Max load of IMR4895 has been dropping deer like a hammer for me for years.

 

[bullethead]

150 grain Hornady Interlock pushed with Max load of IMR4895 has been dropping deer like a hammer for me for years.

I use the 150 Hornady Spire Point also with Win 748. I have never met a deer that was not immediately impressed with it.

 

[btbones]

Hornady American Whitetail 150 grain. Best factory load in all calibers i my opinion. Has never let me down

 

[DP308]

308 win. 125 gr. Nosler accubond
49.5 gr. Varget 3000 fps.
Accurate and deadly

 

[jpm2953]

no love for federal fusions???

 

[model88_308]

no love for federal fusions???

I love Federal Fusions. Excellent performance and very affordable.

 

[lonewolf247]

IMO, We had better performance with federal fusions, than core Lokts, in my son’s .308 youth rifle. I wouldn’t be afraid to use them.

If your looking to step up to a more premium choice, I’d try Accubond, or go with one of the Barnes bullet options.

 

[lonewolf247]

Will say every gun maker in same caliber will shoot different. My .308 is close to 40 years old when S&W got in the long gun game, Think at that time maybe Sako? was building them for S&W Dad bought it for me at an auction....NIB for maybe 170 bucks.

This gun is a tank but this gun is probably the most accurate I own and I have a .280 Browning A-Bolt in .280. Have 2 Savage 110's in 243 and 22-250 and those are tack drivers. Thinking extra weight has something to do with it.

I am not a gun collector by any means, just have a few that perform for my needs

Lots of different variables that come into play with rifle configurations. I have a Browning Bar 30-06, that performed very well with core lokts, and my son has a Weatherby youth rifle in .308, with 20” barrel. Not a tremendous difference in caliber at all, but his definitely does better with fusions. I think there seems to be a velocity breaking point, with core Lokts, and between the barrel difference and caliber velocity difference, we’ve noticed performance differences in the field.


Do you have a pic of that S & W made Sako rifle? I think they did do a very small run of them, if you were to have one, you were very lucky! I have a S &W Mod. 1500, which is basically a Howa 1500, and is a nice rifle in its own right, as well.

 

[GreenPig]

I purchased my first .308 at the beginning of the year and decided to go with the Hornady SST 165grn bullets for bear and deer. I Shot two good sized hogs during the late May WMA hog hunt and neither one went more than 30 yds. So far so good.

If you look close you can see the blood & lung pieces out to 12' carried by a .308 165 SST from 60 yards. It simply always works.

 

[transfixer]

I picked up some Hornady 165gr SST's the other day, but haven't had a chance to load any yet, last afternoon before I left the lease I decided to zero the Savage axis 308 I had picked up over the summer, all I had was a few unknown rounds that came with the rifle, and a couple of boxes of Hornady American whitetail 150btsp's that I had acquired somewhere along the line.

I used the unknown rounds to get it on paper, then a couple of the 150btsp's to fine tune it a little, the bottom three shots were the last rounds I fired with the 150btsp's , there actually is another bullet hole in between the top two, but that is from my 10.5 inch barreled .300bo , the other rounds up top were from the blackout as well, I shot it at 100 just to see what it would do, using a Primary arms 2.5x prism scope on the blackout, the acss reticle virtually blocks out the center of the target at that range, I need to work on loads for it some more, This is all at 100yds

But that 3 round group from the Savage with the 150's surprised me, I didn't expect it to group that tight with them, figured I would have to use a heavier round ? I'm going to load the 165sst's to see if the group gets any smaller, but otherwise I'll hunt with the 150's . I'm running a 1.5 x 6 power Weaver scope that has a 30mm tube on the Savage, I'm intending on it being my woods gun.

 

[Jester896]

nice vertical string

 

[model88_308]

..... But that 3 round group from the Savage with the 150's surprised me, I didn't expect it to group that tight with them, figured I would have to use a heavier round ? I'm going to load the 165sst's to see if the group gets any smaller, but otherwise I'll hunt with the 150's . I'm running a 1.5 x 6 power Weaver scope that has a 30mm tube on the Savage, I'm intending on it being my woods gun.

Might that be a Weaver Super Slam 30mm scope? I recently picked up a mint Weaver 30mm Super Slam that's 1-5x24 and I am very impressed with it's quality glass. I put it on top of a M600 in .308 I also recently picked up. They will be headed to the range tomorrow if all works out.

 

[transfixer]

Might that be a Weaver Super Slam 30mm scope? I recently picked up a mint Weaver 30mm Super Slam that's 1-5x24 and I am very impressed with it's quality glass. I put it on top of a M600 in .308 I also recently picked up. They will be headed to the range tomorrow if all works out.

Actually is was one of the cheaper line , a Kaspa series 1.5 x 6 x 32, with the tactical turrets, I previously ran it on an AR I used last year, didn't want to invest in another scope for a rifle I wasn't sure I would keep yet, but even though its a 250 dollar scope the glass is exceptionally clear and crisp, with above average light transfer, I'm also running one of their 3x12x44 kaspa tacticals on my heavy barrel 308 , and I really like it as well.

 

[transfixer]

nice vertical string

I was pleasantly surprised, I wasn't set up properly to try for best grouping, I only had a front bag, using my off hand under the buttstock, didn't even give the rifle a cleaning before I shot it, I was just trying to get it reasonably close for when I tried the 165gr's , next time I'll be better prepared, going to be a little perplexed if this rifle ends up shooting as good as my early 90's 700, lol

 

[bullethead]

I have found that with the same Handloads the 150 Hornady Flat base Spire Points have shot extremely well in the four .308s I own and 2 other .308s that I load for. All of the different 1:10 Barrels that I have shot the 150s out of seem to like them.