Norma Whitetail .308 150 Warning

[furtaker]

If you would have never chronographed it, you would have been raving about how accurate it was. 150 grain bullet traveling at 2000 feet a second will kill a deer in a heartbeat. Sometimes we overanalyze things. It is a shame if it's advertised that much faster. However, the deer won't know the difference

True but there's no point in shooting a 308 to get 30-30 performance unless you're recoil sensitive.

I'd pick another load too.

 

[Liberty]

The fact is that I purchased 308, not 30-30 and expected a full power 308 load as was advertised on the box. This was a public service announcement. I could have kept my mouth shut and let others wonder why their rifle shot so low at 350 or why the deer they lung shot at 275 ran 200 yards with a pencil wound.

 

[Kev]

The fact is that I purchased 308, not 30-30 and expected a full power 308 load as was advertised on the box.

I wish you had another box of it to try. I’d be interested to see if it’s the same. You got me wanting to throw away all my Norma ammo now.

 

[Liberty]

I wish you had another box of it to try. I’d be interested to see if it’s the same. You got me wanting to throw away all my Norma ammo now.

I do have a full box-of the same lot number. Usually these issues are isolated to a particular loading, or sometimes, a production run. The factory was new and they were starting operations when this stuff was cranked out. Norma normally produces top notch products. Hopefully they are running like a well oiled machine. I'm just not buying anymore when PowerShok and PowerPoint have been working just fine for me on game for many years. Speed does matter for accurate shooting and clean kills though my friends, if not we could have just stopped at 30-40 Krag.

 

[The Original Rooster]

I do have a full box-of the same lot number. Usually these issues are isolated to a particular loading, or sometimes, a production run. The factory was new and they were starting operations when this stuff was cranked out. Norma normally produces top notch products. Hopefully they are running like a well oiled machine. I'm just not buying anymore when PowerShok and PowerPoint have been working just fine for me on game for many years. Speed does matter for accurate shooting and clean kills though my friends, if not we could have just stopped at 30-40 Krag.

Thanks for sharing this info and don't be discouraged to share it again in the future. I don't have a .308 but this is exactly the kind of good information we need from an online forum.

 

[Dub]

The fact is that I purchased 308, not 30-30 and expected a full power 308 load as was advertised on the box. This was a public service announcement. I could have kept my mouth shut and let others wonder why their rifle shot so low at 350 or why the deer they lung shot at 275 ran 200 yards with a pencil wound.

Thank you for speaking up on it.

I think most of us understand and appreciate you reason for doing so.

 

[Ruger#3]

Absolutely, thanks for the info.

 

[rosewood]

Better it came in 200 FPS slow than 200 FPS fast.

Rosewood

 

[furtaker]

I bought a box of the 150gr Norma for my 7RM and they didn't group to my satisfaction to hunt with. Next time I have my chronograph out I'll check one or two and post the results. I'm not expecting much.

 

[Kev]

I bought a box of the 150gr Norma for my 7RM and they didn't group to my satisfaction to hunt with. Next time I have my chronograph out I'll check one or two and post the results. I'm not expecting much.

Please do!

 

[GregoryB.]

I got 4 boxes of 150gr 308 last year when their website had them on sale. I can shoot much past 100 yards where I hunt so I should be good to go. Need to shoot a few in my rifle since I have an early season doe hunt starting Thursday. If I get time I will set up the chronograph and see what I am getting for speed.

 

[Liberty]

I got 4 boxes of 150gr 308 last year when their website had them on sale. I can shoot much past 100 yards where I hunt so I should be good to go. Need to shoot a few in my rifle since I have an early season doe hunt starting Thursday. If I get time I will set up the chronograph and see what I am getting for speed.

I thought that my chronograph was broken until I shot 2 other loads to verify that it wasn’t. Looking forward to seeing what you get.

 

[ScLowCountry]

I'm not standing up for norma but I promise you that if you shot that ammo and measured the drop you wouldn't have noticed anything. Do you think if you shot it at 250 without a crono you would have noticed a difference.

I bet your freezer would be full. We stress way to much about bullet construction, penetration, expansion, velocity and not so much on our ability to put that bullet where it matters. If you put any piece of lead through the lungs and heart you will find that deer. For God sakes we kill deer with bows and round balls.


Also the box says 2789 fps. You are using a shorter barrel. So if anything it might be around 100 fps less that advertised.

Have you ever taken your truck to a dyno to compare sticker horsepower and torque to actual wheel specs. You might be shocked.


I understand your concerns and I'm not being critical. I'm helping you to not be so critical. Norma makes top notch ammo

 

[Liberty]

I'm not standing up for norma but I promise you that if you shot that ammo and measured the drop you wouldn't have noticed anything. Do you think if you shot it at 250 without a crono you would have noticed a difference.

I bet your freezer would be full. We stress way to much about bullet construction, penetration, expansion, velocity and not so much on our ability to put that bullet where it matters. If you put any piece of lead through the lungs and heart you will find that deer. For God sakes we kill deer with bows and round balls.


Also the box says 2789 fps. You are using a shorter barrel. So if anything it might be around 100 fps less that advertised.

Have you ever taken your truck to a dyno to compare sticker horsepower and torque to actual wheel specs. You might be shocked.


I understand your concerns and I'm not being critical. I'm helping you to not be so critical. Norma makes top notch ammo

So if you bought a 350 crate motor advertised at 325 horsepower and discovered that it actually only made 200, that would be okay with you and you wouldn’t tell other automotive enthusiasts about it? After all, people can get to work in a Honda with 160 horsepower, or on a bicycle. Feel free to tolerate whatever deviation from advertised performance is suitable to you, but a 150 grain bullet launched at 2400 fps will have a different point of impact and retained energy at 250 than expected from one launched at 2700 FPS.

 

[tcward]

Oh, the beauty of reloading your own.

 

[rosewood]

Rough estimate going from 2789 to 2400fps is 6" more drop at 300 yards. From 2689 to 2400fps is 5" more drop. It gets significantly worse at longer distances. That can be a problem. Only about 2" at 200 yards, probably not a problem there in whitetail country.

Rosewood

 

[Jester896]

your supposed to prove it in your equipment anyway...not rely on printed data..D.O.P.E.

 

[Liberty]

So if you bought a 350 crate motor advertised at 325 horsepower and discovered that it actually only made 200, that would be okay with you and you wouldn’t tell other automotive enthusiasts about it? After all, people can get to work in a Honda with 160 horsepower, or on a bicycle. Feel free to tolerate whatever deviation from advertised performance is suitable to you, but a 150 grain bullet launched at 2400 fps will have a different point of impact and retained energy at 250 than expected from one launched at 2700 FPS.

Oh, the beauty of reloading your own.

I use to reload all the 308 we needed, we "me and wife" has turned into son, nieces, brotherinlaw, etc. Some rifles just have to go factory.....

 

[FlipKing]

Yall are getting short with this dude over him providing factual mathematical data and your argument is "well meemaw said". I love meemaw but this is a firearms forum where the numbers matter in discussions. Group size, ammo speed, bullet size/type, etc are a normal part of firearm discussions on the technical side.

Besides that, my truck tows 12000lbs. Do I need 12000lbs? Absolutely not, but it sure makes towing 6-8klbs easier. And guess what, my hitch is rated to 14klbs, because I don't want that being the weak point. So yeah if a 150gr bullet is supposed to shoot 2800fps, that means mathematically it should have a certain amount of energy at each yardage. If the speed is low, that energy could be low, and could result in a wounded animal instead of a dead one.

Thank you for the information OP. I don't shoot Norma, but it's a good discussion to have.

 

[tcward]

After hunting this morning we decided to do a little shooting and brought the chronograph out to test a new pistol load. When that was finished, we thought it would be a fun idea to shoot our factory .308 loads. First we shot Norma Whitetail 150 308 since that is what the Remington 700 with a 20 inch barrel was sighted in for. First shot was 2400 fps even. I though the battery must be dying, so we went in the house and got another battery. 2nd shot was 2440, 3rd shot 2426. We then shot Prvi 150 and got 2667. We shot a 150 Power Point that measured 2764. That rifle was re-sighted in with Power Point. The Norma will deliver 1 hole groups at 50 on my pistol range, but the velocity was shockingly low. The Power Points gave a 3/4 inch group, but it would at least kill cleanly at 200. The Norma did recoil less, but I hadn't noticed it before since we usually don't shoot more than one brand in a session. I'm not trying to trash talk. I'd just hate to maim a game animal. The ammo was bought at Academy back when it was new and on sale for cheap.

Could have been a factory misloaded box. Did you happen to buy 2 so maybe you could try more? Another thing to think about is bullet performance at longer ranges if velocity is 300-400 fps lower than average to start with. I don’t blame you in using a different brand. Good info