.308 155/168/175/195tmk ease/fickle

[sndmn11]

30-06 10 twist

I am curious if there is any trend with the .308 TMKs in one being consistently easy to reload or consistently fickle. I am not one who reloads for playing around and just seat bullets with the boat tail near the neck junction.

On paper, all four of these are similar inside 600yds, and I would imagine wound channels all are fine.

I have a few hundred Berger 180eh that are fine to reload and make over the top wounds, but rising in cost and their BC doesn't give me any advantages.


I have thought about 178eldx, but have never had great results with elds in other rifles.

 

[Hondo64d]

I’ve shot the 155s, 168s, and 175s out of my .308s. The 168s have been the best, the 155s the worse, but none have been bad. Even the 155s would give me a ten shot group of about 1MOA. I’ve used the 168s on coyotes, pigs, and a couple of Whitetails and they have performed very well. The 178gr ELD-Xs group nearly as well for me, and so far, work well on critters. I’ve only shot one pig, a decent sized boar at a little over 400 yards, and he was DRT.

I have to qualify all this by saying that all my .308 bolt gun barrels were chambered with a Bisley Palma reamer, which has a tighter freebore diameter than a SAAMI speck reamer. My experiences show that chambers cut with this reamer are much more forgiving in general than those cut with looser freebore.

John

168gr TMK at a little over 400 yards.



178gr ELD-x at a little over 400 yards.



10 168gr TMKs at 700 yards from my match rifle.

 

[sndmn11]

I’ve shot the 155s, 168s, and 175s out of my .308s. The 168s have been the best, the 155s the worse, but none have been bad. Even the 155s would give me a ten shot group of about 1MOA.



John

168gr TMK at a little over 400 yards



10 168gr TMKs at 700 yards from my match rifle.

I was hoping someone would tell me the 155s are too easy. Starting them at 3000+fps they beat all the others in retained velocity, trajectory, and drift out to 600.

168s are what I intended to buy before looking at numbers. Do you remember what your jump is/was?

 

[Sponge]

I was hoping someone would tell me the 155s are too easy.

Same. I bought some Black Hills loaded 155 TMKs for my 308 to see if my gun likes them. On paper it looks like the 155 TMKs will make a better quick drop setup from a 18" 308 at lower DA's than various 168's.

ETA - I do have a somewhat picky 30-06 (Interarms Mark X) that is a re-barrel candidate. If I buy some 155s to load in 308, I may try them in my 30-06 for funsies and let you know how they do. I have some 168 TMKs I can try too.

 

[sndmn11]

Same. I bought some Black Hills loaded 155 TMKs for my 308 to see if my gun likes them. On paper it looks like the 155 TMKs will make a better quick drop setup from a 18" 308 at lower DA's than various 168's.

You didn't shoot them yet?

 

[Bluumoon]

I was hoping someone would tell me the 155s are too easy. Starting them at 3000+fps they beat all the others in retained velocity, trajectory, and drift out to 600.

168s are what I intended to buy before looking at numbers. Do you remember what your jump is/was?

168's make a mess in elk tissue, very effective. My one attempt at loading in 30-06 was stupid easy with IMR4350, loaded to book COAL and near top of max load, no other load dev.

 

[Sponge]

You didn't shoot them yet?

not yet. the man has me chained to my desk this week and the closest range takes a little driving. it may happen Saturday.

 

[Nine Banger]

195s work.

Out of 308 chamber but pushed to 30-06 slash 300 WSSM speeds with fury brass.

 

[sndmn11]

195s work.

Out of 308 chamber but pushed to 30-06 slash 300 WSSM speeds with fury brass.

I came up with 2700 as a guess on this one. I don't know if a slower velocity vs the lighter bullets equals less mess, or if the bigger bullet will cause more mess by default.

The 168s make sense, I'm just going to plan on those.

 

[Bluumoon]

I came up with 2700 as a guess on this one. I don't know if a slower velocity vs the lighter bullets equals less mess, or if the bigger bullet will cause more mess by default.

The 168s make sense, I'm just going to plan on those.

I was getting 2960fps w 168s in the .30-06 I loaded for, I think it was 20” barrel?

Your post said 18” .30-06 if I read correctly, would expect into mid 2800s at least.

 

[Fireflyfishing]

I’ve killed my last two elk and an antelope with the 155s out of a 20” CTR. Love them and not changing.

 

[Mike D Texas]

I was hoping someone would tell me the 155s are too easy. Starting them at 3000+fps they beat all the others in retained velocity, trajectory, and drift out to 600.

168s are what I intended to buy before looking at numbers. Do you remember what your jump is/was?

I’ve taken my Tikka 20” Roughtech to 1000 yards with the 155s.

To be clear I was using the Sig Fury brass and had them downloaded to 3000fps. You can usually get the same using Alpha SRP brass.

In load development testing I saw no appreciable difference in precision between the 155 and the 175.

These were shot during a ladder test and the load varies 2 grains across the shots shown.

 

[sndmn11]

I was getting 2960fps w 168s in the .30-06 I loaded for, I think it was 20” barrel?

Your post said 18” .30-06 if I read correctly, would expect into mid 2800s at least.

24" barrel.

I was referring to the 195s for my velocity prediction of 2700, I thought that's what you were talking about.

My guesses are 155=3050, 168=2925, 175=2875, 195=2700. This is what I used when looking at retained velocity.

 

[sndmn11]

I’ve taken my Tikka 20” Roughtech to 1000 yards with the 155s.

To be clear I was using the Sig Fury brass and had them downloaded to 3000fps. You can usually get the same using Alpha SRP brass.

In load development testing I saw no appreciable difference in precision between the 155 and the 175.

These were shot during a ladder test and the load varies 2 grains across the shots shown.


View attachment 1031368

I’ve killed my last two elk and an antelope with the 155s out of a 20” CTR. Love them and not changing.

What about searing depth finnickiness?

 

[Fireflyfishing]

What about searing depth finnickiness?

Nope. I run the CTR mags and just loaded them the first time to mag length. Never changed the depth and it’s an under 1 MOA gun any day of the week. Ten shots or more. Pushing them 2825ish