.308 ammunition advice

Morning all, am after some advice on .308 ammo. I dont reload and with the cost of box ammo i would like a few opinions before i spend money on a couple of boxes to try. Winchester. 308, 16" dpt suppressor.
Have so far tried precision hunter and superformance, nither of which grouped particularly well. Have since gone to sako gamehead which groups ok but has all the aerodynamics of a brick. Have a vx3hd and am comfortable dialing. Hope to make this a 3-400m max gun. Dont need to stretch out further as i have a dedicated long range setup for that. Any and all advice appreciated

Have also tried american whitetail which it absolutely hated

Iv used some Hornaday whitetail 165gr sp out of my 18"tika.Deadly accurate,better than the superformance ssts.$70pkt its worth a try.

Greetings,
So far you have tried three types of ammo and none shot better than OK. Perhaps the next step is to get the rifle checked over to see if there is a problem. The .308 will shoot any half decent ammo well. Some info on the groups you have achieved and the projectile weights would help. One of my .308 rifles has a long throat and shoots flat base projectiles much better than boat tails and does best with heavier projectiles. More information would help with suggestions.
Regards Grandpamac.

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Originally Posted by grandpamac

Greetings,
So far you have tried three types of ammo and none shot better than OK. Perhaps the next step is to get the rifle checked over to see if there is a problem. The .308 will shoot any half decent ammo well. Some info on the groups you have achieved and the projectile weights would help. One of my .308 rifles has a long throat and shoots flat base projectiles much better than boat tails and does best with heavier projectiles. More information would help with suggestions.
Regards Grandpamac.

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Fair enough, rifle has been pillar bedded and free floated, shortened / Crowned and checked over by a very trusted gunsmith. The sako gamehead 150g groups around 1moa, Lab radar averaging 2598fps. the other 3 Hornady ammo was anything up to 6" groups. (150g american white tail, 150g SSt, 178g ELDX) happy with having 1moa accuracy on this particular rifle but would like some slightly higher BC projectiles. Hope that helps.

Check your scope mounts and scope itself - issue may not be the ammo at all.

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Originally Posted by winchesterM69A

Check your scope mounts and scope itself - issue may not be the ammo at all.

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hi, yep have done, brand new rail, vx3hd and luepold mounts all fitted and leveled by same gunsmith. Shot the same with old scope and mounts that were on it but changed to the vx3 for dialing capability. cheers

Have you tried without suppressor or with different muzzle device

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Originally Posted by feratox

Have you tried without suppressor or with different muzzle device

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nope, but bloody good idea, will do.

Federal blue box always went well for me before I got the reloading bug,150g ,killed well and around Moa in all the 308s I have had over the years,model 7 ,midland,charter arms and now sako A7.

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Originally Posted by Williamfga

Fair enough, rifle has been pillar bedded and free floated, shortened / Crowned and checked over by a very trusted gunsmith. The sako gamehead 150g groups around 1moa, Lab radar averaging 2598fps. the other 3 Hornady ammo was anything up to 6" groups. (150g american white tail, 150g SSt, 178g ELDX) happy with having 1moa accuracy on this particular rifle but would like some slightly higher BC projectiles. Hope that helps.

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Greetings again,
The Sako ammo shooting around MOA suggests that the rifle is capable of decent accuracy and does better with the blunter projectiles which have more bearing surface. I did a load series in my .308 recently using 125,150 and 165 grain projectiles and various powders. The best accuracy was with the 165 or heaviest projectile so this may be worth trying. The problem with factory ammo is that you get what you are given. Some of it is good or even very good but batches may differ. You are running at least two rifles so you may want to consider handloading, especially in the longer term. If you could buddy up with a current handloader this could help with set up cost.
Regards Grandpamac.

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Originally Posted by The bomb

Federal blue box always went well for me before I got the reloading bug,150g ,killed well and around Moa in all the 308s I have had over the years,model 7 ,midland,charter arms and now sako A7.

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The last three .308's I've worked with recently all shot Sako gameheads at or under MOA. They also shot fed Blue Box and Rem Coreloct at near to MOA. IMO stick to the Gameheads in the short term, fine out to 400. Rifles are often referred too in the feminine gender which may well explain why they will do one thing well but not another for no apparent reason. I wouldn't rush spending lots of dollars on different brands, wait until the opportunity arises.

FWIW I load 308 for a young mate, 150 SSTs over AR2206H after advice from this forum to emulate Hdy, Factory Superformance with same 150gn SST. He has a 16 in, X-Bolt, Superlight, suppressed. Using his once fired Hdy brass he is shooting near touching groups of 3 at 100m, 3 all adjacent to each other on a 6in gong at 300m. Wish I could shoot as good. On my old chrono they average around 2730fps.

Sometimes those older Winchester just don't shoot.
Not all rifles will shoot under or near MOA

Sent from my CPH2145 using Tapatalk

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Originally Posted by 25/08 IMP

Sometimes those older Winchester just don't shoot.
Not all rifles will shoot under or near MOA

Sent from my CPH2145 using Tapatalk

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Yeah just trying to get the best out of it, with any luck ill find something it likes

It might just need a real good scrub in the bore too.

As good a place as any to start

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Originally Posted by johnd

It might just need a real good scrub in the bore too.

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Some rifles just don't shoot well.
My mate had ruger m77 mk1 243 that a gunsmith rebarrelled into a 308 and bedded the action. He spent years trying to sort a load for it but it was never any good.
I fought with it for awhile to help him out. Fixed and sorted out heaps of if issues with it (bedding, reloads, mounts, scope and suppressor(on or off) and the typical ruger binding mag box etc) and got it shooting a tight 3 shot group at 100m everytime. As soon as you fired a 4th or more shots it would group like shit until dead cold again. I'm guessing it had something to do with the action/barrel not being true/quite right.
Thankfully he sold that rifle and bought a new rifle that shot mint from the box (tikka :thumbsup:).
Some headaches just aren't worth hanging onto.

Greetings,
I looked at the Sako data for the Game head and the low BC suggests that the projectiles are flat base, likely why they shoot OK. It looks as though your rifle is a lot like my old Remington. The rifle has quite a long throat compared with current rifles and has staunchly refused to shoot anything with a boat tail that I have tried. Flat base projectiles are fine and this is probably your best bet. Finding factory ammo other than the Sako loaded with flat base could be a problem. Although the BC of the Game head looks a bit ho hum by todays standards it is still adequate out to 300 metres or so. Sako does do a 165 grain Game head loaded with Sierra 165 grain SPBT projectiles which might be an option but these are likely to shoot to a different POI.
I would be interested to know what the long range rifle is.
Regards Grandpamac

What I was really trying to say is that if it keeps shooting the sako game head good then all is well :thumbsup:

But if it keeps being fussy on ammo after all the gunsmith work you had done to it then maybe it's just a "headache" rifle.

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Originally Posted by Roarless20

What I was really trying to say is that if it keeps shooting the sako game head good then all is well :thumbsup:

But if it keeps being fussy on ammo after all the gunsmith work you had done to it then maybe it's just a "headache" rifle.

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You might be right, just stick to the sako

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Originally Posted by grandpamac

Greetings,
I looked at the Sako data for the Game head and the low BC suggests that the projectiles are flat base, likely why they shoot OK. It looks as though your rifle is a lot like my old Remington. The rifle has quite a long throat compared with current rifles and has staunchly refused to shoot anything with a boat tail that I have tried. Flat base projectiles are fine and this is probably your best bet. Finding factory ammo other than the Sako loaded with flat base could be a problem. Although the BC of the Game head looks a bit ho hum by todays standards it is still adequate out to 300 metres or so. Sako does do a 165 grain Game head loaded with Sierra 165 grain SPBT projectiles which might be an option but these are likely to shoot to a different POI.
I would be interested to know what the long range rifle is.
Regards Grandpamac

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Thanks for the advice, will try the 165s. other rifle is under the "projects and home builds" thread Carbon Tikka 6.5 PRC. shoots bloody well.

is this the model 70????
now if you had said for close work I would say winchester180grn power points all day long...but not much chop out long..well they possibly are with right drop.... they are awesome up close.

Will be using up a box of Fed blue at the range hopefully this week then I will have enough to reload some projectiles I have, the Feds shoot ok but think I can get something better in my short .308

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Originally Posted by Micky Duck

is this the model 70????
now if you had said for close work I would say winchester180grn power points all day long...but not much chop out long..well they possibly are with right drop.... they are awesome up close.

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Yeah, its currently away getting cerakoted and i want to have a good go at finding a good round for it once i get it back