Tikka t3 .308 150 grain vs 180 grain
- Thread starter Olibinoui
- Start date
- Location
- Somewhere on the Hudson Bay Coast
You can't really tune factory ammo unless you're already a handloader. You could experiment with spacers between the barrel and the stock's forend tip. You would need to sand out the pressure points in the barrel channel, see how the rifle groups, then experiment with shims of various thicknesses to see how upward pressure on the barrel affects precision. If you intend to go that route though, stabilizing the stock's forend and glass bedding should be the first step. Refer to Nathan Foster's website for the chapter on bedding and stabilizing plastic stocked rifles.
I think he means to fine tune the POI with the new scope... it is imperative to do the final zeroing in with the actual load you plan to shoot. At 100 yards the impact might be the same or it might be off by a foot... but as the distance increases there will be a disparity between the two loads.
Like hoyt said, you need to shoot a few of the 150's to see how they compare. If I plan to use more expensive ammo and have just put on a new scope i'll often buy the cheaper stuff to get the scope on at 100, and the switch to what I will actually hunt with and confirm/adjust where the scope is set.
In my savage .308 I switched from 180 to 150 of the same brand/bullet type and expected it to group slightly higher because of the lighter, faster bullet. It turns out in that rifle the 150's actually grouped about 5 inches to the left of center, which surprised the hell out of me at the time, but was an easy fix to dial in the scope.
RangerPark
CGN frequent flyer
- Location
- Near Edmonton, AB
If you're lucky the 180's will group lower than the 150's with the same windage. It would then be a matter of noting the difference and dialing it in when you change ammo. That's really a big if. I've actually never had 150's and 180's that didn't have a difference in windage. I reload 185's for hunting and target shooting. I also shoot Lake City XM80 for plinking. From the 185's to the XM80 is 3 MOA UP, 2 MOA Right at 100m.
185 bergers have a lot of oomph downrange.
Best place to tune your factory loads for the game you're hunting is the hornady hits site. At 2400 fps with a .308 and 185 you get a hits score of 1239. By the time the bullet slows to 1800, you still get a 939. Still perfect for moose sized game at the 500 yard mark.
With the 150 doing 2600 fps, the score is 881, which is light for moose sized game but on the heavy end for deer sized game.
http://m.hornady.com/hits/calculator
Best place to tune your factory loads for the game you're hunting is the hornady hits site. At 2400 fps with a .308 and 185 you get a hits score of 1239. By the time the bullet slows to 1800, you still get a 939. Still perfect for moose sized game at the 500 yard mark.
With the 150 doing 2600 fps, the score is 881, which is light for moose sized game but on the heavy end for deer sized game.
http://m.hornady.com/hits/calculator
Try some Remington Corelokts, POI will generally be a little off between 180s and 150s. Sight in with ammo you will be hunting with 180 or 150
FWIW, my t3 30.06 loves Remington CoreLokt(?) 150's. I tried Federal Blue and Fusion, Winchester, 165 gr, 150 gr. but kept on coming back to the Core Lokt. Find something that groups consistently, and fine tune it. You didn't mention if you were hunting, or just punching paper. This will make a difference in what bullet you chouse.
Hah! I should have pressed refresh before posting. The weird thing is the Core Lokt is the cheapest ammo you can pretty much buy, yet shoots consistently from these rifles.
hometownhero
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Toon Town, Sk
Why not split the difference and shoot 165's?
screenshot on pc
jpg images
image free hostingThese groups were with a 150 grain on my Tikka T3.
the 180 grain was a disaster.
I know how you feel about disaster. I ran some 210g 338 win mag through my 695 and had a 4 inch spread at 100 yards.....switched over to 225g fusions and it was hard to pick out the three different grease smudges from the one hole they left behind.
- Location
- Somewhere on the Hudson Bay Coast
That being the case, if you intend to shoot multiple loads in your rifle, even different loads of the same bullet weight, the first step is to see if your scope adjustments are repeatable. Once determined, its a simple matter to record the scope adjustment for each load, then simply refer to your records for the correct scope adjustment for the load you intend to shoot. Its important to confirm the zero at longer ranges since bullet impacts at 100 yards do not always reflect the point of impact at longer ranges; a subtle difference at 100 could be disregarded, yet result in several inches of dispersion at 300. If your scope adjustments are not repeatable, the process of re-sighting the rifle each time you change loads becomes tedious, and a single load for that rifle becomes more attractive. The Hornady 165 gr SPBT Interlock always seemed to shoot well in my .30/06 rifles, and was my go to bullet before I came north. Now my .30s are loaded with 180s, 220s, or 240s.
hometownhero
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Toon Town, Sk
In a 308 I would go 150 maybe even lighter if using a mono metal bullet. They need speed and lots of it to reliably open. Emailed Barnes a few months ago and was told a min of 2200 but 2400fps + is better to get ttsx to reliably open.
powder burner
CGN frequent flyer
- Location
- Alberta, Canada
Have you tried accubonds or hornady interlock soft points?
