168 Gr -308

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wpala

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Here is the plan I have tons of 168 Sierra MK bullets they are boat tail
and I want to use 168 Barnes hunting bullets (boat tail)in my hunting rifle since I have so many Sierra can I use them for load development ? or do I have to go with and waist Barnes bullets they kind of not cheap and heaving a lot of Sierra which look and weight is the same I thought they should perform very similarly in the gun what are Your thoughts ??

Thanks in advance
Paul.W
 
If the barnes are conventional jacketed lead bullets the trajectories etc will be close but not the same and the recipies will give about the same FPS. The two bullets will most likely not have the same best load for accuracy though. If they are the solid copper barnes bullets then all bets are off and you will have to develop loads espcially for these bullets and will need loading data as they are NOT the same at all.

Just my 2 cents
 
Being the same weight, the adjustment would be small make sure to keep the same components and OAL with the bullet as variable, the MK will be a thight group the other being a hunting bullet could open more on group, i would sure try it... JP.
 
I would do a pass through the load spectrum with the SMK's to find the nodes in your rifle, then try a narrower pass through with the Barnes bullets around whatever node you think is best for your purposes. No guarantees this works, but it may cut down on your use of expensive bullets. If the node doesn't work out for the Barnes bullets then nothing was lost as you would have had to test across the same range anyway as part of a broader test.


Mark
 
Here is the way I see it...
Money spent on bullets for load development=$100
Trophy hunt of a life time=priceless
 
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I use the same idea with Nosler Partition and for load development I use Honda SP, I found them to be very similar in ballistic performance.
From my own experience with 308, Barnes is not a very good choice for it, it doesn't have enough speed to open reliable on deer size game.
 
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