175 SMK vs Hornady 178 A-max vs Hornady 178 BTHP

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Roddy

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What is everyone's favourite .308 bullet among these three for 24" 1:11 barrel? I am very new to reloading and have 168gr SMK and Hornady BTHP but I have heard the to transonic around 700 to 800m and become inaccurate so I am looking into heavier bullets.

I have heard a lot of positive things about the 178gr Amax bullets but the 175 SMK seems to have been a long time favourite and is apparantly very forgiving in OAL and bullet jump. I have been able to find very few reports on the 178 BTHP but what I have seen is very, very positive for a bullet that costs almost 25% less than the SMK. It has the best ballistic coefficient.

I know I am kind of all over the map and I am sure that this has been discussed before but are Sierras worth the extra money? Are Hornady 178 BTHP just as good or better? Better than the Amax? What do you guys think?
 
Try the 168gr amax or the 178 bthp.
Amax might be slightly long for your twist rate.

If you want to push your bullet 1000yards you had best choose the bullet that properly stabilizes in your twist rate.
 
I would go with Hornady 178 BTHP, best BC out of them, not much more fussier then SMk, inexpensive and ton of field proven data available. BTW Snooze98k, 1-11 twist will stabilize bullets much longer/heavier then that, people have successfully fired 208 grain amax out of 1-12 twist so nothing to worry about there.
 
the 178 Bthp will help get out to and past 1000m. That beings said my savage 10PC had better accuracy with 175 smk. It wasn't huge difference but enough to make me switch. Also I found that the 178 had worse quality control, bullets weighing 177-180 and different bearing surface lengths aswell. It must of been a bad run because I have a 500box of 168 bthp and they are fairly consistent.
 
Thanks for the replies.

uncledillers said:
the 178 Bthp will help get out to and past 1000m. That beings said my savage 10PC had better accuracy with 175 smk. It wasn't huge difference but enough to make me switch. Also I found that the 178 had worse quality control, bullets weighing 177-180 and different bearing surface lengths aswell. It must of been a bad run because I have a 500box of 168 bthp and they are fairly consistent.
Click to expand...

How much more accurate were the SMK's? Someone on another site mentioned the varying weights and someone checked a ballistic calculator and the differance in POI was negligible. If the SMK's are worth the money I will buy them but if not I would like to put that money towards other things.
 
I always had my best performance with 168gr SMKs, I know some people say that "they are not good past 600 yards" but I haven't experienced that out of any of my TRGs. Maybe give them a try first since you have them and if they don't work out, try out the 175s or Amaxs.
 
I shoot moly coated 175 gr SMKs and 178 gr AMAX out of a 26.5" 1 in 11.3" twist McPhee match barrel.........I seat to 2.800" OAL.

The 178 gr AMAX shoot a little better for me then the 175 gr SMKs...........I mainly use the 178 gr AMAX and keep the 175 gr SMKs for back up/practice.......
 
To the OP .... although not on your list, you might want to look at the Nosler Custom Competition 168 gr BTHP.

My results are very good at 300 yards on my 5R with an 11.25 twist. (see link). My load and my rifle for sure have some good potential, not sure about the guy pulling the trigger (me) hehehehehe :(

http://www.canadiangunnutz.com/forum/showthread.php/1076678-Can-be-improved

:redface:
 
Skullboy said:
I shoot moly coated 175 gr SMKs and 178 gr AMAX out of a 26.5" 1 in 11.3" twist McPhee match barrel.........I seat to 2.800" OAL.

The 178 gr AMAX shoot a little better for me then the 175 gr SMKs...........I mainly use the 178 gr AMAX and keep the 175 gr SMKs for back up/practice.......
Click to expand...

OP. For me it's the absolute opposite. I tried many many loads. 175 SMK 0.015" from lands works just better for MY RIFLE ( Bartlein 24" 1-11.25 5r SS ). When I started this as you are doing. I really did not want too many opinions. The more I had the more I got confused. Search for safe loads and try to load to your rifle specs. AOL etc... Find out for yourself. Really. That is the only way.

Also per bullets imagine how many possibilities just from different powder charges?

Cheers. Reload 20. Try something different. Stay safe. You will find it!
 
Well thank you again for the advice.

ivo that is encouraging. How far do you shoot?

Cpt. Flan I do hope to be able to try a bunch of differant loads but I don't have a lot of spare time and was hoping to narrow down bullet selection and if possible reduce the effect of variables like OAL.

Another thing is I test loads at 100 or 200 meters and don't often get a chance to shoot farther. When I do get the chance to shoot long distance I don't want to find out my bullet becomes unstable and has trouble reaching as far as I want it to.
 
You shouldn't have a stability problem at all with any of those bullets with your twist rate. If I were you I would do my load development at 200M, pay particular attention to vertical dispersion.
Also back to bullet selection, do you intend on hunting at all? The SMK as well as Amax both work superbly for hunting. I have no personal experience hunting with the Hornady BTHP for hunting. I have heard/ read about them being the toughest of the bunch and sort of reluctant to expand. I have no personal experience with them though so can not say for sure.
I have shot a few things with Amax bullets and the 175 SMK, both worked great for me on deer and coyotes.
 
I am planning on hunting coyotes with the rifle so any moderately effective bullet will work fine.

legi0n that is probably what I will end up doing but that will end being a coue hundred bucks that I could put into better optics or more components that my rifle likes. It's an SSG 3000.
 
Both, 178 Amax and 178 bthp are awesome for your 11:1 twist.
Do you shoot off the magazines? You may develop the loads with and seat the bullets which will not fit the mag, so single loading can get you better accuracy.

snooze98k said:
Try the 168gr amax or the 178 bthp.
Amax might be slightly long for your twist rate.

If you want to push your bullet 1000yards you had best choose the bullet that properly stabilizes in your twist rate.
Click to expand...
 
Roddy said:
Well thank you again for the advice.

ivo that is encouraging. How far do you shoot?

Cpt. Flan I do hope to be able to try a bunch of differant loads but I don't have a lot of spare time and was hoping to narrow down bullet selection and if possible reduce the effect of variables like OAL.

Another thing is I test loads at 100 or 200 meters and don't often get a chance to shoot farther. When I do get the chance to shoot long distance I don't want to find out my bullet becomes unstable and has trouble reaching as far as I want it to.
Click to expand...

I had only shot my 308s out to 800m but they performed quite well. I would also suggest doing load development at 200 or 300m. I do most of my load development at 300m. At 100m it can sometimes be tough to tell the difference between 2 or 3 good loads however it usually becomes quite clear at 300m which load is the best.

Also don't be afraid to try some of the 155gr offerings out there, my shooting partner uses them in his TRG and they work well out to 1000m.
 
twist is not an issue. I shoot 208's in my 11.25. No issues with stability past 1200y.

I tend to shoot 178-208's, but nothing wrong with 175's.

I'm super excited to test more of my 175 VLD Hunters I bought for rodent control... With preliminary load development it's had a few sub .5MOA groups from mag length.

All said and done, the projectiles listed are all good to excellent.

Have fun.
 
Warbird regarding the magazine I have enough room to put a case and a 168 SMK in the mag unassembled with a 1/4" to spare. I am new at this but I don't know why other manufacturers mags are so short.

Here is a factory round:

VcDojb.jpg
 
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I started shooting/ reloading for .308 10 twist 5R about a month ago. I started with SMK 155, 168, and 175. Out of those three, after ladder tests, the 175's were what my gun preferred, but still not great. I think it's ME, but to make sure, I just started making H-AMAX 168 and 178. Starting new ladder and OAL tests again this weekend. Hopefully this will show that it WAS the SMK's that my rifle didn't like (and not me!). I've heard good things about the AMAX... I'll let y'all know after I've shot a few.
What happens when you find the perfect powder, bullet, primer, oal, etc. and it shoots 1/4 MOA all day long?... sounds kinda boring! Maybe that's why some of you have so many guns?? Get one shooting great, then go on to another. HA... C.
 
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