208 AMAX in a 308 Win?

Suputin

Suputin

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Anyone ever use the 208 AMAX in a 308 Win? I'm in need of a longer range load and just happen to have a bunch of these big honkin AMAX's lying around. I found a load for it on the Hodgdon website so someone must use this bullet in 308.

The majority of my previous long range shooting has been with smaller caliber stuff with much higher velocities. The published 2400 fps muzzle velocity seems kinda slow but the computer says the bullet will be still be stoking along at 1400+ fps at 1000 yds and only require 33 MOA of elevation to get there. That would do fine for what we are doing. Just wanna clang some steel at longer distances.

I've been using the Nosler 125gr Ballistic Tip out to about 700 yds but it gets a bit difficult in any kind of wind. Still works pretty good considering most people think of that as a short range varmint bullet. :)
 
If you're using a 10 twist and can get enough powder in a case without having it push your pills right back out, you should be laughing. Some friends use the 190 SMK'S in their 308's but had their chambers reamed to get the bullets far enough out for case capacity.

Someone around here must have tried this, any idea what the COAL will end up being?

If you have a factory chamber you might be ready to rock and roll. In my experience the Amax's are not picky about jumping but I have always loaded to mag length.
 
I ran some in a 10 twist 20" savage. Was a lot of fun. I have what I feel is probably one of the best ground hog explosions ever caught on a sequence using that bullet.

I was using something like 47 ish grains of RL17. The short savage throat is what made me change. The bullets would walk back out of the case if I used my lee collet die and I would have stiff chambering rounds and it became a pain in the butt.

They weren't fast. I think I was in the 2400 fps area if I remember correctly.

If you have em try em.
 
Hodgdon lists 41.5gr Varget as the max load. I decided to try 41.0gr just to be safe.

Measured up my Sav 10 PC for seating depth. At .010 back from the lands the powder just touches the back end of the bullet and we are under max mag length to boot! There is room to get that last half grain in if I wanted to.

Sadly I don't have time to do any load development. Im going to have to go with my best guess on this and see how it works out.

I'm pretty sure the Sav PC is 1:10 but should prob measure that just to make sure.
 
Some people throat their rifles for these long bullets and they can cram in a lot more than 41.5 gr. of Varget. Varget really isn't ideal with these heavy bullets unless you have a really long barrel. N550 is a good choice in a standard length barrel.
 
I currently shoot a 215gr berger hybrid but I have tested some 208 works great if your rifle is long throated and I don't like Varget for the heavy's give too much pressure and no velocity
I am shooting in a custom rifle with a coal over 3 Inches and reach 2700fps with no pressure sign with a 31.5'' barrel my max load found during testing give 2860fps


DO NOT ATTEMPTS THIS AT HOME, thanks
 
Results from todays shooting.

I had no time to actually shoot for group or chrono or any load development or even zero the rifle so I was pretty happy when the first test rounds at 100 yds actually landed on the paper fairly close to the point of aim. The big 208's were stable out of the OEM Savage Precision carbine barrel and recoil was not excessive. I went 1/2gr over the max listed load for Varget and the cases showed no pressure signs. I think I can get another grain into the cases without seriously compressing the powder.

Luckily we were shooting over a river valley and could use the water to spot the misses and correct from there. The first round at 900 yds landed within 5 feet of the target for windage and was very close for elevation .... thank the iSnipe gods for that. Being able to spot the splash it was a fairly easy task to correct the elevation and windage from the mil-dot reticle.

We managed to hit the 900 yd target fairly quickly and then made easy hits on a 930 yd target. Even my wife made a hit on the 930 yd target. :D The "THWOCK" of the bullet hitting water and wet mud was impressive even from 900 yds distant. Once we were making reasonably consistent hits at 900 yds we decided to see how far we could stretch out the 308.

Our spotter was able to pick out at decent target at 1250 yds. As most ballistic computers are a bit hincky much past 600 yds and I was only guessing at the muzzle velocity and true zero range, I dialled in the elevation and hoped for the best. First round, no splash, no dust, nothing. Crap!

Took a wild guess and added 5 MOA elevation and 5 MOA windage. Second round, splash low and left. Placing the reticle on the target I was able to calculate windage and elevation corrections off the mil-dots and dial that into the turrets. At this point I discovered I was lying on a red ant hill and the little buggers were organizing to mount an attach on me. The swarm was mostly under the rifle around the bipod legs but I had suffered a bite, which is how I noticed them. As we were so close, I decided to hunker down and concentrate on making the next shot before the ants could really do some damage. Head down, align sights, breathe, squeeze. Third round ......................... solid hit! :D :D :D

Figured I should stop at that point cause it just wasn't gonna get any better than that and the ants were going to make a meal out of me if I stayed any longer.

1250 yds in effectively 2 rounds. It is my birthday today and that made for a hell of a day out. I really didn't think a 308 would go that far and do it so easily. The ballistics computer says that round should be supersonic to around 1400 yds and if I could get another 50-100 fps out of it maybe even further.
 
Congrats on your success with the Amax heavy. It will go a lot further then the supersonic speed.

I went long throat and H4350 but the BTHP version or Berger 210gr VLD. 1200yds was not far at all. I expect the 208 Amax to fly every bit as good.

If you have enough elevation, 1500yds will be doable.... 1 mile is next on my list of to do's this year.

IMG_0542_zpstjsgmwvi.jpg


New spot for this year... easy 1 mile from the hood.

Enjoy your shooting.

Jerry
 
The location we were shooting over is a huge long river valley and it should be possible to go well over 1500 yds out to a mile or even more. The only difficulty will be finding targets surrounded by dirt and not grass so we can spot the misses.

I have never crossed the sonic barrier so I am not sure exactly what to expect. I assume the 208's will do it so I guess we will have to try. ;)

I think next time my buddy will bring his 30 WSM and we can see which one shoots the best.

The optic on my 308 is a Sightron 16X mil-dot and I had a ton of elevation left from the 1250 yd shot. Really like this scope and a bargain at twice the price.
 
Glad you are enjoying the Fixed 16X.. The SIII and new SVSS are even better.

Simple test... look at the ballistics program on distance where it estimates you will go transonic ie 1250fps or there abouts. Send some lead and ensure the accuracy is as expected.

Then go 200 to 300yds further then when it suggests you will hit the sound barrier. This allows the bullet to tumble if it is going to. It is quite hilarious when a bullet fails to go subsonic...it you will have a hard time hitting the Prairie

I fully expect that you will have the same boring tracking and a splat where you were expecting. Just look for any open sandy spot or maybe make one. Dial and shoot.

I took the Hrn 105gr BTHP out of my 6XC to 1500yds today just for S&G. Never shot it beyond 200yds till this morning. Took a guesstimate on the elevation as my drop chart only went to 1000yds. Sent a rd, saw the dirt kick up, dialed in a bit more elevation... missed due to windage. Held over, splat.

Tried to go to another spot but everything is still wet and muddy. With no impact sign, I gave up and dialed down to 930 and 840 to confirm tracking of my new SVSS... which worked superbly by the way.

Don't be afraid of the sonic barrier... the vast majority of bullets couldn't care less about flying subsonic.

You just need a ton of extra elevation.

Jerry
 
Suputin said:
Results from todays shooting.


Our spotter was able to pick out at decent target at 1250 yds. As most ballistic computers are a bit hincky much past 600 yds and I was only guessing at the muzzle velocity and true zero range, I dialled in the elevation and hoped for the best. First round, no splash, no dust, nothing. Crap!
Click to expand...
Most ballistic programs are extremely accurate if one takes the time to accurately enter all the data properly.
Most good ballistic programs also have a trueing feature to make up for the inaccuracies.
The areas where most people go wrong are in not entering the zero weather data because it is either disabled or is set for standard weather conditions such as 0' elevation, 59F, 29.5"hg.
Don't get too hung up on humidity because it doesn't play a very big role surprisingly.
The other mistake people make is not recalculating as the day goes on and the temperature and barometric pressure changes.

If your app has a trueing feature and for example your app shows you require 30MOA of elevation and you find that you actually need 32MOA you plug that 32MOA into the trueing feature and all your come-ups will now be corrected.
Once again garbage in = garbage out
 
Isnipe worked flawless for me to 1204 yards. I am confident that with the correct inputs, it will take me further yet.

As for the 208 Amax, I can't comment on that one but I'm using a heavier bullet with 48gr of H4350. It shows no sign of pressure but my first round OCW test showed promise there.
 
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