Bullet choice for 308

[rnbra-shooter]

What is your opinion/experience regarding using the 155 Lapua Scenar instead of the usual 168/175 match king for long range out to 1000 yds. with a 308?

175 SMK is a viable 1000 yard bullet. It benefits from being pretty tolerant of bullet jump, and being loaded to magazine length.

168 SMK usually does not function well at 1000y, and is advised against.

155 Scenar is an extremely high quality bullet but it can be fussier to get good results with than Sierra (though do note Gord's experience to the contrary). Having said that I do know of a top shooter who used factory Lapua 155 ammo at the Canadian Nationals a few years ago and he did quite well (third place if I recall correctly?) i.e. it would have been loaded to magazine length, with thrown powder charges, and not tuned to his rifle.

If you run the numbers, the 155 with a BC of .505 comes out on top in drop and wind drift. But those are computer generated. Often real world is a different ball game.

If you use the correct numbers (correct or at least consistent BCs, preferably G7), then the results of ballistics programs really do match the real world.

what about 185 berger VLD they have a G1 BC of 0.549 and for , match ld boat tail its .553
there 30 cal 210 Grain Match Target BT Long Range has a g1 of 0.626

Very roughly, high performance 155s get about the same performance as the decently good 175s, 185s, 190s.

There are only a handful of .30 cal bullets that are head and shoulders above good 155s and typical 175-185s:

- Berger 185 BT
- Berger 210
- Sierra 210
- Hornady 208

I had a similar conversation with a guy (you may have heard of him) about the 155's and the 175

Big snip, but the email from Bryan that Trevor quotes is well worth understanding. It pretty much contains everything you need to know to make informed choices and tradeoffs of various bullets in a .308.

In the real world "on the mounds" I prefer the 155 Scenars. Extremely consistent ,easy to tune ,and accurate.

Funny you say that Gord. I have a *lot* of good things to say about the Lapua 155s. But I have never found them to be easy to tune at all, either for accuracy or for good SDs, in fact that was my bugbear with them for about seven years. (later EDIT: perhaps though that's because I've only ever used them in a fairly-short throat?)

The only other "bad" thing I can say about the Lapua 155s is that they are best suited for long throated chambers (probably a great choice for a factory Rem .308, they tend to be *really* long). In my short throated barrels (.308 Obermayer) I end up having to seat the Lapua 155 quite a bit deeper than would be ideal.

Having said that, the three "high performance" 155s that are worth looking at are:

Lapua 155 (especially if you have a long throat, e.g. a "Bisley 150" chamber, or pretty much any factory .308 chamber)

Sierra #2156
Berger 155.5 (both of these are well suited to shorter throats)

All three of these bullets have comparably high BCs, they represent the current generation of "high BC 155s" (the #2156 is just a bit lower than the other two)

The Berger 155.5 works well with a bit of jump (.010-.020"), which is quite convenient. I'm not sure how the #2156 is jump-wise.

 

[bulldog284]

i have to agree with daniel on the short throat issue,i had a short throat in my rifle it was the obermayer one.it would not shoot the lapua 155 very well but shot the others very well.

i bought a throader and pushed it out .120 thousands and things tightend up with the same load just move the bullet out.dont now why but it worked.

Darin