Hornady Amax 208 Grain, Any loads for 308win?

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cellfishracing

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I am loading up some hunting rounds for my Sako TRG22, I bought Hornady Amax 208grain. Has anyone ever loaded these into a 308win or am I on my own here.

any tips or tricks would be greatly appreciated.
 
cellfishracing said:
I am loading up some hunting rounds for my Sako TRG22, I bought Hornady Amax 208grain. Has anyone ever loaded these into a 308win or am I on my own here.

any tips or tricks would be greatly appreciated.
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Someone who is more experienced can correct me but I find my TRG-22 does not shoot very well (i.e. group spreads) when the bullet is heavier than 180 gr. I think the twist rate is too slow for heavier bullet (on a standard TRG barrel).

Also, I do think A-MAX is very good for hunting. It shatters easier than a hunting bullet.
 
im also trying some of the 208 amax in my 300 rum .been lookin around to buy some more but seems like there on backorder .?
 
You will need a 10 twist to stabilize this bullet. The 308 will push the bullet but without speed. You should be able to find load data on Hodgdon website.

My SWAG would be H4831SC or H4350 as suitable powders.

If you are looking for these bullets, I have a few boxes left instock and can get more.

Jerry
 
That's a very long bullet - 1.540". The ogive alone is about 0.850" (from tip to bullet full diameter).

I use it in my long throated 300 RUM. In the 308, unless you can go beyond 2.800" OAL, you'll likely find that not all of the neck is gripping it.
 
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can someone please explaine measuring ogive. i just measure the oal with a caliper from tip to base. How is this properly done. what i did to figure out my lenth was fit a amax in a once fired bullet then carefully load in to the trg22, eject, then measure for length of 3.010 subtract 0.40 for 2.970 which just fits in my magazine.
 
i have no idea, i bought them a the kamloops gun show thinking i could hunt with them but have found out i made a bad decision as then wont hold together on animals. now i am just trying to use them at the range or trade for some 168grain
 
cellfishracing said:
i have no idea, i bought them a the kamloops gun show thinking i could hunt with them but have found out i made a bad decision as then wont hold together on animals. now i am just trying to use them at the range or trade for some 168grain
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Not true....do some more research on the 208. Its quite a fine hunting round and will take down an animal pretty good with excellent penetration. Don't go by hearsay :rolleyes:

Ante
 
although not a great choice for hunting, the 208 Amax at 308 speeds would probably do ok on deer sized game and even moose if you avoid bone. I doubt it would hold together very well when the going gets tough
 
The 208 A-max out of a 308 would have less energy and would be going a 1000 fps slower then a 243 with a 95 gr bullet at 300 yrds. Myself I would not be shooting at any moose. Like todbartell said "you hit any bone" or are off on your shot you might be doing some tracking. I would drop down to a 180gr - 168gr bullet your velocity and energy would go way up.
 
todbartell, The Amax and the Berger have had quite a bit of documented success on taking large game in the US. longrangehunting.com.

The key is how fast the impact velocity vs what you hit. At speeds BELOW 2500fps, these two bullets behave themselves like any other SP hunting bullet PLUS, there is one heck of alot of mass to break up.

A 308 pushing a 208gr Amax out of a hunting length barrel isn't going to be breaking 2500fps at the muzzle. From the Hodgdon manual, 2300fps is about it. There is simply no way the Amax is going to blow up at those velocities. In fact, it will mimic the old boomers of the past using very heavy for cal cast bullets at moderate speeds that drilled through whatever got in the way.

This is the type of impact where you can eat right up to the hole.

Ballistics will be very 30-30 like but for the average hunters engaging game inside 200yds, who cares.

1/2MOA, I think you might want to review those energy numbers. KE vs ME has been debated forever but anyone that has seen game hit by large diameter heavy bullets knows they "hit harder" then a small light bullet going faster.

I would take a 303 Brit with 200gr slugs over a 22/250 anyday for large game hunting.

Jerry
 
Revisited 208/210 grain bullets for the first time since getting Pressure Trace (just this weekend). I'm currently comparing 4 different bullets. RL-17 is "THE" powder for the heavies (in my short chamber, at least).

26" Schneider 1-11", GAP chamber

208 AMAX
Hornady Cases
210M
2.930" COAL
2.200" OG (0.020" from the lands)

Worked up to:

N550: 45.5 gr. 2543 fps 59570 psi
RL-17: 47.5 gr. 2611 fps 57880 psi

Here are the equations from the trend lines (both R^2 greater than 0.99) applied to the work-up data:

N550
V= 57(charge wt.) - 46.167
P= 3658.7(charge wt.) - 107017

RL-17
V= 60.488(charge wt.) - 249.2
P= 2357.9(charge wt.) - 54090

So, at 58000 psi average:

N550 gives 2525 fps
RL-17 gives 2626 fps

WARNING: your rifle is not my rifle, so don't assume the pressure numbers to be the same. Pressure may also increase to dangerous levels as it gets warmer out.
 
As far as how hard these hit, never tried it on an animal. But, I will say that these hit with a LOT more authority on the 1000 yard gong than a 155 going 3050 fps. I would find it hard to believe that it would not also be more devastating on bone and flesh.
 
kombayotch said:
Revisited 208/210 grain bullets for the first time since getting Pressure Trace (just this weekend). I'm currently comparing 4 different bullets
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Hi Kombayotch, interesting results. Were you shooting 155s @ 3050 out of this rifle, or another one? If you've done any pressure readings on the .308/155, I'm interested what sort of pressures you see with the >3000 fps 155 loads we see today.

(Also, how long is the throat in your GAP chamber? To give me an idea, at what sort of COAL would a #2155 Sierra touch the lands?)

(Hmmm, if you believe Hornady's bc of 0.648, a 2600fps 208 Amax will arrive at 1000 yards at 1430fps; a 3050fps Sierra 155 will arrive at 1279fps. They're going about the same speed at 700 yards, after that the 208 is faster than the 155)
 
The GAP chamber is basically a Palma chamber obtimized for the 175 SMK.

You'll find all the info about the 155's (2156, Scenar and Fullbore) in this report:
http://www.geocities.com/kombayotch/155_Berger_Lapua_Sierra.pdf

The BC of the AMAX is 0.633 according to Bryan Litz. I will be verifying it as part of my 210 grain bullet evaluation. If you run the ballistics, you'll find that the 208 kills the 155 in wind drift with not much more drop.
 
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kombayotch said:
You'll find all the info about the 155's (2156, Scenar and Fullbore) in this report
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Thanks, nice report.

It seems to me that the Sierra 2156 and Berger 155.5 handle ordinary length throats much better than the Lapua 155. My biggest problem with the Lapua 155 is that most ordinary .308 match chambers (e.g. my own .308 Obermayer, and even worse, a 95 Warner Palma) need the Lapua 155 stuffed unreasonably deeply into the case, which makes for all sorts of unpleasant tradeoffs. A purpose-built chamber (for the Lapua 155) would be a good .100"-.150" longer in the throat than an Obermayer.

But it looks like those other two bullets might get around this problem, and allow us to achieve great .308/155 ballistics, from the (short-throated) chambers that are prevalent today.

Re: the Hornady 208's bc, I ran some quick calcs and wow, it looks like it is halfway between a high performance .308/155 and an all-out 6.5/.284/142....
 
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