Hornady cal.30 168gr A-max VS 168gr BTHP

felixlap89

felixlap89

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Hello guys. I'd like to have your opinions about these 2 bullets in .30 caliber (.308 win). I tested the a-max with a federal casing, federal match primer, and from 42 to 44 grains of varget. The load I was told was the best by a guy at the range who does really good in competition and has the same rifle as I do (savage 10tr) was 43.5 gr of varget and the bullet at 0.010 of the rifling (wich is pretty close to the SAAMI specs as the savage chamber is so short. SAAMI was 2.800 total lenght and at 0.010 I was at 2.807). The best results I had were with 43 and 43.5 gr of powder, but with 43.5 I'm starting to have signs of over pressure (flat primer and bolt hard to open). he has a 24 barrel and I have a 20 inch. Can that make any difference in how the load behaves? Also I haven't reloaded them, but the best groups I had so far were with commercial 168gr bthp hornady bullets (5 shots 0.45 inches at 100 yarfs, and there's certainly error from the shooter there, I am farely new to precision shooting). Any recipes for me? Oh and my twist is 1/10.

Thanks for your advices!

F.L.
 
Just because you have the same model of rifle doesn't mean the same loads are going to perform the same way in each.... Even subtle differences in head spacing, barrel machining etc. can make a difference... And yes, barrel length can make a huge difference in load performance....
 
You need to see what your rifle likes. It can be surprisingly individual to the rifle. The Amax will have a better ballistic coefficient (BC) and have greater velocity and lower wind drift than the BTHPs at the same distances. Recently published findings from Hornady say that the plastic tips on the Amax (and other polymer tipped bullets) will melt past 300 yards increasing their BC and ballistic advantages.
 
Pr589 said:
You need to see what your rifle likes. It can be surprisingly individual to the rifle. The Amax will have a better ballistic coefficient (BC) and have greater velocity and lower wind drift than the BTHPs at the same distances. Recently published findings from Hornady say that the plastic tips on the Amax (and other polymer tipped bullets) will melt past 300 yards increasing their BC and ballistic advantages.
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Increasing or decreasing? My Rifle likes the 168gr Amax better than the BTHP and as mentioned every rifle is different. What works for someone else is irrelevant to your rifle. A proper load workup should be done to find out what works best for you.
 
EC said:
Increasing or decreasing? My Rifle likes the 168gr Amax better than the BTHP and as mentioned every rifle is different. What works for someone else is irrelevant to your rifle. A proper load workup should be done to find out what works best for you.
Click to expand...

Decreasing....typo.
 
I like the A-max as they have the advantage of being frangeable and offer some degree of terminal performance. Remember the ''A'' stands for animal. ;)
 
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