Need some advice.

powdergun

powdergun

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I just returned from a hunt and my reloads performed very strangely. The gun shot and hit where it was aimed but the bullets had very poor penetration and the deer needed second shots. The two shots were at 90 and 150 yards. Skinning out each of the animals found a bullet fully mushroomed but with very little penetration.

The load was in a 308

150 gr hornady interloks
44 gr IMR 4064
winchester primer
Norma brass


Any and all advice appreciated as I am stumped. These loads shot very well out to 300 yards at the range.
 
Any pics of the bullets? It sounds like the bullet performed the way it should and dumped all it's energy in the animal. Maybe the velocity was a little on the low side if it didn't pass through? (I didn't check the load data and am just asking)
 
No pics of the bullets but they were perfectly mushroomed. One of them was only a couple of inches under the skin. The funny thing is that deer was hit, ran out to about 150 plus yards I shot again and it was knocked right over and stayed there. All the bullets were from the same batch.

I've been reloading for a very long time so I doubt I made any goofs on the loading.


I guess I'm going to have to get some old phone books and do a little research on these loads. For now I guess I'll grab my 7mm mag for the rest of the season.
 
Last time I checked you didn't need an uber mag to knock down a mulie doe.

Both deer were front quartering shots and hit square in the shoulder. First one layed down and needed one in the noggin the other ran about 50 yards and took a second to the boiler room.

But I guess I should go out and get a 460 weatherby mag for deer
 
Hodgdon manual shows between 43 and a compacted 47.7 for IMR 4064 with a velocity between 2663 and 4776. You are far from max but you could go hotter. Even at light load you should get better penetration than a couple if inches at 2700 fps. Maybe pull a few bullets and weigh your powder, maybe a scale issue.
 
That load is plenty for a deer. Bullet should go all way or most of way through.

My guess is that if you chrony the load you will find reduced velocity due to wrong powder or contaminated powder with some slower powder.
 
Just looking in my manuals,

Speer #13, test gun 22" barrel 1-10twist
IMR4064 43.0 = 2533fps
47.0C = 2814fps

Nosler 6 , test gun 24" barrel 1-10 twist
IMR4064 44.0 = 2740fps
46.0C = 2830fps
48.0C = 2920fps

Maybe 44 is just too light of a load? I don't know, but i'm tagging for interest.

peace..
 
iceman2 said:
Hodgdon manual shows between 43 and a compacted 47.7 for IMR 4064 with a velocity between 2663 and 4776. You are far from max but you could go hotter. Even at light load you should get better penetration than a couple if inches at 2700 fps. Maybe pull a few bullets and weigh your powder, maybe a scale issue.
Click to expand...

pulled a few bullets and weighed the powder on a little digital scale I have.
43 gr where my lyman balance I use for reloading says 44 gr. That may explain a bit but would one grain short make such a serious difference.

Also, should one just set the lyman up by a grain ( ie: set to 45 when you want 44) or is it time to pitch the old girl and buy a new one ? My set up is 20 plus years old.
 
That puts you down to say 2500 fps, still more than a 30-30 and I have seen lots of through and through with them. The only way to check your scale is to make sure the pan and arms etc are dust free and weigh out another load and check on your digital. If you had a known weight you could check both for accuracy. Do you have access to a crony to check your actual speed?
 
iceman2 said:
That puts you down to say 2500 fps, still more than a 30-30 and I have seen lots of through and through with them. The only way to check your scale is to make sure the pan and arms etc are dust free and weigh out another load and check on your digital. If you had a known weight you could check both for accuracy. Do you have access to a crony to check your actual speed?
Click to expand...

Sorry no chrony but I'll take your advice with some calibration weights I have. There is no time to sort this out for this season so I'll use another rifle even though I feel a bit over powdered out there with my 7mm mag. Once I have time I'll test on some wet phone books or something similar. My main concerns was if there was an issue with the components. In the past I had major problems using IMR 4227 in my savage ML. The only solution was to use totally different powder.
 
I have had good success with IMR 4895 in 308 using both 150 and 165 gr bullets. I am currently playing with a 300 savage with RL15 but I don't presently have a 308 to try it in. Good luck and keep us in the loop.
 
Just wondering, if he is under powdered, would the bullet expand to full mushroom as stated? Figured a light load would not expand as well

Cheers
 
powdergun said:
The load was in a 308

150 gr hornady interloks
44 gr IMR 4064
winchester primer
Norma brass
Click to expand...

I have dropped deer with 150gr interlocks off a win primer. Mine would have been loaded hotter then this, but not near max.

Ganderite said:
That load is plenty for a deer.
Click to expand...

One would think.

yidava25 said:
if your load was underpowered wouldn't you have noticed it at the range? especially at 300 yards as stated.
Click to expand...
powdergun, what was your drop at 300m? As many are pointing out, somehow, you may be loading less then 44gr.
 
powdergun said:
pulled a few bullets and weighed the powder on a little digital scale I have.
43 gr where my lyman balance I use for reloading says 44 gr. That may explain a bit but would one grain short make such a serious difference.

Also, should one just set the lyman up by a grain ( ie: set to 45 when you want 44) or is it time to pitch the old girl and buy a new one ? My set up is 20 plus years old.
Click to expand...

I've always had bad luck with .308's, acccuracy has never been the problem but poor performance on animals as you describe. Although you obviously know what you are doing - just wondering - have you done anything different with the loads since last good experience?
Good luck with the problem
 
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