SPS Tactical 308 Load question

Right now im shooting Hornady Match 168g HPBT with 43.5g of Varget with a Federal 210 primer in Winchester brass.

Anything from 43.5-44 has worked really well for me so far with the 168g projectile. Havent done much experimenting with anything else yet as thats what ive had to work with so far.
 
Brodie69 said:
Right now im shooting Hornady Match 168g HPBT with 43.5g of Varget with a Federal 210 primer in Winchester brass.

Anything from 43.5-44 has worked really well for me so far with the 168g projectile. Havent done much experimenting with anything else yet as thats what ive had to work with so far.
Click to expand...

thanks brodie. has anybody tried 155 scenars?
 
The 168's have a problem reaching 1000 without tumbling, the 155 SMK's work great with Varget in the 46gn range but your short tactical barrel might not drive them fast enough to reach out that far. You might be better off moving up to a 175gn for really long stuff.
 
I would suggest a few different bullets if you can get them....

#1 185 LRBT Berger
#2 155.5 Berger fullbore
#3 Lapua 155 Scenar

All are seating depth tolearant bullets, so I would seat as long as your magazine will accommodate and work up powder loads. To be honest though, you will likely have to single shot feed for best results. Factory remingtons have very long throats.

The 185 will offer the best long range ballistic characteristics, but the reality is you will be limited by the accuracy of your factory barrel. You should be able to get under 1MOA, but DO experiment.

As has been said, no two rifles are the same and no two seemingly identical rifles are guaranteed to like the same ammo.
 
Here's a load I found that seems to work awesome in the 20" SPS Tactical with the 175g SMK

175g SMK
45g Varget
Win. Brass
Fed 210 or CCI BR2 Primer
COAL 2.820

That seemed to be the formula for a few people shooting the 175g SMK down in the states out of the 20" SPS Tactical tube.
 
I'm being realistic on my loads. I'm thinking 800 meters max. I use AMAX 168s with 45 grains of Varget, LC brass, CCI primers, OAL of 2.800", neck sized with a Lee collet die, and seated with a Forster competition seating die. It does 1/2 MOA when I do my part but I haven't gone past 200 meters with it yet. Hopefully this summer at either the Kingston or Connaught ranges for the precision rifle matches of ORA.

I've heard that the keyhole issue is only with HPBT 168s and not the AMAXs. Maybe someone in the forum can confirm. Anyway, I'm not expecting the bullet to perform past 800.
 
My best Load for this rifle was 47.6gr of Varget in Lapua brass and cci BR primers.
The bullet I used was the Berger 155.5 match.
I was getting 2927FPS with a deviation of 11FPS.
Out to 1000yds it worked very well
 
Thousand metres with an SPS tactical! Better have a huge target and good glass.
Anyway, I use a 168 gr SMK with 42 grs of powder. Maxing out at 600m with the tactical after that I was sending rds off into oblivion. With the tactical houge stock there's barrel engagement if your using a bipod. Try putting a piece of paper under the barrel to see if it's floating or not. A heavier 175gr SMK will serve better at 1000m. The 20" barrel is limiting for me. I picked up a 700 Police and it shot way better(even out of the box).
I like the Tactical sps. It's a really good value. I couldn't go past 600 with it. It wasnt consistent at all. It was awesome at the shorter ranges. Id like hear about your results.
Good luck.
 
H4895 is a compressed load with a 155 grain bullet. To each his own, but the overwhelming majority of competitive 308 shooters use Varget. It works.
 
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