stag-10 what ammo should I use for practice and what ammo for hunting?

N

nidh0gg

CGN Regular
Rating - 100%
12   0   0
Location
BC
I'm in the process of putting together my stag 10 soon and I'm wondering what ammo I should be looking for (hopefully on sale) for my rifle. I'm mainly looking for 2 types of ammo

1 - for target/precision target shooting ( norinco, hirtenberg, federal lake, ppu?)
2 - for hunting (probably deer)
 
More importantly what's the twist on your barrel and what magazines are you planning to use.

My target ammo will be handloaded 175gr sierra Match kings similar to m118LR ammunition, but not every magazine out there will hold a round with a longer bullet.

Pick a round that uses a bullet optimized for your twist rate, and one that will fit in your magazine.
 
For hunting you'll want whatever has a suitable expanding hunting projectile that also shoots well in your rifle. You'll probably have to try a few different types till you find one that it shoots really well or at least till you can say that it likes Z ammunition better than W, X, and Y ammunition. Once you find what it likes buy a bunch of it and stick with it.

In general for a semi auto 308 you'll want something between 150 and 175 grain projectile weight with a projectile suited to the game you are chasing. You don't want to hunt deer with a heavy projectile designed for thick skinned heavy animals like elk or moose and you don't want a bullet designed for shooting moose when you're hunting coyotes.

For plinking just buy whatever you can find that is cheap and don't expect much from it for accuracy. Buy a couple boxes to start with and if your rifle feeds it reliably then go buy it 500 or more at a time to get a better price.

Every brand and weight of ammo will shoot differently so no one can tell you what you should buy. Try a few and pick the one that works the best. Some won't cycle very well in a semi auto so just try something else if you find some that is not reliable.
 
For hunting, I am a HUGE fan of full copper rounds.
For many reasons.
1. Look at X-Rays of animals shot with plain lead bullets. You are slowly poisoning your family.
2. Copper bullets weigh less per size. Hence they are made longer. Hence more contact with barrel = higher precision
in barrels that might not be of greatest quality.
3. They open up in petals (Like many fan blades) and do great work on cutting through vitals. (As opposed to mushroom)
4. When you recover lead bullets in the animal, you recover between 60-80% of the original bullet weight. Copper is over 95%.
5. Cheap savage 110 rifle was shooting 12 moa (6" in any direction from bullseye) at 100 yards. This was using rem 150 and 180 grain bullets... Hornady 165 was a bit better at 9 MOA. Tried Copper Barnes vor-tx TTSX rounds. Hitting 1.5 MOA. 168 gr.


As for practice, I haven't shot Federal Lake city, but I hear that is THE BEST brass and practice ammo you can buy for practice.
I personally have NOrinco copper washed, and Hirtenberger... Copper washed sometimes splits casing, and accuracy is meh.
They have 3mm of play in total bullet length from one to another (same batch) Hirtenberg is MUCH better than NORC in my rifles. The bolt doesn't need to be slammed shut in the savage 110, it feels more like a 308. Some Hirt is reloadable. (depends on year of manufacturing.)

Bolt gun is hitting 8 moa with HIRT. Which, is better than with Remington corelokts. This gun is a cheaper, 30 year old gun.
Not the most precise firearm out there, unless I am using Barnes Vor-tx TTSX 168 grain.
Just be careful, there is TSX rounds, and Tipped TSX (TTSX). I prefer the tipped.

Maximum range with these copper rounds is about 400 yards though for a good kill. Bullet doesn't open up properly under 1,900 fps, which is roughly 400 yards.
 
By the way, foxalpha and CR5 are both right.
Each gun has a preferred bullet. I've seen two identical Savage 308s, bought at the same time. One is far more accurate with 150 grain, the other (mine) MUCH prefers 168 grain.

There was a store on here that sold mixed boxes of ammo at one time, in order to find which ones your gun likes.

My family always said heavier bullets for larger game... I disagree.
Heavy bullet will do NO good if your gun doesn't shoot it accurately into the vitals.

Find the most precise bullet for your gun, and always use that same round for hunts. Sometimes, with good barrels, it will shoot different grain bullets equally as well, then bonus! 150 for deer, 168 or higher for moose. But 150 grain copper bullets worked GREAT on a moose for my buddy.

Added bonus, my Nikon P-308 scope reticle is SPOT ON for 168 grain Barnes bullets. No adjustments, or guessing needed.
Each circle down the crosshairs = 100 yards.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom