.308 Win with 180gn Bullets - Looking For Feedback

[smokey]

Totally agree with you for most plains game but I heard that animals like Eland and giraffe are pretty tough, hence wanting to step up from the.308 to 300 Win Mag with a fast 180gn bullet ( partition, oryx or A Frame).

if you can use the 300 win mag its perfect with 180. I could handle the recoil on rifles like my 375 & 416 but when i came to use a 300 win mag my shooting when to bits i would just develop a flinch.I am in the uk now so the heaviest i shoot is a 270

 

[UpNorthMI]

if you can use the 300 win mag its perfect with 180. I could handle the recoil on rifles like my 375 & 416 but when i came to use a 300 win mag my shooting when to bits i would just develop a flinch.I am in the uk now so the heaviest i shoot is a 270

Sometimes I like to use a little more gun but you can never beat shot placement as the most important factor!

 

[smokey]

Sometimes I like to use a little more gun but you can never beat shot placement as the most important factor!

100% a miss is a miss with any calibre i had a better chance with a 12 bore than with a 300 win mag but i seem to get on ok with a 7mm rem magnum

 

[paul o']

Probably came at the right price too. I bought nearly 10,000 7.62 RG ammo in Birmingham at an auction about the same time at a stupid low price, it kept our civilian gun club going for a few years!

Mine was £8 x 20RDS.
back then Radway green black spot was £55.50 per case x900.
7.62 tracer £40 x 900
RG 556 x 100 £15
556 tracer X100 £10.
At and it may have been the same Auction house wellers
9mm Browning HP £12
1911 Gov £25 if it was mint
we would get 1000 9mm £32 a tin.
45acp 230gr IMI around £40x 1000 a wooden box in card boxes in plastic vac packs,
Just to rub salt in a 32 pound case of 3N37 was around £280 . primers under CCI 200 £15x1k Small mag were same .

 

[randello88]

It's been 35 years since I tried 180gn .308 ammo, I was shooting them through a Ruger M77, none of my Ruger rifles did well with this weight of bullet so I stuck with 150gn bullets for a few decades of stalking. I've moved over to a Blaser R8 and have been shooting 150gn and 165gn, the Blaser seems to like both really well.

I just got my hands on 200 rounds of Norma 308 ammunition that are loaded with 180gn Swift A frame bullets for less than £1 a round (yes that is loaded ammunition!) . I have been trying to buy .30 180gn Swift A frame bullets for a while to load in .300 Win Mag, the bullets alone would cost more than this ammunition and they have just not been available.

My initial plan was to pull some of the Swift A Frame bullets from this new ammunition and reload them in .300 win mag for an up coming Africa trip to be used on plains game, then I thought maybe I should also consider using some of this .308 180gn ammunition in my Blaser R8 to see how it shoots.

Does anyone regularly use 180gn bullets for their .308 for stalking or other uses, I'd love to hear from any other Blaser R8 users who use this weight of bullet in .308.

I have had good experience with geco softpoints 170 gr. Very accurate but low bc. Perfect for a 300 yards and within all around rifle. I have killed more or less 40 roes with it, only first shot kills, of course always exit hole and a lot of blood. Not excessive damage, max 50 meters run, on average 20 meters with a blatt shot, 0 meters if you shoot a quartering animal, taking one of the two shoulders.
I have also killed boars with it, only one shot deads with it shooting at the head, in the middle of the shoulder or in the chest, depending on the situation.
I have killed only one fallow deer, shot it quartering towards me at 50 meters, entry in the left shoulder, the core and the jacket separated and found them close to each other just under the fur on the other side of the animal. It was a big male, 100 kg. 30 meters run.

Good all arounder in my opinion, more reliable expansion than rws dk 165 gr if you don't hit ribs. No experience with 180 grainers!

 

[UpNorthMI]

Mine was £8 x 20RDS.
back then Radway green black spot was £55.50 per case x900.
7.62 tracer £40 x 900
RG 556 x 100 £15
556 tracer X100 £10.
At and it may have been the same Auction house wellers
9mm Browning HP £12
1911 Gov £25 if it was mint
we would get 1000 9mm £32 a tin.
45acp 230gr IMI around £40x 1000 a wooden box in card boxes in plastic vac packs,
Just to rub salt in a 32 pound case of 3N37 was around £280 . primers under CCI 200 £15x1k Small mag were same .

Yes it was Wellers, those were great days!

 

[JTO]

180 SP Sampson IMI is some of the best factory ammo I'v ever used for both small and large deer in the UK

Joe still has them listed:- Centerfire Sporting Ammunition from Gunshop covering East Barnet, Herfordshire, UK

Silly price, but then I saw that the stock list is 2 years old !!!!!!!!!!!!

Always worth a call. though.

 

[paul o']

Had a few k of them stored with an RFD, I had so many I used them for everything target and deer even offered them at £10 a few years ago at the H4H shoots we used to have on the SD ! but no takers ? bet there kicking them selves now pmsl.

 

[UpNorthMI]

Just to close this thread. The 180gn Swift A frames got pulled from the .308 ammo and loaded in .300 win mag as originally planned. As anticipated the .300 win mag digested the 180gn bullets very well and will find the way to South Africa in May for plains game use. The new .308 Norma brass was neck resized only and will get reloaded with either Barnes TTSX or Norma Striketip bullets for deer use.

I guess I’ve learned again that none of my .308 rifles do well with 180gn bullets.