Andy-shooter
Well-Known Member
I acquired a very nice Blaser K95 in .308 earlier in the year and straight away knocked up a slow but very accurate load for it with Sierra Pro Hunter bullets (which I quite like in my .243).
The .308 load was in fact so slow at 2400fps that expansion of the Pro Hunters seemed to be very minimal (at least in comparison to the 2850fps load in the .243) and gave through and through shots on Reds with 10p sized exits. Nice I thought, minimal meat damage and hopefully most of the lead exiting the animal too...
Having butchered a roe doe I shot though both shoulders it turns out that in fact the mushroom cap part of the cup and core bullets was breaking up and parts remaining in the meat - not ideal when the meat is destined for the kids spaghetti bolognese...
...I’ll go non-toxic I thought.
On the recommendation of Lee 6.5 on here I gave the Fox bullets a go. I picked up box of 50 130gn .308 bullets for £37 locally and having checked the reloading manuals for suitable powders and charge weights assembled 4 three round test loads 40-43gn with Vhit N133 (I like faster than average powders in my 20” barrel to avoid muzzle blast and flash) and went to the range to see what they would do.
After a fouling shot with the pro-hunter load, the first three Fox 130gn went into a single ragged hole, obviously it was difficult to measure a group size but I recon less than 0.2” @ 100yds. Amazing!
The 41gn and 42gn loads were also under 1” groups and the 43gn load tightened up again to 0.5” and a very respectable 2900fps with absolutely no pressure signs. Max load is indicated to be around 45gn so there is room for a bit more experimentation but for now I’m sticking with 43gn
Bullet deformation of recovered shots (from soft damp sand) looks good too. Retained weight on this one was 120ish grains sand being quite abrasive I expect some material was ground away as the bullet slowed.
The .308 load was in fact so slow at 2400fps that expansion of the Pro Hunters seemed to be very minimal (at least in comparison to the 2850fps load in the .243) and gave through and through shots on Reds with 10p sized exits. Nice I thought, minimal meat damage and hopefully most of the lead exiting the animal too...
Having butchered a roe doe I shot though both shoulders it turns out that in fact the mushroom cap part of the cup and core bullets was breaking up and parts remaining in the meat - not ideal when the meat is destined for the kids spaghetti bolognese...
...I’ll go non-toxic I thought.
On the recommendation of Lee 6.5 on here I gave the Fox bullets a go. I picked up box of 50 130gn .308 bullets for £37 locally and having checked the reloading manuals for suitable powders and charge weights assembled 4 three round test loads 40-43gn with Vhit N133 (I like faster than average powders in my 20” barrel to avoid muzzle blast and flash) and went to the range to see what they would do.
After a fouling shot with the pro-hunter load, the first three Fox 130gn went into a single ragged hole, obviously it was difficult to measure a group size but I recon less than 0.2” @ 100yds. Amazing!
The 41gn and 42gn loads were also under 1” groups and the 43gn load tightened up again to 0.5” and a very respectable 2900fps with absolutely no pressure signs. Max load is indicated to be around 45gn so there is room for a bit more experimentation but for now I’m sticking with 43gn
Bullet deformation of recovered shots (from soft damp sand) looks good too. Retained weight on this one was 120ish grains sand being quite abrasive I expect some material was ground away as the bullet slowed.
