Moving my 308 to lead free- suggestions and thoughts please

No problem with terminal performance and copper for me. Barnes ttsx drops roe deer after a few paces and carcass damage is minimal. Only lost one forequarter in the last 6 I shot.
 
How small is small ? Do you classify roe as small or medium?

And what makes it horrible ? Poor expansion?

It does seem that there's an awful lot of R&D going into these bullets. I can see one needing different bullets for different quarry.
Yes, roe is classed as small. Unbelievable damage. Skin and flesh parted from the rib cage. The whole front end of chest shot deer sent to the bin. I have photos that look like explosives have been placed inside the deer. That's not the odd one, it's everyone and not just deer shot by me or with bullets only loaded by me.
 
Just a thought using lead free bullets ,seems like most are lighter gr would this reduce the felt recoil much.
JB
 
I am not really into these in-depth technical discussions about weights, terminal velocity, bullet speed, and ballistic coefficients. What I can say is that I use the non-lead Lapua Naturalis factory loaded .308W amo and it does the job just fine!
 
It's horrible on small deer. My mates have tried it and also consigned it to the bin. Sorry but I will be holding out for as long as possible in the hope that the offerings improve!
Can you be more specific regarding bullet, muzzle velocity, species and shot placement as the general experience most have is that monometal bullets produce a tidy carcass
 
I would second Srvets observation, I am currently running a .308 with 130Gr TTSX at 3050FPS and it produces very neat tidy carcasses (from Roe kids up to big red stags), having used 165Gr SSTs in the past in my 308 I can truly appreciate how neat and tidy they are while still working just as, if not more effectively.

Ben
 
Yes, roe is classed as small. Unbelievable damage. Skin and flesh parted from the rib cage. The whole front end of chest shot deer sent to the bin. I have photos that look like explosives have been placed inside the deer. That's not the odd one, it's everyone and not just deer shot by me or with bullets only loaded by me.
That hasn’t been my experience at all. Less wasted meat and predominantly bang flops. But no huge difference between any of the bullets I have used whether lead free or lead core.

The usual complaint from those who haven’t got on with lead free, is that they pencil through and don’t dump enough energy. Intriguing that you found the opposite.

Good to have a bit of balance.

It would be useful to know your details like velocity, bullet type and weight, chambering, POI and range on the Roe deer.

What are the similar details of the lead core bullets with which you are comparing the lead free? Do they always produce a better result for you?

Alan
 
Just a thought using lead free bullets ,seems like most are lighter gr would this reduce the felt recoil much.
JB

I use the same load behind 110gr V-MAX and 110gr TTSX and obviously don’t notice any difference there.

I can’t remember noticing any difference between the 165gr SSTs I used to use and the 110gr bullets I use now. But they may well be generating the same degree of energy and therefore similar felt recoil.

Alan
 
That hasn’t been my experience at all. Less wasted meat and predominantly bang flops. But no huge difference between any of the bullets I have used whether lead free or lead core.

The usual complaint from those who haven’t got on with lead free, is that they pencil through and don’t dump enough energy. Intriguing that you found the opposite.

Good to have a bit of balance.

It would be useful to know your details like velocity, bullet type and weight, chambering, POI and range on the Roe deer.

What are the similar details of the lead core bullets with which you are comparing the lead free? Do they always produce a better result for you?

Alan
130 grain TTSX, Peregrine and Fox in .308. 2900fps or very similar to it. shot at less than 80m. I have never had lead bullets cause anything like the same damage. I have spent far too much time and money on load development to find that they're absolutely useless in the field on munties and roe which are primarily what I done them for! I'm therefore going to wait out for a while.
 
I'm with Alantoo on this one. At the moment I load 110gn TTSX in exactly the same way that I used to load my 110gn Sierra 2110's. These work very well indeed on Roe, Red and Fallow at ranges out to and including 150-160 yds. I have found them to be very accurate and consistent, in-fact the same load shoots equally well in four different rifles.
However I have to say that the 130gn TTSX bullets are being very problematic for me. I have found accuracy to be somewhat inconsistent, but have not yet given up completely on them. I have bought some Peregrine 136gn bullets to see if they are better.... We shall see...!!!
 
Very interesting guys. They clearly split opinion!

Range seems to be a big factor with these bullets. Unlike lead they seem to have a narrower energy (and therefore distance) window at which they work optimally.

Too close and perhaps they tear apart?

Too far and they fail to expand ?

I shall enjoy experimenting!
 
I re-zeroed today.

Grouping was far worse with the fox 130gr- I get 1" comfortably at 100m and that's resting off a car bonnet. Other brands are 1.5".

The fox was 2-2.5". Acceptable- but not brilliant.

Will update again when I see how it performs in the real world.
 
That was disappointing...how close to the factory load of 45gr 2.91g N135 was it?

From a range of loads I did have a couple of 5 shot groups over 1" but they averaged around 0.800"

Alan

Screenshot 2020-12-25 at 03.03.04.webp"
 
Tbh I have no idea- I use factory ammo not home loads.

Accuracy is acceptable for stalking larger species out to 150m- but really nothing special.

The gun also found extracting the spent cases quite difficult. The bolt half jammed after each shot. I noticed the Fox bullets use PPU shells.

I will reserve judgement for now.
 
I collected a box of Barnes TTSX 308cal 110gn.
Will be experimenting soon. But interested to hear everyones experiences.
 
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