Switching to Non-toxic

Ali Pasha

Member
Hi All

I'm after some general advice. I have a Ruger American .308 which is very happy using Federal Fusion 150 grain lead. I believe the barrel twist rate is 1:10.

I'm going to have to change to factory made non-toxic rounds in the future like everybody now.

Do you go up or down in bullet weight for copper?

The rifle was quite fussy ammo wise and I had to go through various different rounds until I found one that suited. Anyone got any experience of non toxic in this rifle? Otherwise it could get seriously expensive before finding what works.

Thanks for any help/advice
 
The rifle was quite fussy ammo wise and I had to go through various different rounds until I found one that suited. Anyone got any experience of non toxic in this rifle? Otherwise it could get seriously expensive before finding what works.

Unfortunately that's the way to do it, everyone will tell you to get whatever ammo shoots best in their rifles.
No two rifles shoots the same.
 
Ask at the gunshop. My local often has some odds and sods about when folk pack up or change caliber and get rid of old ammo. He uses those rounds when zeroing a rifle or testing something, just to get it on paper.
 
Hi All

I'm after some general advice. I have a Ruger American .308 which is very happy using Federal Fusion 150 grain lead. I believe the barrel twist rate is 1:10.

I'm going to have to change to factory made non-toxic rounds in the future like everybody now.

Do you go up or down in bullet weight for copper?

The rifle was quite fussy ammo wise and I had to go through various different rounds until I found one that suited. Anyone got any experience of non toxic in this rifle? Otherwise it could get seriously expensive before finding what works.

Thanks for any help/advice
try the federal copper in 150gr
 
Anything works in 308, fox 130g or 150g, or barnes TTSX. N140 or N135 if reloading. Deadly accurate and kill well. Using TTSX on fallow in 130g
 
Drop bullet weight and increase velocity is the conventional wisdom.
Thanks
I offered this option once. A load of people said it was a cracking idea and then nobody bought a box so I binned it off.
Ho hum ....... That's a shame.
People would obviously prefer to buy 5 different boxes, use half a dozen out of each and then be lumbered with different lots of ammo out of four boxes to move on. 🙄
 
Also make sure to give your barrel a very good cleaning copper don’t like going over lead fowling I expect when we go fully Bon toxic there will be a lot of very good rifles up for sale stated that that don’t shoot Bon toxic when if fact I just needed a good deep clean and re fouling with copper
 
Also make sure to give your barrel a very good cleaning copper don’t like going over lead fowling I expect when we go fully Bon toxic there will be a lot of very good rifles up for sale stated that that don’t shoot Bon toxic when if fact I just needed a good deep clean and re fouling with copper
Thanks for the heads up - will do 👍
 
You will probably need to go down in bullet weight from 150 grn to 130 grn due to copper being less dense than lead and therefore needing a longer bullet to maintain the weight which may make it too long to stabilise well in a 1:10 twist. I suggest you try a 150 grn copper to see how it performs in your rifle but be prepared to drop to 130 grain.
 
You will probably need to go down in bullet weight from 150 grn to 130 grn due to copper being less dense than lead and therefore needing a longer bullet to maintain the weight which may make it too long to stabilise well in a 1:10 twist. I suggest you try a 150 grn copper to see how it performs in your rifle but be prepared to drop to 130 grain.
Thanks for that. Edinburgh Rifles mentioned the Federal 250gr and mastertech said about 136gr Geco so there's a couple of suggestions I'll probably take up.
 
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