178 gr ELDs in .308 Winchester

[markm]

Pappabear and I got out Sunday and got to shoot 30 rounds of the 178 gr ELDs in .308. We ran them directly against our 175gr SMK load both in MEN .308 brass with Varget and 210m primers.

The 178s have a weird ogive that forced me to use our gas gun seating die to get them seated deep enough to get good neck tension/contact. That caused some load compression.

Both bullets chrono'd about the same at 2549 fps out of a 20" bolt gun. I expected the 178s to shoot faster with the load compression, but it was not the case.

Dope on both bullets tracked similarly out to 1300 yards. I expected to see the 178 really out fly the 175 smk, but It wasn't the case with this load.

We're going to repeat with Lapua Brass next shoot.

[gaijin]

Which drag model did you use for your dope Mark?
Surprising both loads tracked similarly.

[Pappabear]

We didn't use a drag model, we used the BULLET DONT LIE model. But we had a very strange day. Big winds that must have pushed bullets everywhere. We had the greatest variations we had ever seen. More than just using MEN brass which has proven consistent in the past.

We had bullets drop 15 feet short, then 2 dance around or hit target at 1,000 yards. It was a crazy day, some days no conclusions can be made.

We sctached the day. The only thing astonishing, where the velocities were exactly the same for SMK's and 178 ELD's. It shouldn't surprise as 175 vs 178, but still it often does not correlate.

Week2 with Laplau brass may provide interesting. We talked about bumping up our 308 load to squeak some increases velocity.

Sunday, we shall see.

PB

[grizzman]

Thanks for the info. I've got some 178 gr ELD's but haven't loaded them up yet.

[gaijin]

Look forward to results with Lapua brass.

[diving dave]

What twist in your rig? I have an older 1/12 barrel, played with a few loads. I'm getting the best results with Lapua brass, 44 grns of Varget and a Berger 168 Hybrid. running about 2750.....8.8 mils and I'm on at 1000

[Jwknutson17]

PB, I'm curious to what you and Markm find with the Lapua brass also. I have about 400 of those 178gr ELDx pills sitting here to load up into federal brass. Was once fired FGMM brass is it's what I have on hand. Using CCI primers and I have a 8lb jug of Varget sitting here. My APC comes back from KAC Thursday so I'll be putting rounds through that, the 16" 308 Fix, and also a 20" Rem 700 to see what kind of results I get. I've been seeing really good results with the 200gr ELDx the last few weeks in my 300wm, so I'm hoping these 178s hand loads perform the same.

[markm]

Both .308s are 12 twist. I wonder if I wasn't jumping them way too far. I know my Remmy has a leade from hell... and I sat them pretty deep for initial testing.

[Vegas]

My R700 is also 1-12, 20" and seems to hate any jump more than .030.

[Pappabear]

Both .308s are 12 twist. I wonder if I wasn't jumping them way too far. I know my Remmy has a leade from hell... and I sat them pretty deep for initial testing.

I need to give you one of my AI mags and see if we can make them longer and still fit in mag.

PB