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

[sinister]

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.
PB

The 178s are longer than 175 TMKs. You might be better served with a 1-in-10 twist barrel.

[Pappabear]

The LMT MWS might love them. It loves the 168's. I have no magic wand to make my 1/12 to 1/10, or I would. I still have 8,000 rounds to shoot the CL barrel out of FN SPR, so that might be a while. But we'll try.

PB

[09stanggt]

I will say that if you are using a deep throat 700, my experience with the 178 AMAX and BTHP is that these bullets want to be seated close to the lands. As in 2.900 - 2.925 after measuring with Hornady COAL tool. The bottom of my action is notched to feed this OAL and I'm running Alpha magazines. SMKs can be seated at 2.8, no problem jumping those a mile. But there's the difference between tangent and secant ogive from what I've seen.

[Vegas]

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