Best grains out of .308?

[DrKen]

That's actually what a expanding bullet is designed to do. All bullets put a shockwave out in the internal organs. Since the soft body parts are largely water this causes a great deal of damage to organs the bullet passes through or near. In ballistic gelatin this is charachterized by the wound channel being larger that the diameter of the expanded bullet. the cells of the adjacent organ may explode or just swell and die or not work as well as they should. So if you do miss the heart by a bit it still has damage done to it. If you hit back behind the diaphragm you can damage the liver and also get a lethal hit. The problem is will the animal live long enough to get away from the hunter. This is the point to picking appropriate bullets for the game being hunted. You must balance penetration and expansion for the highest degree of lethality. Thus said, it does not excuse taking a poor shot. The heart/lung region is a large target of say 8-10 inches round in a deer. Practice on a paper plate offhand and quick until you can hit it consistently or don't take the quick shot. Let the animal go, there is always another. Limit your shots to those you can make.

[GBPackerNut]

Another thing no one mentioned I saw is what is your barrels twist rate? My 308 with a 1:10 twist likes bullets in the 168-180 grain weight, but does not like lighter bullets. But my 308 with a 1:13 twist likes the 155 grains best.

this affects accuracy more than anything, if you are shooting 100 yards average it wont matter as much to you, biggest thing is make sure you are using game rounds not target rounds. I like the Barnes X bullets for dropping animals, where I like speer and hornadys for loading target rounds.

[Gordie]

GBPN what type of guns in .308 do you have?

[GBPackerNut]

One is a Savage model 10 Law Enforcement it has a 1 in 10 twist. I think the model is 10FP-LE2. The other is a Remington 700 with an aftermarket barrel, it twists 1 in 12 or 13 (I would have to run a rod down it to make sure) and really loves the 155 lapua bullets. The higher twist rate will stabilize a heavier bullet.

When reloaded you need to experiment some, my savage barrel likes the bullets seated deeper, and tends to like heavier rounds. But a good all around is 168 grains, it tends to do very well in both. Now for hunting don't worry, going from 155 to 168 on my rem, is only a difference maybe 1/2" at 100 yards. so if I'm off by 1" at 200 yards doesn't really matter. The only time I get picky is when going out for some serious distance.

Going back to your original question, the 308 is plenty capable of dropping game quickly. Mostly a matter of shot placement, and keeping the heart rate down, you would be amazed how many people get too excited and poorly place a shot, or even better yet completely miss the shot.

enjoy the rifle, 308 has to be probably the most versatile round I can think of. The great thing is down the road if you get sick of it you could always rebarrel the action for 243Win, 260Rem, 7mm-08, and countless other wildcats based on the 308 cartridge.

[swamptiger]

Bought a .308 Marlin Express at a gun show yesterday. Think I'm really going to like this one...

[Gordie]

swampt is that the levergun that marlin came out with in .308?

I did some reading on that and it does look like a nice gun other than the fact it takes its own brand of bullets

[swamptiger]

Yes, it's a joint effort by Marlin & Hornady, and the ammo is only available from Hornady at this point in time, but the word is Remington is coming out with ammo for it as well. Comes with a 160 gr. bullet with a plastic tip. There are dies on the market for it for those who want to do their own reloading. I got 3 boxes of ammo with the gun.

[Gordie]

I really like the ballistics of that gun its really impressive for a lever action I thought long and hard about one of those but ended up purchaseing a typical .308 instead mostly because of the price ( I got a screamin deal) and partly because of the cartridge

[swamptiger]

I had read about the Marlin Express round and of course, I have handled the Marlin 336 rifle, but I had never had a Marlin Express rifle in my hands until the other day. The moment I picked it up and shouldered it, I knew I had to have one because it's probably one of the best balanced and best handling rifles I've ever had in my hands. The one I have is the Express version with the 22" barrel, not the XLR.

As far as the ammo goes, I plan to get a set of dies and keep the brass. You could actually shoot any pointed 30 caliber bullet if you only put two rounds in the gun - one in the tube and one in the chamber. Or you could go back to the round or flat-nosed bullets if the Hornady bullets ever become unavailable, which is doubtful, because of the success of the other LeverRevolution ammo.

The gun also came with a scope mount, but I'm going to use the open sights - at least until I can't see em any more... And I got a really good deal on it to boot - $480 with the mount and three boxes of shells. The rifle is in like new condition and it has a very nice wood stock.

[picksbigwagon]

swamp, double check on the hornady site, I thought hornady had released that bullet for reloading. I beleive they call it the flextip

[swamptiger]

Yes, but I've read the bullet itself is hard to come by. The factory ammo and brass is apparently readily available.

[swamptiger]

Here's the statement about the bullet on the Hornady HSOforum:

Quote:

Product Availability

April 10, 2009

The shooting sports industry as a whole is currently experiencing record sales. Here at Hornady Manufacturing we are breaking our own production records in an attempt to keep up with customer demand. We have added extra shifts, machinery and we are also in the process of expanding our manufacturing plant. We will continue to produce as much product as we can while still retaining the high quality control you’ve come to expect from us.

With the demand for our products being as high as it currently is, we are forced to make some temporary changes. Until further notice we are only able to ship ammunition, bullets, cases and major reloading tools to our wholesalers and retailers. This means that we are not able to accept consumer orders for those products via telephone or our HSOforum. We will take telephone/web orders for reloading spare parts, press accessories and specialty dies. Click here to download a list of available products you can purchase on our HSOforum. For ammunition, bullets etc., your favorite retailers and sporting goods chains have large orders placed with us so you will receive your product faster by purchasing through them than you would by ordering factory direct.

We sincerely apologize for any inconveniences this may cause anyone and as soon as this situation eases we will return to accepting retail orders.

[swamptiger]

Also, if you look on the Hornady HSOforum, the Flex-Tip 160 gr. bullet they use for the 30-30 is just a little different design than the one they use for the .308 Marlin. From what I've read, the one for the 30-30 is available, but the one for the .308 is hard to get.

[picksbigwagon]

I stand corrected then, I thought I had seen them on Midway usa when I was looking for 38 cal for my 357 magnum

[swamptiger]

I just looked on the Midway site, and the 30-30 bullets are there, but not the ones for the .308.. This isn't a big concern to me, however, becasue I will be shooting the factory ammo for now, anyway. I really don't know why some of the other polymer tipped bullets wouldn't work, except the Hornady bullet was specifically designed for the cartridge, and maybe some of the other bullets wouldn't deliver the ballistics. There certainly isn't any shortage of .30 cal bullets to choose from.

[picksbigwagon]

the other polymer tips aren't flexible enough or are too hard, that when fed in a tubular (totally tubullar dude!) magazine, they either break off or set off the primer it is touching.

[swamptiger]

Ok - I was wondering about that..

[picksbigwagon]

I just checked the hornady site, if you click rifle on the bullet page, and then select FTX bullets, it shows they make 160 grain bullets in 308 for the 308 marlin express. this is just the bullet, not ammunition. 47 bucks for 100.....

look around a little more online you should be able to find them, of course if Midway doens't have them, not sure who would, maybe midsouth shooters?

[picksbigwagon]

correction 37 bucks

[swamptiger]

Checked Mid-South, and they have them listed "on order"...status - "overdue"...

[swamptiger]

I was just on the Marlin owners forum, and they said the Remington ammo for the .308 ME is now coming on the market. The bullet is a 150 gr. Core-Lokt. R&R Arms has it for under $20 per box.

[swamptiger]

I contacted Remington and asked about ballistics for the .308 Marlin Express ammo - got a response this morning:

Quote:

Thank you for contacting Remington Country.

308 Marlin Express Ballistics:

150 grain soft point

velocity muzzle 100yds 200yds 300yds

2725 2275 1871 1519

Energy 2473 1724 1166 768

Trajectory zero -5.3 -20.7

The ballistics don't measure up to the Hornady ammo - even though they are a little faster at the muzzle, the energy drops off a lot faster than the Hornady round. Must be a round nosed bullet. Hornady round: 400 yards = 1836 fps/1197 ft. lbs. - so a big difference at long range.