Looking for .308 hunting boolit knowledge

[Pellethuntr]

I did not see an introduction thread so I will post a short one here:

Hi, I am Brian from Hunt NY. I am an avid shooter/handloader with a few years casting experience. I am a machinist by trade. My passion is big bore airguns, I started out casting for them and slowly gravitated towards casting for my powder burners. I bought a powder coating setup shortly after and am very happy with how the powder coated boolits shoot. And that brings us to my question.

I recently finished rebarreling a Mauser 98 to .308 Win. It is a great shooter with jacketed bullets but I am looking to find a good mold for deer and black beer hunting. The woods is thick and hilly in this part of NY so most of my shots are well under 100 yards.

I cast 115 grain RN for varmint hunting with the .308, I have pushed them up to 3,000 fps without any fouling problems with powder coat. They are great little shooters, but they are the only cast I have shot out of this rifle so far.

From my reading I see a lot of guys prefer a cast FN bullet for hunting, do any of you have hollowpoint conversions? I have an almost complete machine shop in my garage and have done a few hollow point conversions on pistol molds with great results at those velocities. I have no experience with cast hollow points at rifle velocities.

Looking for guys with experience casting hunting bullets to give me some input on what I should be trying to achieve.

[Pellethuntr]

I guess I should also ask what BHN you guys are using? I shoot softer lead between 8-10 BHN but would be willing to up the alloy if there was data to support it.

[runfiverun]

first thing first welcome to the board.

most guy's use a nominal velocity of about 1900 fps and either hollow point, cup point, or use a flat nose.
the flat point will work very well, and provide straight line penetration.
the cup point is about half way between the flat nose and the hollow point in terms of expansion and penetration.
the hollow point of course will provide the most expansion, but comes with qualifiers as to the alloys makeup.
there is a 4th option and that is a two alloy boolit where you make a soft nose and hard base, this allows both expansion and penetration.

there is a lot of discussion, explanation, and pictures in this area.
which is best?
you have to decide which one is right for you and then pursue that option through some media testing.

[sixshot]

When I was into rifles I had great success in the 60's & 70's with a pre 64 308 shooting the 311291 & the 311041 cast slug on deer & turkeys in Texas. I believe the load was mostly 15 grs of RL7 or a else 4895 but can't remember the amount. A pinch of kapok on the RL7 helped with accuracy. WW alloy water quenched was great on Texas white tails. The softnose cast came much later for me & worked great in both rifle & handgun. Took a bull moose with my 480 sixgun using softnose cast, best bullet ever made!

Dick

[runfiverun]

probably around 30 grs of 4895.
I really like 28.5grs of the IMR version with a filler as a hunting load in the 30 calibers, it provides very consistent velocity's no matter the angle of the shot or air temperature.

[Pellethuntr]

Most guy's use a nominal velocity of about 1900 fps and either hollow point, cup point, or use a flat nose.

I have seen 1,900 fps talked about on a lot of threads as the "go to" velocity that lead performs best at.

Seems I may want to go with the heaviest bullet that my barrel twist can support to make the most of that velocity, say around 200 grains?

[Pellethuntr]

When I was into rifles I had great success in the 60's & 70's with a pre 64 308 shooting the 311291 & the 311041 cast slug on deer & turkeys in Texas.

Thanks for the suggestions I will look into those molds a little more.

[quilbilly]

What I would suggest is a little experimenting with terminal performance. Start with an inexpensive mold (I.E. the Lee 160 gr Round nose gas check) and sizer (Lee .309). My 308 loves this boolit. Other writers have stated "1900 fps" as a target and that would be about right. Tie together and soak a pile of phone books 20" thick in water and shoot at it from 30-40 yards and see what various alloys do from soft pure to very hard with a couple in between. I think you will be surprised with performances and find one that will work. That boolit at that velocity will easily take you to 200 yards hunting deer size game.

[runfiverun]

heavy boolits provide a bit more oomph down range and don't slow down as fast over distance.
the problem with them comes from a lot of the newer rifles having a pretty tight throat which makes fitment an issue.
I myself prefer the flat points and the rcbs 30-150 fngc is a smaller version of the 311041 that Dick mentions above.
it has been my go-to work horse in the 30 caliber rifles from the 30-30 through the 30-06.
it sees a lot of time in the field whacking everything from ground squirrels through deer with everything in between seen as fair game with good results on them all.
I trust it to drive into the vitals of a deer at a raking angle and to make that second hole on the way out, out to about 125-150 yds.

[waksupi]

Forget hollow points for deer. Don't need them. For good all round performance, go with a flat nosed Loverin type bullet in the 190-200 gr. neighborhood.

[Pellethuntr]

Thank you for all the replies guys, I think I have a pretty good idea of what I am going to get now!

[robg]

with lee 160 or 180gr boolits gas checked 18gr of 2400 shoots under 2" groups at 100 yards. drops about a foot at 200yards

[Huntsman]

Last year I used a Lee 200gr gc boolit and 27.5grs of IMR 3031. I used this to take a cow moose. Lyman #2 alloy was what I used.

[fatnhappy]

Hi Brian,

Welcome to the board. I'm down your way a couple times a year. Matter of fact my son's scout troop camps at Sam Wood over in Pike at least once a year, usually twice. We camp at Stoney Brook too.
To the question at hand, I prefer the heaviest designs possible for hunting, based of course on the limitations of the chamber, feeding and magazine. I'm a bit restricted in my .308 as it's a savage 99 with the rotary magazine. I'm currently putzing around with 311332 but my mainstay is the 311041. I have yet to meet a deer it won't kill.

[nockhunter]

Welcome Pellethuntr, I live just north of you in N. Chili.

Mike

[white eagle]

Welcome aboard
a lot of good advice for your question has been given
I will only ad do a search to find more answers
a lot of info in stickies as well

[Moonie]

Below is the boolit I use for hunting in my 30-06. It is quite accurate in my Savage Edge with 35gr of H4895@1,950fps.

http://www.accuratemolds.com/bullet_...31-245BG-D.png

[missionary5155]

Good morning
Years back I fell into the RCBS 180 FNGC. I use it in every caliber 30 rifle I have. Have not tried it in the 300 AC though. Cast of 50-50for hunting whatever have shot it nicely from 1650 - 1750 no check. 1800-2100 with checks.
Use it in the M1A, FAL cast of WW. Have to run these about 2250 for reliable function.
Have an older Small ring Mauser the IMF rebarreled to 308 years back. If for hunting 50-50 up to 2100 fps with the slowest powder that gives best accuracy. 1900-2000 is the normal. 4350 works good. For just fun plinking any powder, any velocity cast of WW up to 2200 but normally 1700-1900. Actually this loading in this fine little rifle would take care of all the center fire hunting I have ever done and probably will ever get to. But happily we are not so hindered. Still want to pop something big with the 50-95. Anyone got spare "ol shaggy" hanging about the water hole.
Mike in Peru

[Petrol & Powder]

Welcome !
I'm not going to offer advice on your bullet selection question, there are far more qualified members that have already provided better information than I could.

Instead, I'm going to congratulate you on your cartridge selection. The .308 Winchester is one of my all time favorite rifle cartridges !

Despite the long term American love affair with the .30-06 (also a great cartridge) the .308 gets my vote for the best all-around rifle cartridge......ever!
The .308 Win does a lot of things and it does them really well. It is an efficient cartridge that holds its own against larger/longer cartridges, at least at ranges under 600 yards where most of us dwell. You don't need some giant belted magnum horizontal ICBM to kill deer on the east coast, nor do you need some bullet travelling 47 times the speed of light to kill a ground hog or punch a hole in a piece of cardboard. The .308 will do everything from very good target work, to ground hog sniping, to deer and black bear hunting and everything in between.

I like the 7 x 57 Mauser for nostalgic reasons and I think the 7mm-08 comes very, very close to the .308 win in terms of usefulness but the 7.62 gets the crown in my book.

Welcome aboard and I will now return this thread to its regularly scheduled programming