308 berger vld in magazine length?

[alaskan9974]

Can any of the Berger vld's be loaded accurately when seated to magazine length, or should I stick with amaxs in my LR308. I don't want to chase my tail trying to make them work seating them deep if they won't like the jump.

 

[macgrumpy]

Berger recommends:

1. .010 off the lands (jump) 6 rounds
2. .050 off the lands (jump) 6 rounds
3. .090 off the lands (jump) 6 rounds
4. .130 off the lands (jump) 6 rounds

Shoot 2 (separate) 3 shot groups in fair conditions to see how they group. The remarkable reality of this test is that one of these 4 COALs will outperform the other three by a considerable margin. Once you know which one of these 4 COAL shoots best then you can tweak the COAL +/- .002 or .005.

Most magazines force us to use a length of somewhere around .100 off the lands so most likely one of the two longer lengths will work. I've had pretty good results with a COAL of 2.84" using the Berger 175gr VLD bullets over IMR 3031 powder.

 

[Bart B.]

308 Win ammo erodes the rifling away at a rate of about .001" for every 40 rounds.

Are you willing to seat bullets shallower in the case every so often to keep their jump distance the same?

I've shot enough 3-shot groups with all sorts of ammo in all sorts of barrels to observe the reality of them will have a 3 to 5 times spread of the smallest to the largest for a given load. Shoot at least 15 shots per test group for 80% to 90% confidence unless you're happy with a 30% confidence in a couple of 3-shot ones good enough

 

[Nature Boy]

I understand that the Berger hybrid is designed to be less sensitive to seating depth. The only way to know is to give them a try

 

[243winxb]

VLD's jump fine in my 243. In your auto loader, maintain good neck tension by not seating the ogive below the case mouth . The Berger 210 gr VLD looks very long, but the Hornadys look even loooonger. http://www.jbmballistics.com/ballistics/lengths/lengths.shtml

 

[Grumulkin]

I use VLDs in a 257 and 300 Weatherby seated to magazine length with good results.

 

[alaskan9974]

I picked up two boxes of 168 vld hunting, they are shorter then my 178 amax's and I will play with seating depths this weekend. Thanks

 

[Nature Boy]

I've gotten very good accuracy from the 168g VLD hunting bullets in .308 using Varget

 

[jmr40]

I've gotten excellent results with 155's in my 308.

 

[Nature Boy]

By the way, looking again in my Berger reloading book tonight, I was reminded that they make a tactical bullet specifically designed to stay within magazine length OAL.