What 308 bullet SMK/ELD-M/RDF?

What Bullet

  • 175 SMK

    Votes: 5 62.5%
  • 178 ELD-M

    Votes: 2 25.0%
  • 175 Nosler RDF

    Votes: 1 12.5%

  • Total voters
    8
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z7

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with the bullet market going a little nutz right now with super high BC bullets i am considering trying some of the new offerings. I have a 308 win, 24" rem varmint profile 1-10" match barrel Mausingfield action put together by LongRifles Inc sitting in a KRG Xray chassis, so my gear is top notch. my skills are not, they are developing. I hope to make this year my year to really learn the ways of the bolt gun.

so far I have shot some hornady 178hpbt i had laying around and they shot ok. the 178 amax shot really well and the 175 SMK also shoots really well, as if I should be surprised that a 175 SMK over 45g of Varget shoots good.

I have 100 SMK's remaining, so i will need to order bullets soon. i will also be moving over to lapua brass so I will need to do load development anyway.

please comment and vote on what bullet you would choose if you were in my shoes, I am looking at the Nosler RDF, Hornady ELD-M and reliable ole 175 SMK. Hornady wins with BC battle, but BC is not everything
 
What about the TMK? They shoot amazing in the new black hills ammo.
This includes the 223 and 77gr tmk too.

Also the amazing berger 168gr hybrid.
 
yes the Berger's are supposed to be amazing, i left them out because I'd rather not pay 50 cents per bullet while I develop my shooting skills. they are top of the line for sure though.

TMK's look to be a good option, but are they better than the similar ELD-M that is cheaper? only shooting them will tell I guess
 
I don't think you could go wrong with Sierra MatchKings or the Hornady ELD bullets. That said, especially for practice, BC isn't that important even at ranges of 400 yards or so. I've had good success accuracy wise even with bullets that aren't marketed as match bullets such as Remington Core Lokts.

Lapua brass is good but, shocking as it may seem to some, you don't need to begin load development afresh on switching to Lapua brass.
 
yes the Berger's are supposed to be amazing, i left them out because I'd rather not pay 50 cents per bullet while I develop my shooting skills. they are top of the line for sure though.

TMK's look to be a good option, but are they better than the similar ELD-M that is cheaper? only shooting them will tell I guess

The TMK value packs are the same price as hornady's +/- one cent per bullet that is nothing.

The TMKs are well tested. The Hornady should be good too like the amax but they are more expensive than the amax value packs.
We don't see why they should not be good, but some are new and keep in mind the advertised coefficients are not actual values as the bullet goes
through several speed spectrums a correction factor must be applied. Sierra does a better job than hornady advertising the values through the entire spectrum.
This takes time with every single new bullet that comes out to market.

In that price range one can find the lapua 185gr FMJBT that has won everything and whatever little difference in BC is compensated by momentum on the target, if that is important to you of course.
They can be found a tad lower than the scenar anthoer world wide winner. These are perhaps 2 or 3 cents more than the hornady or TMK.

If momentum is not important then look at the 155gr TMK value pack and the trajectories these bullets give you. They shoot flatter with competing ballistics w/o getting into the very expensive
solids or alco bullets.

I don't promote one bullet over another. I am just saying consider all options. I would test more.

If cost is what drives this look for the speer hpbt and nosler custom competition value packs too. they are pretty consistent.
 
I chose SMK's. Like everybody else.
I have had best results though with Hornady A-Max. They have it in 178gr, though I use the 168gr. I am working on the SMK's.
This is from an M1A NM 1-10" and a 22" barrel. Your high end bolt will fair much better.
 
Thanks for all the input gents. There are. Ton of good/great bullet out there. Almost too many options, i have arbitrarily narrowed the field to these 3, 2 new high bc editions and one old reliable option.

That does not mean i am dead set on these choices. I have some smks to shoot here this month and maybe next month as well, then ill have to decide
 
Interesting to see smk's with a strong lead, i guess if it aint broke. . .
 
"...moving over to Lapua brass so I will need to do load development..." You really do not need to work up the load again just because you go to high priced brass. Change bullet weight or powders(think IMR4064), you do. Even a primer doesn't make much difference.
175's are primarily plus 600 yards bullets. 168's are for up to 600.
"...develop my shooting skills..." Appleseed then NRA matches. There is no substitute for match shooting either. Aside from you'll get all kinds of help from other shooters(most will bend over backwards to help a new shooter), it's a great deal of fun too.
 
For loads i worked up to a MAX load according to hodgdon at 45g varget with winchester brass. From various reading and a little experience i expect to need to reduce the powder charge a little bit to be in the same accuracy node given a case with less capacity. That is what i expect anyway so when i switch powder i will rework the load. It would stink to wear out a few primer pockets of lapua brass with a hot load right out of the gate.
 
My experience with the 308 is that ELD's shoot great,but seem to be a lot like the Berger VLD's-shoot great,but need to be touching the lands to do their best,and once in a while,you'll get an unexplained flier.SMK's are always good shooters,and are pretty tolerant to seating depth.A-Max's work really well in mine,as do Berger Juggernauts,but the Bergers can be a little pricey for practice.I'm getting to have an opinion about the super high BC bullets-they're harder to get better accuracy even though they can do impressive things at long range.I shoot 22,24,25,27 and 30 caliber guns at longish ranges,and don't have a load worked up for a single one of them that falls into the ultra high BC class of bullets.Actually my most accurate loads use 3 bullet types-A-Max,SMK and Berger Juggernaut.
 
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