Archive for the 'Ammunition' Category

It’s not likely that anything will compare to the running battle over .45 and 9mm, but rifle ammo wars are all the rage nowadays. The good news is we can learn plenty and get better with our tools by examining the outcomes. Competition is a good thing.

First: The Best .308 Hunting Ammo of 2022

Although we still haven’t climbed out of the ammo shortage, there’s good news if you hunt with a .308—many retailers have a variety of .308 hunting ammo available. The previous ammo shortages hit the .223 and .308 ammo stocks hard, while having less effect on stalwart hunting cartridges like the .30/06 and .30/30. This time, it seems that manufacturers have been able to stay on top of .308 hunting ammo production and hunters at least have something to buy.

Still, it’s a strange time, and there are both surprises and disappointments in the ammo market today (not exclusive to .308). Some ammunition has excelled, and some factory offerings that typically delivered excellent accuracy don’t seem to shoot as well as they used to. Some types of ammo seem to be everywhere, and other loads are scarce.

This year, I have tested and reviewed 11 different rifles chambered in .308 Win. I shot many types of ammo through these guns, testing it in affordable budget rifles, but also in mid-priced rifles. I’ve shot a variety of .308 Win. in specialized rifles like the Christensen Ridgeline Titanium FFT and the Howa M1500 HS Carbon. Through all this shooting, I was able to see what shot well, what didn’t, and hopefully help you pick the best .308 hunting ammo for deer or whatever your game is this year.

Best Overall: Remington 150-grain Core-Lokt Tipped

Best .308 Ammo for Deer:Federal Non-Typical Whitetail 150-grain Soft Point

Best Copper .308 Ammo: Barnes Vor-Tx 168-grain TTSX

Federal Premium 175-grain Terminal Ascent

Hornady Superformance 150-grain SST

Winchester Deer Season XP 150-grain Extreme Point

Federal Premium 180-grain Trophy Bonded Tip

Hornady Outfitter 165-grain CX

Federal Premium 165-grain Swift Scirocco II

Things to Consider Before Buying .308 Ammo for Hunting

Game and Bullet Construction

As with any hunting ammo, you want to choose a load and bullet that will suit the game you intend on hunting. The .308 Win. is an extremely capable (and oft underrated) cartridge, and is suitable for large game like elk, moose, and even brown bears. If you’re hunting heavy game, pick a bonded or monolithic bullet and keep your shot distances under 300 yards. However, most people are hunting medium-sized game with the .308 and just about any medium-weight expanding bullet will do. Luckily there’s plenty of good, affordable .308 ammo for deer that can still be found on store shelves.

Accuracy

Each .308 ammo offering listed here will have both five-shot average group accuracy and standard deviation. It’s always great to maximize accuracy, but keep in mind that each rifle will like a different load. If you can’t try several loads, pick one with a small standard deviation. That means that across all the rifles tested, the accuracy of the load didn’t very much, and there’s a good chance it will shoot similarly in your .308.

Cost

Ammo is expensive, and premium ammo is even more expensive. If you need top-end bullet construction or are shooting at distances that require best-in-class accuracy, it’s worth the extra cost. However, if you’re hunting deer-sized game at distances under 200 yards or so, less-expensive ammo is usually sufficient.

Interpreting the Data

To test each of these types of .308 hunting ammo, I fired and measured five-shot groups through a variety of rifles. I recorded a minimum of five groups for each type of ammo (based on my inventory), but I was able to record between 15 and 30 groups for most offerings.

Keep in mind that average group size is with five-shot groups across all rifles tested. Some rifles shoot better, some worse. The standard deviation is the average variation in group size across all rifles tested. This data only reflects the rifles tested. Accuracy, obviously, varies from rifle to rifle. I experienced a couple of loads that would shoot four-inch groups in one rifle, and one-inch groups in another.

There’s much more at the link, including good details on these nine different rounds studied.

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Next: Long-Range Big Game Rivals 6.8 Western vs 7mm Rem Mag vs .28 Nosler

The 7mm Remington Magnum is one of the most popular magnum cartridges in current production. Versatile and dependable, this old-school cartridge managed to overcome the American shooter’s aversion to the metric with its incredible long-distance ballistic capabilities.

However, the 7mm Rem Mag has been around for a long time (since 1962 to be exact), and the wheels of ammunition innovation haven’t stopped turning. Could a newer long-range ballistic superstar dethrone this popular old-timer?

In terms of long-range hunting cartridges, the 6.8 Western vs 7mm Rem Mag vs .28 Nosler match-up is a good one.

If you’re a big game hunter going after long-range sheep, elk, or antelope, is it worth pursuing one of the newer hotrod cartridges like the 6.8 Western or the .28 Nosler? Or should you stick with a safe option, like the tried-and-true 7mm Rem Mag?

In this article, we dive into a deep analysis of the ins and outs of these solid long-range performers.

There’s a lot of data in this second study as well.

I missed this, but our friend Andy at Practical Accuracy did a video on whether a 1:7 twist barrel does well with lighter bullets.

The answer?  It depends on the ammunition.  Ammunition selection seems to be the king-maker on whether you do well at the range.

I think Hornady has a 7mm PRC devotee.  But my question remains, what if you’re not hunting Elk at 400 yards, but rather, white tail at 50 – 100 yards?  It seems to me that 7mm PRC isn’t so preferable to .308 or 6.5mm Creedmoor.

Outdoor Life.

The .45/70 outperformed everything else in penetrating brush and delivering a bullet that’s still flying straight and true—something that will surely inflate the egos of its contemporary fans. I expected the .45/70 to yield the best results simply because of the mass of the bullets, but it exceeded my expectations substantially. With extensive enough testing some other big-bore cartridges might outdo the .45/70, but when it comes to common and available brush rifles today, the .45/70 wins.

The best brush bullet in my testing was the 325-grain, .458-inch Lehigh Defense Extreme Defense bullet. It was in Black Hills Ammo’s Honey Badger factory loads, traveling at 1900 fps. These are solid copper machined bullets with a nose that’s fluted and resembles a Phillips screwdriver. The bullet is designed for zero deformation, and to penetrate deeply. The fluting at the tip is designed to cause cavitation and a wound channel like expanding bullets. I’ve seen bears shot with them, and they are formidable. This load had an average deflection of only 0.63 inches, without a single key-holed bullet in 15 total shots.

You can see all of his testing protocol at the link, but the bottom line is that it’s the venerable 45-70 for the unqualified win.

The much anticipated 7mm PRC design by Hornady is in the news.  As if pre-planned, the articles piled up this week.

The Hornady 7 PRC is a new long-range hunting and competition cartridge that slides neatly into the gap that exists between the 6.5 PRC and 300 PRC. The best way to think about this round is as an updated version of the venerable 7mm Rem. Mag. I’ve been hunting and shooting with the 7mm PRC for a couple months now and I think it is going to do extremely well, particularly with Western and open-country big game hunters.

First of all, it fits in between the 6.5 PRC and the 300 PRC, which Hornady wants to be replacements for the 6.5mm Creedmoor and the 300 Win Mag, which they believe leave too much free bore and don’t fit well into the lands, leaving open the potential for bullet deformation when the bullet enters the lands.  So this 7mm PRC design not only fits in between the 6.5 PRC and the 300 PRC, it would fit in between the 6.5 Creedmoor and the 300 Win Mag, which aren’t even mentioned in the article.  He goes into some of the details on what Hornady intends to be available bullet designs, and then let’s pick it up later.  This next bit is interesting and correct if you have wondered about why new cartridge designs are being investigated.

The hallmarks of modern cartridge design include:

• Faster twist rates to stabilize heavy-for-caliber, long ogive, high BC bullets
• Adequate neck length on the case for consistent neck tension
• Headspacing off a steep-angled shoulder
• Minimal case taper
• Fine-tuned throat dimensions and taper (usually 1.5 deg.) in chamber
• Moderate muzzle velocities that deliver consistent shot-to-shot MVs and take advantage of the aeroballistically-efficient bullets the cartridge is designed for. This leads to better precision and longer barrel life

The 7mm PRC incorporates all these elements.

This is why he said this cartridge is an “updated version” of the venerable 7mm Mag.

The author says he got Miles Neville, an engineer with Hornady, to help him with accuracy testing.  I can say with utter confidence, Miles has the greatest engineering job on earth.

Unfortunately, there are two needs for a cartridge to be successful.  Rifles, and ammunition.  The manufacturers are making them now (and some already have), but the ammo may be a bit hard to find, at least initially, and then never if this turns out to be a “flash in a pan.”

Next up, Alloutdoor.com has three articles on current guns in production to shoot the 7mm PRC.

Mossberg Patriot Predator.  At an MSRP $616, this is an entry level rifle.

Savage.  They go the spectrum from their 10 Apex Hunter XP with an MSRP of $709, to their Impulse Mountain Hunter at $2,437.00.  It’s quite a good looking rifle, and certainly not entry level.

Then finally, as one would expect, Gunwerks breaks the bank with the ridiculous price of $9000.  You could have a gunsmith do a custom build for less than that.

It will be interesting to see where the 7mm PRC goes from here.

Source:

What Is the Difference Between 300 WSM and 300 Win Mag?

The 300 Winchester Magnum has been around since the 1960’s and has been a favorite for military snipers, big game hunters, and benchrest shooters alike. It is truly in contention for the title of America’s Favorite Magnum Cartridge and is the gold standard by which all belted magnum cartridges are measured.

The 300 Winchester Short Magnum (WSM) is a relative newcomer to the shooting community being released in 2001. The 300 WSM embodies the ballistic advantages of the 300 Win Mag and crams them into a short action rifle.

The result is a lighter rifle with identical barrel length and extremely similar external ballistics. Having a shorter, more maneuverable rifle can be extremely handy when elk hunting in thick brush.

Both rifle cartridges are extremely accurate and can easily achieve MOA to sub-MOA level accuracy with match grade factory loads or properly tuned handloads.

Although both cartridges are excellent for hunting or target shooting, they are not without their disadvantages.

Some detractors of the 300 WSM will point to its rebated rim, claiming that this might inhibit the ability of the bolt to push the cartridge from the magazine into the chamber. The 300 WSM’s steep 35-degree shoulders also play a part in this critique, as some forum users theorize that the sharp angle might hinder smooth feeding into the chamber.

Although I will say that feeding a 300 WSM is not as smooth as the experience with other cartridges, I’ve yet to experience a jam.

For the 300 Winchester Magnum, most of the complaints center around the useless belt on the cartridge case. As you’ll learn later in the history of the 300 Win Mag, the belted case is an artifact from the parent 375 H&H Magnum case.

Early rifles used the belt for headspacing, which caused premature case stretching and thereby reduced the lifespan of the brass. If all you shoot is factory ammo and you aren’t into reloading, this is a non-issue. However, for handloaders it’s a serious problem as it means you will have to replace your 300 Win Mag brass more frequently.

Many 300 Win Mag rifles now have their chambers reamed to headspace off the case shoulders, which eliminates premature case stretching entirely.

The last strike against the 300 Win Mag is the painfully short case neck. Some long range target shooting gurus state that the 300 Win Mag’s neck is not long enough to securely hold the projectiles and maintain concentricity. In theory, this could cause the bullet to enter the rifling off-axis and affect point of impact for long distance shots.

However, based on the lack of complaints by military snipers who routinely shoot well past 1000 yards with a 300 Win Mag, I’m guessing this critique is more an online forum talking point as opposed to a real-world issue.

In the following sections, we will analyze the 300 WSM vs 300 Win Mag in detail so you can understand the differences between these two rifle cartridges.

The article discusses Sectional Density, Ballistic Coefficient, Trajectory, Reloading, Ballistics, and other aspects.

Dean Weingarten at AmmoLand:

On Tuesday, August 30, at about 6:50 p.m., James Little settled into campsite 674 in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area (BWCA). His youngest child was a few feet away.  His youngest cried out, and James grabbed the child and took a couple of steps, uncertain of what had happened.

Then his oldest yelled, “Bear!” and James turned around. The bear was about six feet from him. It had been within 3-4 feet of his back when the child was startled. This was the start of the remarkable incident. In James’ words:

Just finished a trip to Horseshoe that should have been three nights, but turn to one. (Campsite 674) Had a bear walk right into camp and within four feet of my youngest! Nothing would discourage him till I fired a couple of rounds.  We packed up and bolted to an open site (campsite 677) a half mile away on the other side of the lake. Weren’t there five minutes and was pulling up the food bag and my wife screamed. There was another bear fifteen feet away heading to our canoe with our kids in it. I had to fire another round before he would be deterred.  Left that site and unexpected BWCA.com member Ausable and his crew took my family and me in for the night. (Campsite 672) Early the next morning, we broke came and headed out. My family had had too much. Across from the portage from Caribou to Lizz, (campsite 645) the campers there had their breakfast intruded upon by a bear who would not be deterred till he had taken their food bag.

This correspondent talked to James, who reported the incident to the BWCA authorities.

James used a North American Arms mini revolver, the Wasp model in .22 magnum, with a 1 5/8 inch barrel. The revolver was loaded with Speer Gold Dot defensive ammunition.

Read the rest at the link.

Watch until the end where you learn the reason for this failure.  It’s quite common, actually, because of the similarity of ammunition case.

Check your ammunition.  Load it by hand, and watch while you do.

At SurvivalBlog, this is an excellent two-part post. A very brief history of the Boer Wars is offered then it’s almost exclusively weapons, ammo, purposes in use, and personal firearms considerations. Great stuff, tons of data, with much to consider and debate.

Part One

Part Two

Excerpt from Part Two:

Around here, .30-06 is more common than .308 Win.  The second most popular in my neighborhood is 6.5 Creedmoor (6.5CM), then 6.5×55, and lastly a wildcat for the AR platform, the 6.5 Timberwolf. Ideally, we would be best off to standardized on .308 Winchester. Yet .30-06 is still king in these woods. It is time tested and found to be the best all around cartridge CONUS, good for mouse to moose, and the occasional Griz, because it can shoot the heaviest .308 caliber bullets with a 1:10 twist rate barrel.

The .30-06 can also punch out a flat shooting 175 grain bullet at 2,800fps with H4831sc, H4350 powder, or other similar powders. It is appreciable flatter shooting than .308 Winchester, and far flatter than .308 Winchester’s military version, 7.62×51 NATO.  Yet we do pay the price in terms of a punishing level of recoil. Therefore, my ideal long range rifle would be the 6.5×55 cartridge in a modern action capable of 60,000psi with 29 inch bull barrel attached, however that rifle is only a dream rifle.

First of all, I don’t shoot Remington ammunition.  I consider it to be rather weak tea most of the time.  It isn’t awful, but there’s nothing special about it.

Second, that muzzle velocity for .45 ACP is quite low.  There is much stouter stuff around (Underwood, Double Tap, Buffalo Bore, etc.).

Third, I still think in many cases ball ammunition is a fine choice for personal defense.