.308 Load Troubles?

[Erick]

I am a rookie loader but have been making accurate .308s for a year or so. I haven't had any issues to date and recently loaded some 178 Amax.

I normally shoot just 100 yards with very good accuracy. Yesterday I had a chance to shoot 200 yards and wanted to verify a few loads that varied from 42.3 to 43.5 grains of Varget. I just switched bases on my Tikka Scout so I had to rezero at 100 yards. After doing so I shot at the 200 to see what kind of drop I was getting. I was a little confused to see a drop of 5 MOA at 200 yards.

Without a chrono handy I can only guess that it is shooting very slow. I am using a Hornady digital scale and calibrate regularly.

Any ideas?

 

[swampratt]

With 2550 fps and a sight height of .5" you will zero at 100 yards and be down a little more than 5" at 200 yards.
This is fun
http://www.handloads.com/calc/index.html

I look under ballistics calculator. on the sight if you can't find it from the link.

 

[oneof79]

I am a rookie loader but have been making accurate .308s for a year or so. I haven't had any issues to date and recently loaded some 178 Amax.

I normally shoot just 100 yards with very good accuracy. Yesterday I had a chance to shoot 200 yards and wanted to verify a few loads that varied from 42.3 to 43.5 grains of Varget. I just switched bases on my Tikka Scout so I had to rezero at 100 yards. After doing so I shot at the 200 to see what kind of drop I was getting. I was a little confused to see a drop of 5 MOA at 200 yards.

Without a chrono handy I can only guess that it is shooting very slow. I am using a Hornady digital scale and calibrate regularly.

Any ideas?

5 moa at 200 yards is close to 10 inches. Were your bullets dropping 5 inches or 10?

 

[Mitch H.]

I think you must be confused. 5 moa at 200y is a 10" drop. Your charge of Varget with the 178gr bullet should drop you roughly 4".and nowhere near 10". I load 44gr of Varget under a 175SMK in FGMM brass @ 2.82" oal and my drop at 200 is 1.75moa.

 

[Erick]

I believe it was actually 5 MOA. I dialed my elevation 8 clicks to get an idea and it was low. I returned to zero and shot again. After that shot, I held at zero and found the impact at the 5 mark in my scope. I held at five and shot, knocking the center out of the bull. I don't have much experience with figuring MOA and pretty limited experience reloading but this is a little baffling to me. Looks like I need to chrono a few loads and go from there.

 

[Old Fart]

Minute of angle is just under 1" at 100yds.

 

[JamesP82]

I believe it was actually 5 MOA. I dialed my elevation 8 clicks to get an idea and it was low. I returned to zero and shot again. After that shot, I held at zero and found the impact at the 5 mark in my scope. I held at five and shot, knocking the center out of the bull. I don't have much experience with figuring MOA and pretty limited experience reloading but this is a little baffling to me. Looks like I need to chrono a few loads and go from there.

Did you happen to measure distance betwen POI and POA in inches, or were you unable to retrieve the target? If your scope has an MOA reticle, were you at the proper magnification for it?

 

[ASP785]

What scope are you using?

 

[Erick]

Did you happen to measure distance betwen POI and POA in inches, or were you unable to retrieve the target? If your scope has an MOA reticle, were you at the proper magnification for it?

By gosh, I think that's it! Or at least partially it. Was at a 24 power. I never thought about not being at the right power when using the reticle.

I still believe it was shooting more than 4" low though. I need to go back and put some time in it and chrono.