Picking a new hunting round for my .308

[horsey300]

I voted for the 165 grain Nosler because it made the most sense given your criteria. I personally would stay away from pure copper. If you haven't heard, you need to go up one size in order to maintain the same efficiency as in lead. I personally would recommend a 165 Hornady Interbond or a 165 Nosler Partition. Be sure to practice with your final choice at the range, you will find your results to be a lot different than the published info on each bullet.

You mean down in weight for terminal efficiency, or up for ballistic coefficient?

 

[Thomasss]

You mean down in weight for terminal efficiency, or up for ballistic coefficient?

Go up in weight one size.

 

[horsey300]

Go up in weight one size.

Not wrong there, and where I hunt b.c. matters, but this is not the case everywhere. I have hunted in places where my old round noses were plenty sufficient....

 

[FL-NC]

Any of those rounds should be just fine, assuming the rifle (and you) will fire them accurately at the distances you are looking at. I started buying soft points for hunting from Norma (mostly due to availability) and I am happy with the accuracy they get out of my rifles and how well they are working on deer. No chronos or anything like that, just zero at 100 and look at the group size, then confirm adjustments on a 6" plate at whatever I think my max range may be. An accurate 308 SP in the vitals at 250 yards should have no issues on a deer, pig, or coyote.

 

[Kevinq6]

The 130gr TTSX was accurate in my gun yesterday, so now I will see how it does on a pig. Thank you everyone for sharing.

 

[Kevinq6]

I harvested a 181lb boar with the 1380gr TTSX last weekend. The shot was from about 150 yards.

Pig didn’t go anywhere though that’s hardly surprising given the placement. As I expected from reading other forums, rifle damage was 1-1.25in wide but without a bunch of fragmentation.

I think I will stick with this found, and just watch the range to make sure the bullet is going above 2200fps. I have one shooting lane where I may be able to test it on a pig at 270yds. My max range for a deer shot is 200.

 

[BreechFace]

I would go with either the 130gr TTSX or 150gr Hornady CX. And normally I'm a Accubond guy, but given your criteria; not this time.

For the ranges (<250 yards) and given the game you are talking about (deer, coyotes and pigs) you are talking about I would go for muzzle velocity over BC. Until one gets out past 300 yards, BC doesn't have near the effect and the muzzle velocity of the cartridge will have a better contribution to your endeavors than ballistic coefficient.

It's always a balancing act on what one needs with projectiles. Balancing expected distance, time of flight, sectional density, and bullet construction.

When comparing high powered bottleneck cartridges as is discussed here, my thoughts are:

Muzzle velocity and matching sectional density and bullet construction for the game in question is king on >200 yard shots.
If longer range shots on game are expected then I would start running ballistics and see where the BC of longer projectiles start to take over on drop and wind.

And I always try and consider "time of flight" as that can provide better results on moving game, wind, etc.

 

[Kevinq6]

I would go with either the 130gr TTSX or 150gr Hornady CX. And normally I'm a Accubond guy, but given your criteria; not this time.

For the ranges (<250 yards) and given the game you are talking about (deer, coyotes and pigs) you are talking about I would go for muzzle velocity over BC. Until one gets out past 300 yards, BC doesn't have near the effect and the muzzle velocity of the cartridge will have a better contribution to your endeavors than ballistic coefficient.

It's always a balancing act on what one needs with projectiles. Balancing expected distance, time of flight, sectional density, and bullet construction.

When comparing high powered bottleneck cartridges as is discussed here, my thoughts are:

Muzzle velocity and matching sectional density and bullet construction for the game in question is king on >200 yard shots.
If longer range shots on game are expected then I would start running ballistics and see where the BC of longer projectiles start to take over on drop and wind.

And I always try and consider "time of flight" as that can provide better results on moving game, wind, etc.

Yessir! I just posted an update above, 130gr TTSX working well so far. I am curious about the Hornady CX but I wanted the velocity of the 130gr TTSX. If I had a 30.06 I might go with the CX just to try it.

 

[tdbmd]

It’s about time for me to buy more hunting ammo so I decided to look at how some rounds might perform out of my rifle. I have a .308 with a 16in barrel so according to what I could find online, subtracting 250fps from the box velocity should be about the velocity out of my rifle. I would test the drop at the range to confirm.

The rounds I am considering are listed below. My main priority is hunting deer out to at least 250yds but I also hunt wild pigs and coyotes.

130gr Barnes TTSX (3125fps Ballistic Coefficient: .350)
150gr Hornady CX (2900fps Ballistic Coefficient:.418)
165gr Nosler Accubond (2840fps Ballistic Coefficient: .475)
175gr Lehigh Defense Controlled Chaos (2600fps Ballistic Coefficient: .467)


130gr Barnes TTSX

View attachment 1144259

This is a solid copper bullet and the lighter weight allows it to go fast. Barnes recommends a minimum of 1800fps for some expansion and many hunters recomment 2000-2200fps as a preferred minimum. The calculator shows it holding over 2200fps past 250yds. This round also shoots very flat, within 3in of aim out to 250yds.


150gr Hornady CX
View attachment 1144260

This is Hornady’s new copper bullet. Supposedly the gliding metal gives you 200fps extra but I would just have to see. Hornady recommends a minimum velocity of 2000fps. If I choose 2200fps just to be safe and ensure good damage then this round would be good out to 200yds. I could shoot some pigs at 250yds to decide if I would use it on deer at that distance.


165gr Nosler Accubond
View attachment 1144261

This is a bonded bullet designed to shed around 30% of it’s weight and then have a smaller base penetrate deep. The minimum velocity for expansion according to Nosler is 1800fps but this will be above 2000fps out past 300yds out of my gun. I have shot a pig at 215yds with this round and the rifle damage was good.


175gr Controlled Chaos
View attachment 1144262

These non-lead bullets are known to create a high amount of damage by shedding weight quickly. The minimum velocity for expansion is 1500fps so there would be no problem there. I’d be interested in seeing how accurate these are at range. Meat damage may be a little more than I’d like but on a lung shot it should produce very quick kills on deer. Not as flat shooting as the other options.


This post is just for fun, please let me know which one you would use or if you would add another round to the list. Right now I would need to test all of them except the 165gr Accubond for accuracy.

I just loaded Barnes TTSX for a Colorado elk hunt. Was lucky enough to connect on a 5x5 bull and the TTSX worked great. 2 shots at 177 yards with complete pass through and the elk was down within 5 steps. My father then used the same hundloads for deer hunting 2 weeks ago. He connected on 3 deer from 125 to 160 yards. This was the first time I had used the TTSX personally but had seen them used by others. I have been impressed with their performance and accuracy potential. These were 180 grain from a .30-06