Long Range .308?

[Saloon slug]

I was just wondering if any one here is shooting their 308 Handis out to 800-1k yards on paper. I have shot my 308 Survivor on steel gongs out to 700 with some success. I would like to here you all's experiences.

Oh and what load was used?

[mechanic]

We have tried my son - in - laws survivor to 800 yds., but that is shooting at a steel gong, and walking it in.  I ran out of scope at about 600 and guestimated the rest.  With the right optics, it could be done, but so far I'll stick with my BC in 45-70.  Even with it, I would not shoot at anything I wanted to kill..........

Ben

[petemi]

My .308 Ruger will knock the head off a woodchuck at 400, but I've never taken it beyond that.  Is it pehaps it's because I can't see that far?  

Pete

[quickdtoo]

GeorgiaDave shoots his 308 Ultra at 300-500yds regularly, or did until he sold it.

Tim

http://www.gboreloaded.com/forums/index.php/topic,171930.msg1098804138.html#msg1098804138

[Saloon slug]

I remember reading his post awhile back still a good read.  I haven't gone to the level of load development that he has. Mostly I have been shooting off the shelf stuff so I have a supply of brass to reload. Even then I have had real good results with Rem Cor-loc 150's out to 500 on gongs and have used Winchester 180's out to 700 and been able to ring steel once I had the hold over down. I have all the faith in the world in my Survivor's ability to reach out and touch stuff. I had just never shot it for groups out that far and wanted to know if others had.

I will be moving back out west this summer and plan on doing proper load work up and then really ringing this girl out and seeing what she'll do.

[petemi]

once I had the hold over down. I have all the faith in the world in my Survivor's ability to reach out and touch stuff. I had just never shot it for groups out that far and wanted to know if others had.

My .45-70 Handi will dump a deer anywhere I can see it.....if I do my part.  My  .308 is the same.  Just learn your  holdover.  So many gun owners, myself included in earlier years, shoot their guns once or twice a year, and never learn them. Just about any modern cartridge will hit whatever you can adjust sighting for.  Will it kill?......depends.  Ya aint gonna kill a Buff at 500 yards with a .22.

Pete

[carbineman]

I was just wondering if any one here is shooting their 308 Handis out to 800-1k yards on paper. I have shot my 308 Survivor on steel gongs out to 700 with some success. I would like to here you all's experiences.

Oh and what load was used?

My buddies .308 has taken deer out to 405 meters registered on a Canadian range finder. Sometime back I purchased half a dozen boxes of the older style (now discontinued) 130 grain Barnes X bullets #30808 and one would have thought these bullets were sprayed with Magic Pixie Accuracy Dust. With a load of 50 grains of BL-C2 in a R-P case with a WLR primer with bullets .030 off the lands of the rifling, these rounds were the most accurate I ever loaded. I was using them in my 30-30 handi's for whitetail but found out this year that sometimes the older style would not expand and would just pencil thru the game animal. We have a 500 yard range near here and have shot there with the same success as well.

I am in the process of the switching to a conventional lead core bullet for hunting. Don't know what my buddy is going to do. If you have any desire to purchase/trade for the remainder of the bullets for target shooting let me know. Can't say enough about the accuracy they produced in H&R/NEF rifles.

[Darreld Walton]

My experience 'over the course' and at 800 and 1000 yards was with a match prepped M14 with NM iron sights, and the old 'white box' NM 7.62 ammunition using the 'standard' 173 gr. boattail bullet.
The rifle and load are adequate at extended range, but there are better bullets and loads available now, notably with 175 gr. Sierra MK's.  I thought for awhile that I was pretty hot "stuff", till I was introduced to a more experienced shooter and a Tubb bolt gun chambered to 6.5X284.....
With that M14 and load, I've shot several 'first round out of a cold barrel' X-ring hits at a thousand.
Doping the conditions out there are a LOT more important than the rifle and load, at least in my opinion, and the data I collected over time in my shooter's record book was invaluable for putting lead on iron way out there.

[Darreld Walton]

[/quote]

My .45-70 Handi will dump a deer anywhere I can see it.....if I do my part.  My  .308 is the same.  Just learn your  holdover.  So many gun owners, myself included in earlier years, shoot their guns once or twice a year, and never learn them. Just about any modern cartridge will hit whatever you can adjust sighting for.  Will it kill?......depends.  Ya aint gonna kill a Buff at 500 yards with a .22.

Pete
[/quote]
Plus one on that one, Pete.  Many folks don't know that the Ordnance Corps' acceptance standard for the old "Trapdoor" Springfield rifle was that it had to put 10 rounds on a 10" gong at a thousand yards, that with the original lead bullet/blackpowder load.  I believe that a good rifle with a good load, and a Trooper with some experience and a good spotter could've easily accomplished and met that standard.  Too bad there aren't any good color photos to show the damage to his shoulder after completing that string with that rifle!

[petemi]

Darreld, those old trapdoor loads won't hurt you.  I'm a skinny little guy and I'm pushing .45-70 405s to almost 2000 fps.  I wouldn't want to do it all day, but a few rounds doesn't bother me.  A good read on distance shooting with the .45-70 is Paul Mathews "Forty Years with the .45-70".  You can tell folks to read it and then come back and tell you the .45-70 "is only a 100 yard rifle".  Yeah, sure it is

Pete