Hello, I have a Savage Precision Carbine in 308. It has a 20" barrel and a 1 in 10 twist. I plan on using 168 grain Nosler BT's to hunt whitetails with this year. Have any of you used these for hunting before? If so, do you have any good load data? I have on hand Varget, CFE 223, Ramshot TAC, and H335. Thanks for all your help.
168 grain Nosler Ballistic Tips hunting load?
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backwoods83
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I use a compressed load of Varget or 4064, in winchester brass i'd at 44grns and work up, with lake city, lapua, or federal start at 43. I use cci br2 or fed210m primers, and a oal of 2.850". The 168 nbt is an excellent bullet they are very accurate in all 30 cals I have loaded them for.
I have some Winchester brass and some Nosler. I'll be trying both. How do the BT's seem to work on deer sized game?
backwoods83
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They work great on whitetail, just try to avoid bone at close range or things might get a little messy.
I load my 308 with 45 grns of IMR 3031 pushing 168 grn Nosler Ballistic tip. It runs at around 2650 FPS in my Remington 7600. I have taken countless deer with it at varied ranges and I have never had look very hard for anything I stuck with it. Every time I crack open a carcass I love it a little more than the last. The trauma in the soft tissue is devastating. I have given people some of my ammo to try over the years and they have always came back for more. They love it. Here in North Central Florida I know our deer are relatively small compared to most parts of the country but this load has served me flawlessly. I have no reason to think it wont work everywhere else. I don't mind sharing my experience with anybody. I'm not saying it's the best and I know their are better loads out there but I wont use anything else in my 308. Why fix what aint broke.
Nomosendero
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I wonder if the CFE223 will give the velocities the new Hodgdon data shows in 308?
I'll soon find out, I'm doing a ladder test with that powder this week.
I used it a couple times in Americas GA. The two oldest of my 3 daughters took their first bucks there. They were 13 and 11 years old at the time and I was one proud Papa. My oldest took a massive four point, it was a monster and My 11 year old took a nice 10. The 4 point was the bigger of the two. They both used my ole trusty Remington 7600 308 with the before mentioned load. Both were shot at around 100 yrds, and both died in their tracks. That was 4 years ago and this year my youngest is 11 and it will be her turn to join the ranks of her two older sisters. I will spend the summer with her shooting and getting ready. I'm more excited than she is. 
I have used both the 165 and 168 BT's, getting better accuracy in my rifles with the 165's. I get 2800 FPS out of my 24" MilSpec using 45.3 gr of Varget, Lapua brass, Fed210, loaded at 2.810 OAL. The perform very well from 50-500 yards on deer sized game, and produce .25-.5 MOA 5 shot groups. I have found Varget to have excellent temperature sensitivity compared to IMR 4895 which also gives good accuracy .
Max Heat
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I use nosler ballistic tips for practically all my centerfire rifle shooting, due to their superb accuracy & consistency, especially at long ranges. We have some pretty decent sized WT's here in PA, and the BT's take 'em down easily. As said, things could get messy, if bone is struck on the way in. But they still go down, just as quickly.
