Barnes Bullets 168gr VLC .308 getting fliers

CLP308

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I bought 3 boxes of these and loaded some up with 42gr of H4895 and shot them in with ok results. Shot a doe last year with them and it was awesome. I made a heart shot at 30 yds and it put a nice big hole.through both lungs and the heart. I was using non VLC data on the conservative side. Now this year I contacted Barnes for the proper data and they gave me a load of 43gr of Accurate 2230 for 2950fps. I loaded 10 rounds and shot them a couple of days ago. I got groups of 1" with a flier about 4" high and 2" to the right. Almost identical on both groups. Does anyone else load these? I'm hearing the coated bullets are not good for accuracy. I used Hornady 165gr BTSP before for .5-.75" groups. I may go back, but the knockdown wasn't as good.
 
I bought 3 boxes of these and loaded some up with 42gr of H4895 and shot them in with ok results. Shot a doe last year with them and it was awesome. I made a heart shot at 30 yds and it put a nice big hole.through both lungs and the heart. I was using non VLC data on the conservative side. Now this year I contacted Barnes for the proper data and they gave me a load of 43gr of Accurate 2230 for 2950fps. I loaded 10 rounds and shot them a couple of days ago. I got groups of 1" with a flier about 4" high and 2" to the right. Almost identical on both groups. Does anyone else load these? I'm hearing the coated bullets are not good for accuracy. I used Hornady 165gr BTSP before for .5-.75" groups. I may go back, but the knockdown wasn't as good.

+/- 0.4 to 0.5 gr of powder might make the desired difference. You might be right at the edge of a node with your powder charge and a slightly smaller or heavier powder charge might be all you need. Another consideration might be dies, competition type bullet seating dies might lower the runout and reduce the chance of flyers. That would be where I would start.

Cross
 
Thanks, I was already thinking of backing the charge down because recoil is really punishing. But even with the lighter loads I made before accuracy was marginal.
 
Way to small a sample to worry about one flier. Could have been a bad primer, case
even a defective bullet. As far as shrinking your group size: Are your cases annealed?
Have you played with seating depths? Have you done a ladder test/load work up?
Different powders? (not that the h4895 isn't a good choice)
 
Fliers can be caused by several variables, start with the above suggestions first, if those don't work (probably will) we can always suggest more.

The VLC coating will not effect accuracy at all, although full potentail may not be achieved until fully burnishing your bore with the dry film lubricant. Now as great as they are, (if you don't already know) the VLC and the XLC have gone the way of the dodo, they are no longer made (much to my chagrin), unless you have a ton of them or don't shoot a whole lot, it may be worth you time to switch over to the TTSX & LRX.

Just my .002
 
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