Hunting bullet recommendation for short barreled 308

[LongWalker]

We are regularly running our 152g Hammer Hunter to 3000fps in factory 22" barreled 308's. With 4" less barrel I would expect you to be 2800 to 2900fps. Your rifle set up my be perfect for our Sledge Hammer line of bullets. They are a lower bc larger meplat bullet designed for normal hunting ranges as you are talking about. BC makes little difference under 500y. Our bullets are pure copper and designed for impact speeds as high as you can push them down to a tested minimum of 1800fps. Our patented PDR design makes our bullets the easiest bullet to load develop that you can get.

Let me know if you have any questions. I will answer on the open forum or in PM if you prefer.

Steve

PS
Great looking rifle.

I'm trying the 152 Sledge Hammer in my 18" .308. What COL do you recommend to start with? I can easily hit the lands at mag length so anything short of that is good.

 

[GuroChris]

For a factory loaded offering, its hard to beat Federal Tactical Bonded Tipped 168gr .308win. I've shot a handful of deer with them, admittedly at relatively short range. Every one of them died in their tracks. Incidentally, I get the same drop and drift with that load as with FGGM 168gr sierra matchkings out to 400. (farthest Ive compared them on targets)

 

[hunter67wa]

I shoot 180 AB with a 20" suppressed I have enough velocity to open them to 550 yards and just loaded up some 168 lrab to try as they shot well

 

[RockyMtnMT]

I'm trying the 152 Sledge Hammer in my 18" .308. What COL do you recommend to start with? I can easily hit the lands at mag length so anything short of that is good.

If you are reaching the lands, I start 20 thou off. Not because it is magic, just a nice number. They don't mind jumping, seat them to function well in the rifle. If you start at longest COAL that functions well then it leaves you one way to go if you need to tinker seating depth to find good accuracy. Rarely do we have to mess with seating depth to get good accuracy.