308 Win bullet seating blues

R

Roy Allain

Guest
308 Win bullet seating blues

I have an out of the box Rem 700 in 308 Win. It shoots great, but it can do better, but!!!!

I can seat 168 gr. Sierra Match King bullets to just touch the lands. However, the bullet is in the neck only approx. .062 in. or maybe a bit less. The bullet can be popped out by barely touching it and I’ve already opened the bolt to remove a live round and dumped a case of powder in the action. ARRRGGH! I want to begin at the jam which is probably .015 to .020 or more further into the lands.

I can’t see a solution short of re-chambering, but is there something I’m missing?

Help me here fellas. Please.
 
Your not missing anything. That seems to be the norm on factory chambers these days. Gun will have to shoot with a jump or rechamber the barrel.

Tim
 
Friend has a similar problem with his Remmy.
Buy a box of 168 and 178gn Hornady A-Maxes. The A-max line has a substantially longer bearing length than most. See if they'll shoot for ya.
If memory serves the 168smk has a one of the shortest bearing lengths in class.
Either that or buy a Savage, unless things have changed lately they have no lawyers dictating chamber specifications.
 
Roy,
You may be surprised at how well the 168's shoot jumping .040 to 060". Try it. I have recently become an NRA, F-Class, Sharpshooter, shooting F-TR using 168's seated .040 off the lands.
Richard
 
Some rifles and some bullets don't mind a pretty goodly jump, so like others have said jump 'em and see what they do. If it wants the bullets up close to the rifling, it's rechamber time.
 
Yeah guys. It's as I expected based on my experience over the years. I guess I was hoping for a miracle. Many Thanks.

It's off to new barrel city.
 
Roy, why if the rifle shoots well do you have to rebarrel it? I shot a Rem 700 VSSF till somewhere just short of 7,000 rounds and for the first 4,500 it avergared .35 MOA, and 2,500 of that was with 168 SMK's loaded to 2.820" COL. The SMK is very tolerant of jump, and getting a tuned load with both powder charge and your seating depth is the name of the game. The bullet could care less how close to the lands it begins, it is the consistancy of the muzzle position at departure which will tell the tale.
 
308sako. I hear ya. I'm planning on doing some further testing with .010, 015, 020, etc. However, a new barrel will be ordered win thin a week, to be chambered in either 6BR; 6x47 ie 6.5x47 lapua. For either 600 or 1000 yards or both. I haven't decided yet. The prone shooting at 600 yards swells my rear. I just don't know yet.

Ritchie Freibert will be making a switch barrel setup with the 308 and/or the 6BR, etc.

Thanks all, for the info.

Roy
 
I've read many times that Remmys have a long throat. My Savage has the opposite problem- it has a short throat. At standard .308 COAL, a 175 SMK is .005" into the lands!
 
I think you will like a 6Br with the long throught for the 105 and up bullets. New records are being set at 600 with them.
The recoil is way down. In the prone you could shoot all day long and still be in good shape at the end of the day.
After a while we all get recoil sesative. Its easy to load for too.
 
I hear that Gerry. My first really accurate was a 6BR. Then I got a 6PPC. Now it looks like I'm going to have both. I'm getting too old for this. I just wanna shoot my 45's.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top