I bought some of these a year or two ago to make a hunting load with. My Mosin shoots the SMK bullets really well but I never wanted to hunt with them. I loaded a group or two out of the SST a long time ago and they shot ok. I don't even remember how I loaded them and I totally forgot about even having these bullets. I saw a post on another forum asking questions about them and it jogged my memory. So I dug them out and loaded a group yesterday.
My book shows Varget to be one of the better powders for the 150 grain bullets and some digging online suggested the bullets liked .020" jump when loaded. My Lee book list 47 as the start grain and 50.5 as a compressed max. Knowing that this gun usually likes a light load I just grabbed right in the middle and loaded a 3 shot group at .020" jump and 48.5 grains of Varget. I was surprised to see it shoot a really nice 1" triangle. Plenty close enough already for minute of deer.
I loaded another group at 47.5 tonight to see if it tightens up or opens up. Depending on what it does I may try 49.5 after that.
I'm not looking to win matches with this load but if I can get them to shoot under an inch I'll be happy. If not I'll just stick with it around an inch. Even at that 300-400 yard deer shots should be no problem.
Just some FYI data. Polymer tipped hunting bullets are rare for these calibers. So that makes these pretty valuable
These bullets are available in a loaded round from Hornady. It comes in a steel case. It is in fact loaded with the .312" bullet. (Not a .308") The loaded ammo is EXCLUSIVELY sold at Cabelas
The .312" 150 grain SST bullets for reloading are sold EXCLUSIVELY at Graf & Sons.
Now the Data. This was hard to get a hold of, but very handy for those who like to hunt at extended ranges.
Weight: 150.15 grains
Length: 1.1855"
Diameter: .3125"
G1 BC: 0.375
If I tune this load in any further, I'll post some updates.
It is currently Thu Apr 18, 2019 9:29 pm
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