So when I bought my Saiga .308 many months ago... it came with some supposedly "factory soft points." I took them out to the range and dialed them in at 100 yards. Well, needless to say it looked like a shotgun pattern. Very disappointed. Either way, at that point I just assumed that is what I would be getting from an ak platform 16" barrel .308. So I dialed them in to about 3" group at 50 yards and resolved myself to hunt at distance no further than that. Well bullets are still bullets and it gave me two nice bucks on opening day.
Recently, upon closer inspection of these "factory soft points", I have come to the conclusion that these are reloads... and very sloppy ones at that. The cases were all the same, but the COL, case length and Bullet seating depth vary from round to round. Pulling a bullet I find the powder also varies about .02 grain from round to round but fortunately still well in the safe zone... I now have a renewed hope for my Saiga!
Anyways, this last weekend I decided to try out some loads with my Hornady 150 Grain Interlock Soft Points. I tried 43.0, 43.1 and 43.2 grains of varget with CCI LRP and RP marked brass. Bullets seated for a COL of 2.77 (+/- 0.002)
All brass was full length sized and trimmed to 2.007, pockets cleaned and tumbled.
43.0 yielded approximately 2.25" group, 43.1 brought me in to 1.5" group and below... the sweet spot of 43.2 gave me 0.638" (All at 100 yards off a bipod and bench)
All shots were cold bore (ambient temp at approximately 52-54*F) and I tried my best to shoot in the lulls b/c of the ridiculous wind.
Needless to say, I cant wait to try these out in my buddies field stand this weekend! Come on out does!
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My Saiga:
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Max distance shown here is about 225 yards on the property (I wont be taking these shots)
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Recently, upon closer inspection of these "factory soft points", I have come to the conclusion that these are reloads... and very sloppy ones at that. The cases were all the same, but the COL, case length and Bullet seating depth vary from round to round. Pulling a bullet I find the powder also varies about .02 grain from round to round but fortunately still well in the safe zone... I now have a renewed hope for my Saiga!
Anyways, this last weekend I decided to try out some loads with my Hornady 150 Grain Interlock Soft Points. I tried 43.0, 43.1 and 43.2 grains of varget with CCI LRP and RP marked brass. Bullets seated for a COL of 2.77 (+/- 0.002)
All brass was full length sized and trimmed to 2.007, pockets cleaned and tumbled.
43.0 yielded approximately 2.25" group, 43.1 brought me in to 1.5" group and below... the sweet spot of 43.2 gave me 0.638" (All at 100 yards off a bipod and bench)
All shots were cold bore (ambient temp at approximately 52-54*F) and I tried my best to shoot in the lulls b/c of the ridiculous wind.
Needless to say, I cant wait to try these out in my buddies field stand this weekend! Come on out does!
[Broken External Image]:
My Saiga:
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Max distance shown here is about 225 yards on the property (I wont be taking these shots)
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