The 'Four Bullet Challenge' for the Texan .308

[Steelhead]

After messing around with my Texan .308 at long, long range for a couple of months I've brought things back to the practical side of things and have begun to work on small details to improve my sub-200 yard performance. While working on the distance I was also learning to cast and discovering how much of a difference quality molds/sizing makes. I have four bullet molds that all perform reasonably well (and a couple that are terrible)

This morning I went out to resight in my gun as I had the FX no-limit rings jacked up for the 500 yard stuff. After sighting in I figured I should give all four of my 'go-to' bullets a head's up contest at 100 yards, side by side, tethered, and 5 shots each. All bullets are sized to .309 and lubed with 10 wt. RC shock oil.

The first round was the NOE .308 154 FNBT (upper left of first picture), NOE .309 154 FNBT hollowpoint (upper right of first picture), Arsenal .309 115 FNGC (lower left corner), and NOE 135 FNBT (lower right corner)  The first round winner was clearly the Arsenal 115 and second was close, but I gave it to the NOE hp.

For the final round it was Arsenal 115 (bottom second picture) against NOE 154 hp (upper middle second picture). Once again the Arsenal was the clear winner. I'll be honest, this is no surprise to me as I have found that the Arsenal bullet has been the most accurate for me since I picked up the mold some months back. The NOE 154 mold is relatively new and both the solid and hollowpoint were showing great promise at extreme range...especially the h.p. I had not shot them at short range until this morning (got the mold about two weeks ago and I was all set up for long distance) That being said, for paper punching, varmint hunting, or turkey hunting (legal here with ag's) the choice is the Arsenal 115. I bought this mold on a group buy through Airgun Nation. I specified .309 w/gas check and that it what I received, however it is listed on Arsenal's site as '.313-115-RF'. Kind of a homely bullet but compared to every other thing I've shot it's a few notches above accuracy-wise, and that includes long range to 300 and 400 yards as well.

Note: there are two black sticker/dots on the steel; one in the middle and another partial lower right. The other three were blown off.

[Loren]

Nice shooting! 

[Steelhead]

Thanks, Loren. Admittedly nothing special; just a realistic example of Texan performance with no 'cherry picking' groups for bragging rights. More than anything it's just an example of what different bullet styles can do for accuracy. Here's the pics from the 200 yard test I did a few minutes ago. It's interesting to note that in both tests the h.p NOE bullet liked to stack two or three shots and then change POI and do the same thing (it did the same thing on my long range tests too), while the Arsenal is just overall more consistent.

This is what I'm trying to figure out now...some of the how's and why's.

[tnt76]

Nice shooting.

How fast are you pushing these?

[Steelhead]

I haven't pulled out the chrony in a while and I haven't run the 154's through it yet. Based on some other 150's that I've shot I would guess the NOE boattails are between 915 and 925 and the Arsenals are in the mid 930's. I'll admit that I'm not a "chrony junkie" and I don't pull it out often. I HAVE run a lot of bullets through it though and I have a fairly good idea of what they're doing. A wise old shooting mentor told me once, 'the proof is on the paper and deer can't do math anyway'.

[tnt76]

Thanks Steelhead,

I agree, and I have heard it said here before that "bullets didn't go to school". 
I like to ask and have the information in writing for future searching, that can help others narrow down on bullet selection and setup hints.  Saves a lot of air, lead, money and time.

One of my goals with my 308 Texan is a sub moa group untethered, whether it be a 3 or 5 shot group will depend on achievable fps and fps spread. Finding preliminary data saves alot of time finding ballparks.

[Steelhead]

4/5's power wheel, 2925psi on a Joe B. inline regulator, shot off of the Born Wild Chair, and older version Hunter Supply (original AAO model) suppressor.

At that tune (filled to 3000) I get three quality shots untethered to 200 yards but that's it with the last one being maybe an inch or two low. If you lower the power setting you might get five. Shot count/curve was never a concern for me with this particular gun.