Awesome target bullet for .308 cal
This 185 gr Berger Juggernaut bullet met all my expectations for a target bullet that would produce hand loads with a group precision (AKA: Extreme Spread) for a 10-Rd group of 1.0 MOA or less, and would have good performance beyond supersonic range (i.e., SS range is 1,000 yd with my hand-loads with this bullet) to 1450 yds in my AR-10 style .308 semi-automatic rifle with a 1:10, full heavy profile, 20" barrel. Weighing 15 bullets picked at random out of the box using a balance beam scale: avg = 185.08 gr with a standard deviation of 0.07 gr, & range of 185.01 to 185.15 gr, which is typical precision for well-made target bullets from Berger & other manufacturers. The avg. group precision (Extreme Spread) for three separate groups (10 rd/group) after doing load development to find the "sweet spot" of velocity & barrel harmonic vibrations was 0.92 MOA, which isn't bad for a semi-automatic rifle. Bolt gun shooters should be able to reduce their group spread with this bullet to 0.5 MOA or less. The range of group spread for the three, 10-Rd groups fired at different times was: 0.73 MOA (I sorted bullets by wt. for this group), 0.99 MOA, & 1.05 MOA. Testing the performance of the bullets out to 1300 yd (the current limit of Elevation in my scope E turret plus 30 additional MOA in reticle holdover) on a steel target 2 MOA diameter was very pleasing! When I receive my back-ordered cantilever scope mount with 20 MOA of built-in cant, I'll try this bullet out to 1450 yd, which is the furthest distance we can shoot at a nearby local range. Note: I used the multiple G7 BCs based on velocity bands given in the book by a well known ballistics expert among long range precision rifle shooters to calculate trajectory & wind deflection using a ballistic software program that allows entering custom bullets using multiple G7 BCs. I used a different point mass ballistics solver program to calculate Gyroscopic Drift (AKA: Spin Drift, which is a significant 1.9 MOA RH deflection at 1300 yds with this bullet & 1:10 twist barrel), and made my own Excel program to calculate horizontal Coriolis deflection at my latitude which becomes significant at 0.5 MOA at 1400 yd on a 2.0 MOA target. This bullet has a G7 Form Factor of 0.981, which means it has 1.9% less drag than the G7 standard bullet. A .981 G7 Form Factor is not sufficient for VLD bullets needed by the ELR shooters out to 1 or 2 miles, but it has been sufficient for me to consistently engage targets out to 1300 yds, which met my objective. I'm very pleased with this bullet's supersonic & subsonic performance, as it met all of my objectives. The only disadvantage is the price/bullet is pretty pricey, but good quality costs money!
