THE HANDLOADING BENCH
308 Winchester Rides Again Part 3 By Laurie Holland
It appears that SRP cases are not well suited to chilly conditions with some powders, Viht N140 and N550 both struggling for instance. I’ll go a little further this month in these side by side tests looking at Palma v standard Lapua brass results using Berger’s 175gn BT Long- Range bullets and a trio of Hodgdon powders: temperature-stable, easy to ignite Australian made VarGet and H4895 extruded products; US manufactured ball or ‘spherical’ H414 / W760 that is reputedly much harder to fire up with consistent results. I’ll then make a start on the subject of heavy bullets, that is 190-grains and above. This was a subject I’d intended to address anyway, but found it also links into ‘Palma’ brass, most top GB F/TR shooters who use ‘heavies’ having switched to this case during the 2011 season.
BTLRs
Mid-weight Berger Long-Range BTs – the very effective 175gn (centre) and 185gn ‘Juggernaut’ (right). 155gn Sierra MK on the left for comparison.
While Berger’s 185gn BT Long-Range (BTLR) model has quickly acquired a reputation as a solid long- range performer, so much so it’s been nicknamed the ‘Juggernaut’ in US long-range circles, its 175gn sibling is less well known here.
As with the one-eight-five it offers a higher BC than the equivalent weight but older Berger 175 VLD at 0.264 v 0.255 in G7 values, but note that it’s marginally less efficient than the new 168gn ‘Hybrid’ which is rated at 0.266. (The 185gn BTLR is 0.283 for comparison.) An attraction of the 175, the BTLR’s trademark good manners in handloading matters like COAL / jump aside, is that a full-house load’s recoil with this bullet weight is as much as many sling- shooters can take before it affects scores. It’s also well suited to the slow rifling twists used in TR / Fullbore barrels, 1-13” being near ideal. An added attraction, for us in the UK anyway, was that it remained available throughout 2010-11 while the 185gn model seemed on permanent back-order with our Berger importers,
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