After yesterday's range trip, I found out that my SCAR-17 does not shoot Hornady Full Boar 165 grain well. The "group" - if you can call it that - was awful. We're talking 6" or greater dispersion at 50 yards, and hard to keep on paper at 100. For contrast, 147 grain Lake City XM80 groups at 2.5" at 100 yards. I don't reload, and I won't be getting to hog hunt enough to make reloading worthwhile. So, if you please, what bullets should I sample next?


[Range results from some additional testing down below!]

This message has been edited. Last edited by: ShneaSIG,

I'm a big fan of Federal Fusion.

They offer 150, 165, and 180 grain loads in .308. Try all three to see which one your rifle likes best.

And they're currently running a $5/box rebate too: https://www.federalpremium.com/promotions

I don't shoot your style of gun but this weekend I put 4 down in their tracks with a simple 150 grain Core-Lokt. Between around 80 and 200 lbs. I was shooting a BAR.

quote:

Originally posted by RogueJSK:
Federal Fusion

They offer both 150 and 165 grain loads.

I've read some complaints of poor expansion with the Fusion rounds. I take it you have had no such problems, yes?

No problems at all. I've used fusion bullets in .223, 7.62x39, .308, and .30-06 with good effect.

Fusion uses the same bonded soft point bullet technology as Gold Dots. (Federal and Speer are owned by the same company.)

Try the Federal Premium loaded with the 150 grain Nosler Partition. It's an accurate round in most of my rifles and penetrates well.

I just hit them with my HD load, 130gr OTM MK319. And from a SCAR 16, the 62gr OTM MK318.

Drops them every time. But honestly any decent 308 round center of mass on a pig will put them down.

quote:

Originally posted by ShneaSIG:
After yesterday's range trip, I found out that my SCAR-17 does not shoot Hornady Full Boar 165 grain well. The "group" - if you can call it that - was awful. We're talking 6" or greater dispersion at 50 yards, and hard to keep on papet at 100.

I know your other rounds shot ok, but that's so bad I would be looking for other problems. Do you have a torque wrench to ensure the barrel trunion screws are properly torqued to 62-in-lbs? Does the barrel look centered? Optic mount properly torqued? I'd also chamber a few of those rounds and then eject them without firing to see if you are getting some sort of bullet setback. They could be feeding strangely from the mag.

To answer your question, the Hornady Custom 165 grain interlock has always shot very accurately for me in my 17S and drops the hogs on the spot.

https://www.midwayusa.com/prod...-boat-tail-box-of-20


I also shoot the Hornady American whitetail 150 grain often with very good results. I got 400 free Hornady 150 grain spire point bullets with my reloading press, so I started loading these and they worked great. Once I ran through all of those I just started buying the Hornady American whitetail 150 when I needed ammo for a hunt and didn't have time to load some up. Since most of my hog hunts with my 17S were 150 yard shots max this round has worked great.

https://www.midwayusa.com/prod...pire-point-box-of-20

I could post some hog kill shot results with these 2 rounds, let's just say they were very effective with the pop-flop effect.

The Remington Core Lokt has usually been accurate in my rifles. Worth a try as it is easy to find, performs well on game, and not premium priced for testing.
If penetration is your concern, Remington makes a Hog Hammer round. Not cheap but a friend back in Georgia swears by them.

Whatever commercial hunting ammo shoots accurately should do the job, as long as it isn't FMJ or designed to fragment explosively intentionally. The hogs won't care what they get shot with.

I would be suspect of the condition of the rifle if I hadn't been able to immediately after shooting lousy groups with the Full Boar then load up some plain ball ammo and go right back to repatedly and reliably shooting groups pretty much as accurately as can be had with bulk ammo.

I guess there's just something about this barrel that doesn't like Hornady Full Boar. Every time I'd start to get something resembling a group, I'd get a grossly wild flier.

I've ordered up some Federal Fusion, some Powershok, and even a box of Federal's Nosler Partition load, all in 150 grain. We'll see how these fly.

I'll get my mitts on some CoreLockt, too, and some plain Hornady SSTs, and see what happens.

I LOVE the Nosler Partition myself. Grain weight is dependent on each rifle. I believe (I’ll check) mine prefers 168 gr. Devastating round for Hogs. Interesting that mine (Remington 700) did NOT like the lighter pills.

The Nosler Partition seems like a great, proven concept. I have a couple boxes waiting for my next range trip to see how my SCAR digests them. I'm a bit concerned that the exposed soft point won't fare too well getting bounced up the feed ramps, so let's hope that doesn't degrade accuracy too badly.

I've got some Federal bonded ballistic tips on the way (the ones that are based on the trophy bonded bear claw round), and I've also got some Federal Fusion MSR rounds, which have a more protected soft point but are still a bonded bullet. I'm staying in the 150-168 grain range for now since my gun has a 1 in 12" rifling and a 16" barrel. I've read plenty of folks who say their 17s like a 168 grain round the best, though, so who knows.

quote:

Originally posted by ShneaSIG:
I've read plenty of folks who say their 17s like a 168 grain round the best...

If they're taking accuracy, that makes sense. Many people shoot Federal GMM as their match ammo, which is offered in 168 and 175 grain versions with Sierra Match King bullets. There are FGMM loads in the 185-190 grain ballpark, but I don't think very many people use them.

Stepping down in weight is the 155 grain bullets, which is generally used in Palma-type competitions. I don't think very many people (other than Palma competitors) use them.

So....There are those who state 168 grain bullets work well in their rifles, but it's really that FGMM 168 shoots accurately in their SCARs. Because FGMM 168 shoots accurately in a whole boat load of rifles. Or maybe they think Hornady's 168 Amax loads are accurate, because 168 Amax shoots accurately in a whole boat load of rifles.

I suspect many of these shooters haven't tried Lapua's 167 Scenar ammo -- otherwise, they'd likely state that 167's shoot well in their SCARs.

Thanks, Fritz. The thought occurred to me that it had more to do with shooting match-grade target ammo than hunting loads.

I'm in search of serviceable hunting accuracy for shots that aren't likely to be beyond 125 yards, and will likely be closer, considering Missouri's woodlands and terrain. Something that shoots a 2ish-inch grouping at 100 yards will be quite sufficient.

I've had great success using the Barnes lead free .308 loads. I have to use lead free where I hunt, but I would likely use these rounds anywhere. They have put a fair number of hogs in my freezer. Not cheap, but effective.

Also where I hunt hogs I don’t think I’ve ever taken a shot past 75 yards. I’m not shooting out to 500. So many times those suckers are running away from me at a fast clip. Except when they are running right AT you!! LOL

quote:

Originally posted by sybo:
Also where I hunt hogs I don’t think I’ve ever taken a shot past 75 yards. I’m not shooting out to 500. LOL

Same here.

I finally got my SCAR-17 out on the range and shot some loads we discussed in this thread.

I had some Federal Power Shok 150 grain soft tips, some Federal Fusion MSR 150 grain soft tips, Federal Vital Shok loaded with 150 grain Nosler Partitions, and, lastly, some Federal Vital Shok Trophy Bonded 165 grain.

The Power Shok 150 grain SPs and the Fusion MSR 150 SPs shot great - I didn't measure, but groups were tight and consistent. About 2" (some a little better, some a little worse) at 100 yards - which is as good as I can ever do with any gun. The Fusion MSR and the blue box Power Shok might be the same projectile.

The Vital Shok Partitions gave me the best groups - again, I didn't measure, but I don't think any group was over 2". My best 3 shot group was about 1.5".

The Trophy Bonded was a bit of a disappointment. Groups opened up to 3" or so. One group was over 4".

It's odd, but I'm beginning to get the sense that any elongated bullets aren't going to fare so well from my SCAR-17 - the Trophy Bonded have a solid copper shank, and I think they're a little longer in overall projectile length than the other rounds I tried.

But, I'll be very happy slinging Fusion, Power Shok SPs, or Nosler Partitions. Of the three, I think I'd go Partitions - they've got a pretty good track record, and they shot excellent.

Fusion is about the cheapest ammo. It is not bad either. It shoots well for me generally. It is not my go to hunting round. But could be as it prints pretty well on paper.