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Hornady .30cal 168 AMAX


Chris

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Anybody shoot these from a bolt gun? What kind of load/powder are you using?

Just wondering how these work to say 600 or so.

I can't find any 168/175 SMK's in stock anywhere, but the AMAX's are available.

Thanks

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Chris - They're not going to 1k though. Of course, you're probably just getting this up for Ironman.

Rich

At Thunder Ranch they get to 1k fine as long as there isn't snow on the ground, they are supersonic out to 1200+ yards there. Altitude has a ton to do with external ballistics. ;)

Doesn't mean it's what I want to shoot for long range though! :ph34r:

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  • 1 month later...
You should be able to get 2700 easily. If it is an aftermarket barrel you can get close to 2800 with the 168's.

Its a Bartlein 5R barrel (whatever 5R means) from GAP.

So I'm looking for 2750+ fps?

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I know right! Takes the right combination of seating depth, neck tension, powder, bearing surface, and throat. It was quite lovely to see a 190 gr bullet get to 1000 yards with only 30.5 MOA of elevation correction from a 100 yard zero.

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  • 2 weeks later...
The 168 Amax works great to 600 yards. Try using 44.5 gr Varget seated to 2.82" COAL in Win brass with a 210M primer.

Is that 2.82" to the tip or off the ogive? I don't have one of those fancy ogive measuring things.. :)

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OK, so I worked up some loads and tested them out last week.

What I loaded.

168gr Hornady AMAX @ 2.825 COAL

Fed Brass

WLR Primer

Varget 44.5gr, 44.8gr, 45.1gr, 45.4gr

Of all the groups, the 44.8 group was the best at 200 yards. 4 shots all touching with 1 flyer. All the velocities, except for the flyer, were within 5fps, the flyer was 20fps slower. Average for the 5 shots was 2740fps.

All the other groups were 2+ inches, but all impacted in roughly the same place, just a tad high right. ES and SD for these groups was high as well.

I was shooting off a bench with a bipod, but wasn't using a rear bag so I was moving around quite a bit, which may have contributed to the group size.

I'll try the 44.8 again to see if I get repeatable results and if it works, I'll stick with it. Is there anything else I should try?

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  • 6 months later...
Its a Bartlein 5R barrel (whatever 5R means) from GAP.

So I'm looking for 2750+ fps?

It means it has 5 lands and a right hand twist. Same as the M-24 Sniper rifle only 2" shorter.

Remington offers this type of barrel in their 700 SS. I bought one several months ago and found it to be extremely accurate with either 168 or 175 gr bullets. This design claims to be easier to clean and doesn't deform bullets as much due to the rifling being "hammered" rather than button cut.

Edited by amlevin
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Another powder for this load is IMR 4895 loaded to 2.800" OAL.

2100 2200 2300 2400 2500 2600fps

35.0gr 36.6 38.3 40.0 41.6 43.3*

This is from the Hornady manual. The test rifle is a Winchester 70. The barel is a 22", 1 in 12 twist. The case is Hornady/Frontier. The primer is Federal 210. Max case length is 2.015" Case trim length is 2.005"

*this is the max load for this table.

I did notice that the max load for Varget on this table was 43.3 for 2600fps, but that was at the 2.800" length.

More of this table that specifies this bullet is available at www.hornady.com/ballistics

The manual states this and Varget as the best performing powder for this cartridge in all ranges of bullet weights. (I am looking to reload this and have been researching. Saw this thread and thought I would add.)

Thanks, JZ

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