I started out using primarily Federal Gold Medal Match 168g with an occasional box of Black Hill 168g Match. The rifel really liked the FGMM 168g out to 600 yards, and I constistently shot 5 round groups at .5 MOA. Beyond 600 yards, on a windy day, holding sub 1 MOA groups was less predictiable. Using the once fired FGMM brass, I began handloading the following…

Sierra Match King 175g bullet
Varget 44.5 grains
CCI 200 primer
Case trimed to 2″
Overall cartridge length of 2.8″

With this load, I lose a little bit of accuracy inside 600 yards, but I make up for it between 600 yards and 1000 yards. I think my rifle perfers the 168g bullet. While not typical, I shot a 4 round group a few weeks ago that was 5.8″ at 1000 yards with the hand load listed above.

Most of my shooting is at clay pigions from the 1000 yard line at my range. On any given day I will hit pigions 20-30% of the time. It doesn’t take much wind at this distance to start pushing .308 rounds off target from 1 to 5 feet. I continue to struggle to read the conditions, and improve my hit percentage. I don’t feel that bad about it though becuase many of the guys I shoot with are active or ex military or law enforcement snipers, and they often have the same problem reading the conditions. My next rifle will be either .338 Lapua or .408 Cheytac to increase hit percentage at 1000 yards.

I shot a 5 round .192″ group at 100 yards last night with this hand load but have done .128″ at 100 yards with factory FGMM 168g.

While the rifle is not cheap, I rarely question my equipment when I miss. I can’t say that was the case with my previous rifles. I can’t understate haveing faith in your equipment. As far as the ideal load for this rifle, I believe the Sierra Match King 169g bullet is your best bet unless you’re shooting beyond 600-700 yards. Unless I am mistaken, 800 yards is the effective range of the .308 round, so I would say the system is working as designed.

I shoot at TacPro shooting center in Mingus, TX

http://www.gunsandhunting.com/ae%20accuracy.html

Thanks

Secondly- the Barnes average I submitted to SI for this article (for 100 yards) was 1.6 MOA. The print edition of the magazine (November ’09) has it right. I’m not sure what happened on the electronic version but I’ll let the editor know. Thanks for pointing it out.

Lastly- I agree with the posters in both 2 and 3 above. The price is high for a 1 MOA rifle. However I only tested a small sampling of available ammunition due to time and logistic constraints. I have no doubt a good handload is out there and more to the point, after this test I laid hands on some Federal 168 gr. Gold Medal Match and it turned in steady 3/4 MOA performance at 100 yards (only distance tested). So again, there’s likely a happy factory load out there for the rifle I tested as well. I do all my testing in practical terms- prone/bipod, etc. It’s how I shot as a sniper and how I feel I get the best sense for the gun’s “shootability”. There are plenty of other folks out there firing from mechanical rests and writing about it.

Thanks