Nosler 168 gr Custom Comp

bacova · Sep 29, 2007

Just took delivery on a brand new T/C Icon chambered for .308 Win. I also have a couple hundred 168 gr Custom Competition Noslers to try out. Anybody care to share some loading data?

I can figure things out on my own, but it'd be nice to have a few recommendations for starting points. I don't have any Nosler brass yet, but I do have a bunch of Lapuas and about any powder/primer combination that may be suggested.

While we're at it I may as well ask for data on the 165 gr Partition too. Hopefully that'll be my hunting bullet.

Thanks in advance, Bacova

By the way, YES the Icon is as beautiful in your hands as it is in those TV and magazine adverts. My initial range trial produced sub-moa groups with Factory Rem Premier ammo. Now for the the good stuff, I doubt there'll ever be another factory round down the tube, not launched by me anyway.

Desert Fox · Sep 29, 2007

Excellent bullet and I believed better than the SMK. My recipe is 44.3 grain of BLC-2, Federal Gold Medal Brass, 210 Federal Match primer. Careful when using Ball powder though. They're very sensitive to temperature change. The bullet is also very consistent, weight wise. Here's what I found out when I made a comparison of different match bullet.

Match Bullet:

Overall winner: Nosler 308 J4 Competition 168 grain BT. Weight varies 1/10th of a grain. (168.2 - 168.3) Eight out of ten bullet have the same weight. 80% consistency.

No.2: Sierra 308 MK - 200 grain HPBT. Weight varies 2/10th of a grain. (200.4 - 200.6) Six out ten bullet have the same weight. 60% consistency.

No.3: Lapua Scenar 308 - 155 grain HPBT. Weight varies 2/10th of a grain. ( 154.6 - 154.8) Five bullet out of ten have the same weight. 50% consistency.

No.4: Hornady 224 Match - 53 grain HP. Weight varies 4/10th of a grain. (53.1 - 53.5). Four out of ten bullet have the same weight. 40% consistency.

No.5: Speer 7MM match - 145 grain HP. Weight varies 9/10th of a grain. (144.7 - 145.6) worst even when compared to hunting bullet.

Here's the ten shot group @ 100 yards:

JD338 · Sep 29, 2007

Nice shooting guys! 8)

That T/C Icon is a looker for sure!
Keep us posted on your range results.

JD338

bacova · Sep 29, 2007

Thanks D.F. After making the initial post I sat down and after some cyphering came up with 4 different test loads to try at the range tomorrow.

I've loaded up 5 each with IMR-4895, Varget, Vit N-150 and BL-C2. Just by coincidence my BL-C2 load is 44.5 gr with Lapua brass and GM-210m primers. Pretty close to your best load, considering I worked it up before reading your post. It'll be interesting to see how it shoots in my rifle.

One thing about the Icon. Most of my hunting rifles are Ruger #1s and I'm used to being able to seat the bullet against the lands if I want. This new Icon has a magazine which isn't going to allow me much leeway in seating depth. Indications from my initial range session suggest that I won't need much leeway though. Time will tell, I guess.

In my first post I asked about data for the 165 Partition also. I realize both bullets will accept the same loads, the 3 gr difference doesn't amount to much, but someone may have a good hunting load for the Partitions that's not so good an accuracy load for the comp bullets. Maybe I'll sit here tonight and load up some Partitions with the exact same loads as the comps and see how much they differ at the range. Seems like a good experiment to try.

Thanks again for the statistics, I enjoy pondering that stuff. :roll:

Desert Fox · Sep 29, 2007

Looking forward to see how that Icon perform. I don't have any 165 grain Partition load but, I do have one for 165 grain Ballistic Tips. I use 45.2 grains of Varget. My rifle is Remington Model 700 with 25" Pac-Nor Supermatch 3 grove.