Muzzle velocity on a 20" .308

[rhineoshott]

I'm trying to figure out what my muzzle velocity is with my 20" length barrel .308. I'm shooting HSM 168 grain Sierra Hollow Point Boat Tail "Range" ammo. I tried to find a website with specs on this ammo, but couldn't.

Anyone have any resources I could use to find this out?
Thanks

[SA Friday]

There is only one way to answer that question. Chronograph the ammo out of your gun. Estimations will only get you so far.

[Outlaw1]

Just a point of reference for you, according to my Chrony setup at 10' from the muzzle of my R700 SPS Tactical, the following ammo comes out of the barrel at:

Federal Gold Metal Match 168gn - ~2450fps
Black Hills Match 168gn - ~2550fps
Hornady Match 168gn - ~2650fps
Hornady Superformance 168gn - ~2750fps

The Black Hills ammo wouldn't group for shit out of my rifle. FGGM shot as well as the regular Hornady, roughly .6 - .7 MOA. The Superformance stuff shot less than .5 MOA consistently.

After the 168gn ammo, I started shooting a little further and started reloading. I moved up to 175 Sierra Match King & Hornady AMAX 178 grain bullets. From what I've read, the heavier bullets are much more stable out past 600 yards.

FWIW, the Federal Gold Medal Match 7.62 x 51 175gn ammo shoots great out of my rifle and is pretty cheap. It's an identical twin to the .308 version, except it's loaded in military brass.

[C Ward]

Depends on the barrel a good match barrel will typically have more velocity than a factory one but not always . The only way to know for sure is to chrono the gun . Every barrel is different and ballpark numbers are just that . If you have good drop data to the yardages you can use a ballistics program to back calculate the velocity . In the the end velocity doesn't matter if you have good data for the drop just play with the numbers on the program until it matches and go from there .