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Berger 175 grain VLD bullets

1K views 6 replies 5 participants last post by  Grizzman 
#1 ·
Greetings,
I am looking for a 175 gr hunting bullet to replace the Sierra Match King 175 grain load in my M14 because I am a hunter. SMK's are not recommended for hunting because the jacket is too thin. There's not too many to chose from. There are a lot of 180 grain bullets but they are a little too heavy for the M14. I would load it to a similar velocity as the 175 grain SMK's. The Berger 175 grain VLD's have good reviews, but Berger recommends seating them out to the lands. That's a little too far for a gas gun. I would probably go with the recommended COAL. I don't want any chambering issues.
If you have any other recommendations, let me know.

Thanks
 
#2 · (Edited)
If you use an appropriate powder, a 180 grain bullet will be no less "safe" for the M1A than a 175 grain bullet. Select the 180 grainer you prefer, and load em up. If you seat them shorter than what the manual's data shows, then reduce powder charge a bit to compensate for the starting load,

For the 308 Winchester, I personally see little benefit to using a 180 grain .30 bullet versus a proven 165 or 168 grain bullet. Have you heard of the 165 grain Sierra Game King? It's been used for a looong time, and it still works well.

For a .30 Magnum, the heavies make sense for some situations.
 
#3 ·
Berger makes four different 175 grain bullets, including: "VLD Target" vs "VLD Hunting" bullets that look identical but must have different internal construction.

My guess is the target bullets have the same construction as the Sierra bullets, and their "Hunting" specific bullets might have thicker jackets and are thus better for hunting. The fact that Berger makes 4 bullets that are 175 grains but only 1 that is referred to as "hunting VLD" bullets is confusing. The part number for the hunting bullet is 30512, per their reloading manual.
 
#7 · (Edited)
I also thought that may be the case. I put 175 SMK and 180 grain Accubond into Infinity, with a muzzle velocity of 2500 fps. They're within 2" of each other out to 500 yards, and the Accubond impacts 7" higher at 700.If I slow the Accubonds down to 2450, they fly practically identically out to 750.

I don't use them, but I'm pretty sure there are multiple free external ballistics tools out there.
 
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