samt 0 Posted January 10, 2011 Report Share Posted January 10, 2011 Those of you reloading for saiga .308, what velocity are you getting and what is your load? 16" barreled guns I'm loading 165 gr hornady SST's pushing them with 46 grains of IMR 4064, CCI 200, in PPU brass. Velocity is 2600 Velocity doesn't change much at all if I use other commercial brass, even .243 brass I resized. +or- 30fps Military Brass is 100fps+ For Comparison, factroy federal 150gr sp chronys at 2400fps factory pmc 149gr FMJ chronys at 2450 My gun groups 3 inch at 100 yards, open sights, resting against a pole. WOuld probably do much better in a sled. Sam Quote Link to post Share on other sites
IndyArms 10,186 Posted January 10, 2011 Report Share Posted January 10, 2011 Sorry, I do not run ANY of my reloads through the Saiga .308...to me that is absolutely pointless. All my reloads are run through a Savage FT/R with a 30" barrel. I doubt a barrel twice the length would give you any meaningful data. What I WOULD recommend is seat your rounds so that they are just a few thousandths off the lands, and tweak the load charges up and down a half a grain at a time, and shoot for groups with the adjusted load weights. Likewise, you may want to try other weights of bullets in your saiga as well... 150, 175, etc... and adjust powder charges by a grain in several directions each way with those also... You might find the sweet spot that groups really nicely compared to just a few tenths of a grain in either direction with your specific rifle. Also, you can do really well off a bench, or even prone using rolled up sweaters, or jeans for a good stable rest. Obviously your resting stance like that will not be what you shoot offhand... but it WILL allow you to determine what your rifle is capable of with whatever custom loads you run through it. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
samt 0 Posted January 11, 2011 Author Report Share Posted January 11, 2011 Sorry, I do not run ANY of my reloads through the Saiga .308...to me that is absolutely pointless. I bought my saiga as a close range hunting rifle and wouldn't think of hunting with junk ammo. I guess you don't wan't to reload range loads when you can buy surplus or silver bear for $7 or less to plink with, or is there another reason not to load for it? I know lots of guys won't reload for autos, but i full length size and trim and have no trouble. Also I have found some benchrest guys that will give me the brass they are done with, because I'm going to loose most of what I hunt with I don;t care if it only has a loading or so left I don't need basic reloading advice ( I load 1000's of rounds a year for various calibers) I'm just looking for someone with saiga .308 16" barrel specific information. I'm not really going for accuracy (i mean it needs to be OK, but only a punk kid buys a AK to target shoot with), I will be shooting at running animals and will be moving most the time, so a 6" group at 100 yards would be fine. I just want to get the MAX amount of stopping power out of this thing. Sam Quote Link to post Share on other sites
IndyArms 10,186 Posted January 12, 2011 Report Share Posted January 12, 2011 Ah... Gotcha... I get where you are coming from now... Quite often we get folks who are just beginning into reloading and want to couple that with their Saigas... That was where my mind was... Since you are not new to reloading, I dont need to go into more detail, and blah blah... LOL The reason I dont reload for it, is I do not plan to hunt with it. I shoot Portuguese mfg. NATO surplus out of the Saiga, and it is not reloadable with the damn berdan primers. That shoots very decently. I also, as you mention, shoot inexpensive steel cased Barnaul too. That also shoots very decently... but neither of which are adequate hunting rounds being FMJ. I cannot hunt white tail with a rifle in my county yet, so that is the main reason I do not worry about reloading for the Saiga. If I *WERE* to be hunting white tails, I have other calibers I would use instead, were I to be on a stand with a longer range shot in mind. If I were to be on a drive, through the woods/brush and need to run a hunting bullet through the Saiga for fast follow up shots... I am confident that ANY reload I stuck in it would be accurate enough with iron sights to kill a game animal dead at 50 yards or less. As a quick snap brush gun... I cant imagine it would be that far off, accuracy wise, that whatever you aimed at would not be dead with whatever you were pumping through it. shoot a PM to Aksarben, I am not sure if he reloads for the Saiga 308... but I know hes gotten his 223 dialed right in to be scary accurate... Good luck!! Always love to chat reloading!!! LOL Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Dudethebagman 222 Posted January 12, 2011 Report Share Posted January 12, 2011 shoot a PM to Aksarben, I am not sure if he reloads for the Saiga 308... but I know hes gotten his 223 dialed right in to be scary accurate... He did reload for his 308, and with good results. http://forum.saiga-12.com/index.php?showtopic=40227&st=30 I'm one of those punk kids who reloads for his Saiga, inspired by Aksarben's success. I haven't been able to replicate his results, but still consistently get better groups than most people would think likely from a Kalashnikov (1-1.5 MOA). Not bolt action accurate, but good enough for my skill level. I'm not sure he's still around this forum though. I haven't seen him post in the last year. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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