Range Report .308 175 SMKs VS 178 AMAX???????

[usmcmk12]

Has anyone has used both of these rounds (175 SMK and 178 AMAX) and if so are there any differences in drop/performance between the two. Specifically, I've been shooting Southwest Ammo's 175SMKs and was thinking about buying a batch of 178 AMAXs to try out. The AMAXs look cleaner than the SMKs (especially at the tip) so I was wondering if anyones has notice a difference or is this just a gimmick? Thanks for your help.

 

[Danco411]

Last Monday a friend and I were at MTC in Northern Michigan shooting from 300 to 1025 yards on the UKD range. He was shooting a Savage LRPV .308 with 26" Varmint barrel. I was shooting my Savage build with 26" Shilen Match bull barrel in an XLR chassis. His round was a 175 SMK in Lapua brass over 44.5g of RE15 CCI BR2 primer. I was shooting a 178 Amax in Lapua Brass over 48g of Alliant Power Pro 2000 MR with BR2 primer. We chrono'ed the rounds the day before. The SMK out of his tube averaged 2680 with an ES of 17. Out of my Shillen the Amax was 2753 ES of 9. 10 round strings.

Out to 600 our dope was identical. At 1025 his elevation was 34 MOA and mine was 32.5. Both were very accurate and made consistent hits. The wind was variable from 5-15. Our windage difference was never more than .5 MOA so I would say they are comparable bullets with the a slight nod to the Amax. Nothing that could be better or worse in different guns with different loads.

Note: I loaded both rounds using identical prep and process.

 

[Deerhunter 28]

I shoot both.
Pretty close.
Slight nod to the SMK's.
Both are great!!!!!


PSE EVO 60 Lbs.
Blacked out

 

[Joop]

My rifle (Savage 10FP) prefers the A-Max, but the difference is only slight.

 

[MarshRat1306]

I actually shot both through my SPS Varmint today. The 168 SMK were 1/2'' at 100 and the A Max were all but touching within 1/8'' 3 shot group. These were the Hornady TAP ammo done superbly well. I have always been a Hornady fan but with the price I got on 250 SMK I kinda turned to them for a while. I know its not 175 or 178 grain but I hope this helps.

Matt

 

[Rob01]

Both are almost identical BC but as you mentioned the polymer tip on the AMAX is more consistent which will give a more consistent BC. This is why people do meplat trimming to get all their bullet meplats the same. It's done for you with the AMAX.

Both bullets are accurate. Try the AMAX and see how they work for you.

 

[usmcmk12]

Thanks for the info

 

[Garvey]

When I was shooting 308 I did an experiment with the two. Both loaded with 44.2 of Varget, both seated one thousandth in the lands, same brass, same primer.

The A-max began impacting .2 Mil higher than the SMK at 400 yards, and maintained that to 800 yards, using SMK dope. More consistent bullet to bullet, and I gave the A-max a BC .005 higher than the SMK. After that experiment I only shot A-maxes, even hunted with them, and they do a great job of killing.

 

[KUSA]

The smk and Amax perform similar. However the Amax is much better on zombies so that makes it better to me.

Sent from my Galaxy S3 using Fapatalk 2.

 

[ccoker]

I have used 178 AMAX, 175 SMK and 175 Noslers interchangeably.

All with 44.2g of Varget.

 

[armydog]

I get better Velocity from the Amax around 50 FPS but my rifle likes the SMK's better.

 

[Hook Creek]

I've been using 175 smk's, Hornady 178 bthp's, and 178 amax. They perform similar, with accuracy being slightly better with the 175's in my rifle. I load them with the same amount of powder, and with my dies the same setting. With the dies like that, the smk's OAL is at 2.8 and the 178's is at 2.85. It works out because the 178's are so damn long compared to the 175's and you will start compressing loads real easy.