savagecorn muffin:
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I never understood why the 168gr is almost a 30 cal match standard.
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That all started in the late 1950's by folks at the US Army Marksmanship Unit's folks wanting a good bullet to use in 300 meter free rifle matches in Olympic and other international competition. They got in touch with the folks at Sierra Bullets and came up with the 168-gr. 30 caliber match bullet as a good compromise between recoil and wind bucking abilities when shot from the .308 Win. case. It won a lot of matches and set some records in the next few years. Frank Snow, one of Sierra Bullet’s founders, deserves credit for that bullet. See the info in the link below:
http://riflemansjournal.blogspot.com...-cold-war.html
It was also used in a .308 Win. rifle to win the 1963 High Power Nationals. And in the next couple of years, that bullet in the .308 Win. case broke all the 200 and 300 yard records held by the .30-06. 'Twas also used in some benchrest matches back then and all those stool shooters were amazed at how accurate it was.
Sierra's 168-gr. 30 caliber match bullet shot from .308 Win. cases was their first bullet larger than 24 caliber to shoot lots of 100 yard 10-shot test groups in the ones; under 2/10ths inch. Some went into the zeros; under 1/10th inch.
Too bad it wasn't popular for target use at ranges beyond 600 yards.
That bullet was the first 30 caliber hollow point match bullet Sierra made. It's boattail-body juncture had much smaller irregularities than their 180 and 200 grain 30 caliber FMBBT match bullets. A couple years later, those two heavies, along with a 190, all had hollow point bullets. 'Twas the success of the 168 that led to all 28 and 30 caliber match bullets Sierra made to have hollow points.
Thanks, Jimro, your comments spawned my ones added to this post.