Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles best 308 powder ?

If you can find it. In the meantime TAC works pretty well.

IMR-4064, H-4895, Varget depending on which rifle I’m loading.

Varget has always been king for accurate bolt gun loads, from 130 to 180 grains for me.

As of late, CFE-223 boots 150gr e-tips and 176gr Lehighs to very impressive velocities and accuracy from my 7.62 REPR's, they all wear 16in barrels.

New WW brass
52gr CFE-223
150gr E-Tip
Fed-210
COL 2.810
Vel 2716 fps

With one on the pipe, and 25 round p-mags stoked with 150gr e-tips at 2700 fps is a whole lot of accurate hellfire for a 16 inch house/truck/farm tractor gun that will moa 200 yard steel.

I used Varget without trying anything else for years because it worked well for me. But I had to switch to IMR 4064 when I couldn’t find Varget and that seems to work better for me

May I suggest Varget?

CFE223, just under max, over 150 Interlocks for me. over 2900 fps and 1/2 moa accuracy.

RL15, H4895, Varget, and CFE223 are on my shelf, although I'm about out of Varget. H4895 is my go-to pick right now with the 150gr bullets I'm shooting.

I use Varget mostly as well but was wondering if anyone's tried VhitaVuori N540 for .308 Win. I use that powder for .375 H&H and like it. It's probably a bit slower than Varget though but readily available.

I have some CFE 223. I’m gonna try some

I loaded for 2 different Savage 16 Weather Warriors. Both were better than MOA with 150 SST. One shot best with IMR 4064 and the other with Varget. 4064 is easier to find and I have a lot more of it than I do Varget. I have a .30-06 that absolutely does best with IMR 4064. Both it and Varget are good for bunches of different cartridges.

PP 2000MR works great. I get top speeds and it meters well even from the progressive. Great powder if you have a hungry ar10 to feed and a progressive press. I use it with 175 or 178 bthp's a lot. I also use varget and a 155 scenar in a lot of my bolt guns.

Bb

Varget, RL 15, CFE 223. I've only used the last one a short time, but it shows promise,. muzzle velocity wise and accuracy wise. I will be working with it some more in the near future. Varget, IMO, is the bomb for 308.

Depends on bullet weight and barrel length.

Varget has been one of the best in all my .308's, from 16.1" to 22" barrels.
BL-C(2) is a good choice because it meters so well and gives good results on target.
CFE223 is the winner for light (130g) bullets in my 16.1" Ruger Scout.
Benchmark provided some great targets ( 0.1" to 0.5" groups with 168g bullets) with a Rem M700 BDL I later sold. Did not try it in the others.

I had the best accuracy with two 308s with Varget.

About a decade ago, AK_lanche (Luke) and I tested Alliant 2000 Mr in a bison legal 308 win 200 grain load. We found that the accubond was too long, chewing up capacity. I switched to 200 grain partitions and he switched to 200 grain woodleigh. The flat base spitzers gave 2500+ fps from his 22 inch barrel kimber. 2450 fps in my 20 inch barrel savage 99.

Since then, I've used Alliant 2000 mr for countless caribou and moose in the winter and fall. Always a 300 grain swift A-frame from the 9.3x62.

A 200 grain bullet at 2450-2550 fps is outstanding, bison legal kill power right there.

N140 with 155 scenars is very accurate my two 308s, meters well also

I've gotten great accuracy in several 308 rifles using Varget BUT always with loads 2-2.5 grains less than max load. H4895 gives almost as good accuracy and higher velocity with near max or max loads. Never tried RL15

I had 8 lbs of it so that is what I used. With the right bullets it's been accurate on paper.

kwg

Back in the day when I was reloading .308 I used IMR 3031, IMR 4895 and WW 748.

The real question is what is a bad powder for a 308. It is rather easy to find a powder to give decent accuracy. Today, the bigger issue is availability.

I have used 3031, 4895, and Varget.