Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Good .308 Loads

I always get a chuckle at "What's a good load for X caliber" questions. This now has some 34 pages with lots of 'good loads' but I doubbt any two are the same; there's a message in that!

To anyone out there with a bad shooting Ruger... I bought a Ruger Hawkeye .308 about four years ago
and was shocked to find that such a fine looking rifle wouldn't shoot more reliably than a 1.5� group..
I put one of those limb saver barrel de-resonators on it and that didn't help.. I spent many hours and many days reading forums looking for some insight to this problem... Found nothing to help..!!!
I tried many different reloads thinking just any time I'll find one that will shoot but finally gave up and went on to other guns for awhile... My LR/AR's all shoot submoa and have an H&R single shot 45-70 that easily shoots submoa with the FTX bullets.. And I figured out a load for a friends 7mm RUM that just shot a .375 group� So now I decided to get this old Hawkeye out and play with it again..
From playing with the AR's I decided to start out by putting a bipod on it to see what that would do.
After shooting a few different loads found that the bipod didn't help the groups at all.
I noticed that the forearm of the camo plastic stock seemed quite wobbly with the bipod on it and wondered if a plastic stock should be that limber. Then decided to replace the plastic stock with a laminated wooden stock... I left the de-resonator on the barrel but changed it's position from 3/4� from the end of the barrel to about 3/4� from the stock.... OMG.....!!!!
Today I shot 4 different load/bullet combinations at 100 yards and three were submoa the 4th might have been if I hadn't pulled the shot... I think I was in shock..!!??!!
This rifle has NEVER done anything like this before......!!!



I would of posted the pics of the targets but don't have a place to put them on the web..
These test groups were all fired from previous experimental test bags and the Varget bag only had 2 left.

All brass and primers used was Winchester..
IMR8208 44gr
Hornady 160 FTX 4 shots - 3/4� group

H4895 43 gr
Hornady 160 FTX 4 shots � 3 were � and pulled one made it 1.5� group

Varget 44 gr
Hornady 165 SST 2 shots - .25�

IMR 3031 43.8gr
Sierra 150 SBT 3 shots .4375� group

Guys I bought an FN Herstal AR Type 308 Winchester for hunting in the south.. anybody worked a hunting load for this gun??

I disagree; I have found that there are rules of thumb that can provide excellent direction when starting out w/ a new rifle.

I have worked with 2 Savage 308s in the past 2 months. One put 2 165 SSTs on top of one another when charged with 45 gr Rl15 in Win brass; the other did the same w/ 165 Interlocks, 44 gr Rl15, and Lake City Match brass.

This thread helped me find great loads for these rifles!

Thanks all,

Efw

For tractable cartridges like the 308 I've found that to be the case too.

In either LC match brass or equally heavy Federal match, I've found 39.5 gr. IMR3031 and a 168 gr. match bullet to be a reference grade load. This is in close to a dozen rifles.

44-45 grs of Varget and 165/168 of choice. Does this in mine!



Same 45-grs and 3-different bullets. Like said above hard to say what will work for an individual gun, but I love Varget!

yep, Varget is great. 3031 is also great in my rifles. re-15 also great. 4064 also great. both 4895's work great. I've been doing a whole lot of my .308 shooting with the 3031 load that mathman mentioned, just cause its so accurate and repeatable. its also easy on the brass.

What about loads with 180's? I don't see much for data for it. I wanna give some a go in my Montana/308 so looking for ideas.

Was thinking about trying 43 of Varget?

Thx

Dober

I used 44 gr of Varget & 180 NP Protected Points & BR2s in my 110. Under 1" with me on the trigger. Never chronoed it, just went out & killed stuff.

I've been curious about the 180's too. the data in the sierra and hornady manuals lumps it in with the 175-178g match bullets, and theres plenty out there for those. I usually see 43-44 g of Varget suggested for the 175 SMK. no first hand experience with that bullet weight though, I've always been content w 168 because I never shoot at 800-1000 yds.

If you're using thin WW brass, 45 grains and a BR2 or F210M works nice under a 180 Sierra. A Ballistic Tip may eat enough capacity to want less.

I had good luck with 178's and 43-44 grs of Varget. Never checked the speed, but was under an inch.

Seems 45 grains of Varget works well for many here. Another..

4 shot hole w/45gr Varget. 155 Berger-BR2 primer-Lapua Brass

2704 fps.

New to reloading. I have reloading manuals for speer, hornady, nosler, and barnes.

What's up with the hornady manual (8th edition)? There loading data for the 308 win seems to be a good 100fps behind (165 & 180 gr bullets)the other manual's loading data.

Yup! 45gr of Varget with 165 Accubonds shoots 3 shots in the 0.2s from my LTR.

I just returned from a long-range precision class in Alabama with Frank Proctor of wayofthegun.us. I shot a borrowed rifle, an older 26" Rem 700 police sniper rifle in .308. I loaded 46 grains of Varget with 168-grain Nosler BTHP's at a measured 2740 fps. Once I free-floated the barrel,five-shot groups at 100 averaged somewhere less than .5 inch, but were mostly a ragged hole. During class, once I established a range card, I could easily hit a 10x12" plate at 710 yards, and broke a clay pigeon at 685. Brass was once-fired Federal GMM with CCI 200 primers and loaded using a Lee collet neck sizing die. I do not have a .308 so I bought the dies a few weeks before the class and, being in a hurry, took the load right out of the Nosler manual, starting at 44.0 grains. Bullet runout was .002 or less. Another officer donated several hundred pieces of brass collected at a recent sniper school, and I got a good deal on 1,000 Noslers from Mid-South. I bought an 8-lb jug of Varget at a local gunstore. I had figured that the .308 would be easy to work with, and I was right. The 175's have a little better BC, but I was extremely satisfied with the 600 rounds I loaded for class and the 50 or so I used in load work-up. Don't know if I'll ever load for the .308 again, but I'd have to admit it was about the highest level of satisfaction with the least amount of effort than any other load work-up I've ever had. I've used Redding bushing dies before, but this was my first try with the cheap Lee collet dies, and I will definitely be buying more in the future.

I too have learned that reloading for a Remington 700P in .308 is, for lack of a better word, easy.

My best load right now is:
44grains Varget
Lapua Brass
168gr A-Max or SMK (interchangeable with same accuracy)
2.800 COAL
Rifle is a Remington 700 LTR 20" barrel
2568 fps if I remember correctly

If I go any higher in powder charge I start seeing pressure signs.

45.5 grains of varget , cci br2 , and a 150 game king shoots very well in my tc venture .loaded at 2.825 it is barely enough to fit the mag but it feeds fine . lapua brass works better for me also .

Any Powder recommendations for the lighter bullets 125NBTs
and 110 sierra sp? thanks
saw 1 for the 125 and 4198?
carl