Too windy to fish this weekend so spent some time at the range. As a result, I have a '53 FW in .308 shooting about how I want it to:



48g of StaBALL Match, BR2 primer, WW cases and a 155 Scenar going at 2860

Sweet. Looks good and shoots good can’t ask for much more than that.

Looks good! You don't list jump to lands, but that Scenar is a bullet I have found to shoot best up close to the lands, 0.010 or less. Might be worth a test group.

Looking good. I've never tried StaBall match. Got to love it when your Winchester model 70 shoots well. How was the rest of the outing? Was that group shot during load work up?

No, load work up started last summer and then again this spring. I tried Nosler E-tips and TTSX, Scenar outshone them from a thumbnail point of view so I continued working with them.

Varget was unimpressive, I had a TAC load that I liked but when I tried the StaBall Match, it looked very promising and continued working with it turned out like this.

No need to go much further, the rifle is more accurate than I am. Conquest 3x9-40, Talley LW, original stock. I'm in a good place with it.

Sounds great. My buddies '53 fwt loves Varget and 150gr Hornady sp interlocks. The damn thing will cloverleaf that bullet in to tiny 5 shot clusters. I know guys love that powder, but that is the only 308 I've had experience with that liked that powder so much. Personally I've had better luck with RL15, BLC2, IMR8208XBR, TAC, and CFE223. YMMV I guess. My buddy actually shot his elk last January with that '53 fwt. He loves the thing.


His rifle after I glass bed it into the Mcmillan Hunters compact^^^^

Great looking rifle there. I have a grey McM that would work but I have my .264 in it presently. I suppose I should round up another...the aluminum buttplate on the 308 seems to be working well. I'm taking the .308 along this fall to Montana to back up the .270FW.

I have some 223CFE but never opened it up to try. I will sometime but so far the Match is doing everything I need it to do.

I'd leave it in the original stock, if it has the aluminum butt plate. One of my favorite's has the original stock and aluminum butt plate. It's a 30-06 and really is not that bad to shoot, even off the bench. I don't notice any difference between shooting my classic stainless in walnut with hard red pad vs shooting that pre 64. Sometimes I think the classic may even kick harder. I don't know why because the pre 64 is lighter:



I'd leave it in the original stock and hunt it, unless you are worried about hurting it in the field. The reason my buddy wanted me to change out his stock is because the low comb sucked big time when trying to get behind the scope.

The drop at the comb was horrible^^^

He complained about it quite a bit to me and I thought he was crazy until I looked through it myself!! He was right, so he ordered that Hunters compact Mcmillan and it's his favorite rifle now. He's funny because he's tried messing with other new rifles and always comes back to his '53 fwt 308 in the Mcmillan.