Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Reduced loads for 308

I use blue dot for reduced velocity loads in rifle cartridges.

A word of caution - you can fit enough blue dot in a case to reach extreme pressure levels. These are reduced velocity, not reduced pressure. Double check what you are doing.

General guide lines:
-Fill a case to the brim (overflowing) with BD, level it, and weight the powder
-20% to 30% of that overflow weight is a good starting point for load work up
-50 to 60% of that overflow weight will be max pressure
I use a regular rifle primer in 7mm08 without ignition issues; I use magnum primers in large cases such as 375H&H.

As a point of reference, my 7mm08 load is 23.0 grains blue dot behind a 120 Sierra Pro Hunter for 2,410fps and 1" groups. QL predicts 2,405fps and 42kpsi (matches extremely well).

Hope that helps.