There's a great new article in Handloader magazine, December's issue entitled, "Developing an accurate 308 load". They evaluate various brass, bullets (all of which are in the 165-168gr. range) and primers on accuracy. The article settles on Varget and R-15 as the powders of choice. The most accurate virgin brass was Nosler, worst was winchester. The most accurate once fired, neck sized only was also nosler followed closely by federal plated, winchester, remington (plain). These are out of 10 types tested. The best primers were-in order, cci 250, federal 210GM, federal 215, Win LR (out of about 12 brands tested. Worst was cci br-2. The tester settled on 45 grains Varget. The most accurate bullets (all seated to just touching the lands) were 2 berger 168gr match bullets, followed by 167gr. scenar hpbt, 168 sierra matchking, and hornady 165 interbond. These were the top 5 of about 30 bullets. Hornady 168 amax, 165 fusions, 165 accubonds, 165 hpbt sierra gameking, 165 sierra spbt, 165 spfb interlock hornady, and 165 bt noslers all did among the tops in hunting bullets. Federal gold metal match was the most accurate factory loads of several match type ammo. Worst factory ammo was Indian made 7.62 Nato Ball M80. Velocity ran about 2767fps with 45 grains of varget. 46 grains varget gave 2825fps but tester felt that was too close to max given the many variables (primers, brass, bullets) they were dealing with, so they stuck with 45 grains varget. Interestingly they also tested brass life before failure in full sized cases after every shot. Shortest brass life was with Nosler, Federal Military and Hornady (all lasting 11 to 12 reloads). Remington plain, plated and Norma lasted the longest with 20, 22 and 24 firings before failure respectively. All in all My take away is Remington brass, varget 45 grains with cci250 primers and 165 hornady inerbond, 165 fusion, 165 accubond, or 165 hpbt gameking would be a great recipie to work up to in any 308 with the same twist rate as the Test rifle, a sako TRG-22. Tests included 145,5-shot groups. Most of which were less than 1 inch and many under 1/2 inch. This article is a great read for any 308 loaders. Hope this helps somebody out there.
