Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Powder advice for a 308 win with 150 grain Hornady GMX

Looking for load advice for the 150 grain Hornady GMX in my 308. I got lots of Varget, RL15, IMR3031, and TAC. Anyone with any recommended loadings, please chime in. With my 150 grain SSTs, I use 3031, and get the best accuracy, but was reading the GMX bullets are longer, and 3031 might be too fast of a powder, which leaves me wondering, Please feel free to offer any other recommendations if the powders listed are bettered, as I'm not afraid to try something different, like 4895, or AR Comp. Thanks for the help! Steve

For .308 you should always start with Varget.

Agreed, I've heard a lot of nice things about CFE-223 as of late too, I would look at it if powder capacity became an issue.

Yep.

Here's another mono option. The Cutting Edge Bullet concept is sort of a mono Partition. Leaves fly off in 360* direction, increasing tissue damage and quicker kills. The core bores on thru.

May not be the best choice in thick areas where the bullet may hit brush. Otherwise, great terminal performance. Not cheap, but how many do you actually shoot at game. Practice with something cheaper.

DF

Thanks for the feedback everyone! Dmn Varget, wish you weren't such a useful powder:)

In it's weight class, hard to beat.

And S.D.'s are usually about the lowest of any powder in that burn range.

DF

Just load them atl east 50 thousandths off the lands. I tried 3 different oals and the most accurate loads were the farthest off the lands, -.100”

My experience, too.

Monos often like to jump, sometimes more than one would think.

DF

I just found out that Sportsman's Warehouse had the left hand Tikka T3X Superlite in 308 Win, and I had a VX3 2.5-8 sitting around, so I ordered it for a lightweight hunting rifle, figured a nice 150 grain mono bullet should work nice on elk and what not, so I'm gonna be cooking up loads as soon as I pick it up. Thank you for all the feedback, I'm hoping to get some pics up of the groups as soon as I get loading. I'll make sure to load them a little farther off the lands as well.

I like it for heavier bullets in .223/5.56x45 but haven't tried it in any other application so far. Sure flows thru a powder measure nicely.

Varget is a good .308 powder, but overall, with bullet weights from 150-180 grains, I've seen at least slightly better accuracy with H4895. You may give up a little velocity, but H4895 is well worth trying.

I get good accuracy with H4895 pushing 150gr TTSX in my Kimber MT .308. Haven't tried Varget.

I've had excellent results in the 308 using all of these....

Varget
IMR-4064
RL-15

Many suggest the 308 is one of the easiest calibers to find a good, accurate powder and load for.

CFE223 has been fantastic with my .308 and 150 Interlocks. Over 2900 fps from a 22-inch barrel and 1/2 moa accuracy. Just under max load.

I'd say that was right; the .308 would be on the short list of easy to load for rounds.

Some deny that certain rounds are inherently more accurate than the average, but IMO these exist, the .308 being one of them.

DF

Varget is a good powder for 150's in the 308, but with longer bullets it results in more powder compaction than I like unless I take steps to avoid it. If I had TAC on hand I'd see what I could get out of it with that long GMX.

I'd be interested in relative density of more common .308 powders, like Varget, CFE-223, RL-15, H-380, etc. Even the IMR's. 4895, 4064, 4320.

Lots of choices with that round.

DF

H4895

You bet, as to the 223/556, not to sidetrack too much, I found it to be completely compact enough to seat the long 62 gr tracers I made up for some 'adult' bottle rockets last 4th of July, I sent 90 rounds up on the mountainside at midnight, neighbor Bud called and said his kid wanted 'those' kind of bottle-rockets!

For top velocity with 150gn bullets, W748 and Alliant PowerPro 2000-MR work for me.

Seems I read that Pwr Pro 2000 is the same powder as CFR-223. Not sure about that, like them both.

DF

my wife's Savage 308 likes 44.0 gr of Varget with the 150 GMX.

I have seen that, too, but have never tried the 2000 to test.

I use varget in my 308, plenty accurate!

I'll be the dissenting voice and say try the RE-15 first. It's been a go to 308 powder for me since '01. Gander had a sale on it back then. Two dollars a pound less than Varget! It was a bargain for me.

Varget is a great powder with excellent consistency, low, often single digit S,D.’s. It’s also very temp stable. Target shoooters seem to like it.

RL-15 is a good one, reportedly more temp stable in later versions as manufacturers compete for military contracts.

If I had to go with one, it would be Varget. But of course, I have both and use both.

DF

I like R15 with 150s and even WW760/magum primer with the 165s, I had great speeds with 2000MR in the .308/168 TTSX also.

My most recent work up was in a BLR Take Down 20".308
748 and Varget were poor performers. H4895 was First Rate in every way.
The exception with the Varget trials was a silly notion to duplicate 300 Savage or 30/40 Krag performance.
40.0 Grains of Varget was a one hole type group with 150 noslers. Did not Chronograph that load.

I am starting on a .308 project. I have a 30" Savage F Class single shot.
Working with 155 Lapua Scenars.
On the bench is fresh cans of Varget H 4895 and my latest favorite powder... Benchmark...nice metering stuff, that!
Also on the bench (but a little problematic) is CFE223. Great data, good accuracy / velocity reputation... but it gumms up my powder measures.
Maybe my can is defective?

I have to agree with this. I've hunted and competed with the 308 for more than 40 years. There are so many good powders that its hard to pick a looser. 4064, Varget, RL-15, 748 all work well. I hunt with 4064 and 150 grain Sierra's.

Do you guys use WLRM in the .308?.....only with certain powders? I have a couple thousand WLRM and don’t need that many .338wm rounds. I was hoping I could use them in the.308 and .243. Sorry for the diversion.

I’ll be using Varget, TAC and RL15.

Thanks

Some like mag primers with ball powder. But, the .308 charge isn't that big, so I'd try both for accuracy.

Now, if I had a bunch of WLRM, I'd be using them...

Have you tried Big Game? It seems to work well with mag primers and is a great powder.

DF

I really like reloader15 but Varget works well for me too. Started using h380 back when there was a powder shortage and won't switch back anytime soon

Same. I used them with the 7-08 and W760 pushing 145 Speer BTSP bullets. Not sure magnum primers were needed but the Speer manual recommended them. It was a very accurate load if I remember. CCI 250’s BTW with that load. I use them in my 280 AI. I’ve read that when pushing loads of 60 grains of slower burning powder it helps. Never noticed a difference but like you., I have them so might as well use them.

Thanks for the answer DF and brinky, I appreciate it. I’m going to get up to the LGS and get some Varget and Tac so I’ll buy a couple thousand WLR just to try both. 👍

You're not fazed by the pinhole burn through issues that have cropped up with WLR primers?

Interesting. Haven’t heard of this nor have seen any in my primers.

All roads start at and lead to Varget when it comes to the 308...

If I had the choice of Win primers vs others, I’d go others.

I have some vintage Win primers that are great. It’s the later ones I’d be concerned about.

Hard to beat CCI and Fed.

DF

Federals have always been a snug fit, but the latest two bricks of Fed 210M primers I bought are IMO a too tight fit in the primer pockets. They take a lot of force to start, and when they finally do go some of them go in in such a way to make me wonder if I've crushed them.

The unplated WLR's have been a bit of a loose fit in some brass for a while now.

The R 9 1/2 primers go in smooth but snug enough, but they run tall. Combine that with the off spec primer pockets commonly encountered and they may not seat flush.

Overall the CCI primers have been the best seating ones for a while.

(All comments refer to large rifle primers.)

My Fed 210’s fit well, perform well. But they are several years old.

I don’t use as many CCI’s but like them.

My W/W’s are 25 yrs old, plated. They work well.

Guess I’ve been lucky.

DF

My tight 210's are pretty new. They didn't give me trouble in the past.

I finally ran through my late father's hoard of old plated WW 8 1/2 - 120 primers.

I’ve used nothing but CCI primers since I started loading ammunition until recently when I exhausted my supply and moved onto my Winchester stock of regular and magnum primers. I did notice that they do feel looser when priming and not as snug as the CCI primers. Also noticed that the Federal 210M’s felt real tight when loading in my Creedmoor. At first I thought I was loading too hot in my AI and Creedmoor until I used the Federal’s. I broke open a new brick of CCI 200’s that I recently picked up and things were back to normal. Still haven’t had any issues with burning through on any of the Winchester primers so I must have older primers.

125 grain GMX = H-4895
150 grain GMX = R-15
150 grain Barnes TTSX = Varget

My Ruger Scout Rifle appears to like Varget for most everything 150 grains and up, the GMX being the only exception.

Not too long ago my thoughts on powder for .308 started and ended with Varget when it came to .308s and mono 130s and 150s. Were I doing some workups in 308 today for those weights I would be starting with 4451. Everywhere i have used it in place of Varget it has been better. Burns clean, fights copper, produces better velocity.

Also, for what it's worth, I would be using the Barnes 130 TTSX. There's nothing a 150 does that the 130 will not do with much better velocity and less recoil. I like many others start my monos at .050 off. If they are not shooting accurately there when I get to pressure, I move to .010 off and step back in .010 increments until I find accuracy. Trying random seating depths just wastes bullets and sometimes cons you into accepting something short of what the rifle will produce.

4451 in a 308?

4166 maybe?

You bet with 130s!

I'm still not following. 4451 is a "4350 class" powder which seems to me to be on the slow side for a 308.

In use I do not find it much slower than Varget and I get a little better velocity out of it over Varget. Varget MAY be a little easier to get right in a 308 case. For the better part of my time reloading 4350 was the .243 powder and I have used it for 58 grainers on up to 100s. I quit using it when I got Varget, and the only place I use it now is in my 270 with 110s. I tried it there to test the bullets a little and it handed me itty bitty groups. I though I was just going to burn up some powder running tests.

4451 I have come to really appreciate. It tends to be clean and quite linear. And, it usually gives me better velocity with equal accuracy.

Has anyone mentioned Varget and 210's yet?