Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Help with a 308 starting load.

I am a casual handloader at best. I generally stick strictly to published loads and rarely approach listed maximums. My standard 308 load has been 44.5 grains of Varget in RP cases with .WLR primers with a variety of 150 grain cup and core bullets, mostly Hornady. I recently got a very good deal on a few pounds of CFE223 and 250 reconditioned Lake City brass. Hodgdon's website only shows data for the 150 E-Tip and ballistic tip. The starting loads are listed as 49.00 with a max of 51.1 for the E-Tip and 48.4/51.5 for the Ballistic Tip. Cases are listed a Winchester with Federal 210m primers. I can easily get the Fed primers.

I was thinking of starting at 48 grains and stopping at 50 grains or 2,700 from my 20 inch barrel, whichever came first. Am I on the right track?

I appreciate any and all advice.

Shawn

Not a gunwriter, but your plan will work fine.

Keep in mind that you are now working with once-fired Mil brass, so there are two important factors to take into consideration.

Some mil surplus brass is sold as not having been fired in a MG, and some is not. Mil brass that was fired in loose MG chambers can be stretched, so if you are not clear on the history of those cases, I would recommend inspecting the LC cases for a potential separation ring on the inside of the case near the base.

If you are not already familiar with that you can search for it, but basically it involves the use of a bent paperclip to feel for the ring inside the case or take a small flashlight and look inside.

They may be fine, but if you see or feel a ring inside it's generally best to discard those cases.

Also Mil brass often has thicker walls than commercial cases, with reduced internal capacity. Winchester cases are generally on the higher internal capacity end of the spectrum, and LC on the lower end. That will affect the pressures and powder charges.

The simple way to determine that is to weigh the two cases and compare them, and/'or fill the cases with water and weigh the water and compare the two.

If the LC cases have lower internal capacity then the relationship to max loads will be affected and a lower charge will be considered maximum.

Some manuals have reported 8% reduction in charge weight, but the internal capacity test will be more accurate than the general rule. This will be reflected in the chrono results as well

It's not a big deal and I load plenty of Mil brass, but my loads in Winchester cases are generally higher than Mil cases.

Thank you both for your input. I will inspect the cases as suggested and start a grain below the starting loads.

I really appreciate your time.

Hornady 10th lists 42.4 gr starting and 49.6 gr Max of CFE223 for their 150gr .308 bullets. This is for commercial cases. Military brass will have less internal volume, so account for this.

I’ve heard -1gr and even -2gr for .308 loads using mil brass from different sources. I have no direct experience, so it’s up to you to make the decision.

Hornady lists 2800 FPS as the max velocity using CFE223 from a 22” barrel, so 2700 FPS will be in the vicinity of a max load.

Zrack, I've been using CFE223 for a couple of years in my .308 with a 20 inch bbl. The online manual of Hornady lists 51.5 grains for a 150 grain bullet, and 51 for a 155 grain match bullet. My notes show that I stayed at 50 grains for both the Hornady 150 grain BTSP and 155 grain Lapua Scenar. Both produced very good accuracy and cleaning the bore was much easier than using some of the "usual" powders.

Good luck with your load development.

Paul

Sounds like a reasonable approach. As others have noted, Lake City brass will have slightly less volume so could result in higher pressures than commercial brass. As long as you work up and watch the velocity yous should be fine.

Thank you all. I will hopefully get to the range this weekend and post results.