Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Alternative Powders In The 308

As I was told this week, Alaska’s issue partly is the barge and only 400 pounds of powder per barge per USCG rules I was told. Don’t know how true it is, but it would make sense.

RL-15 is my favorite powder for 165s. I like TAC and Varget as well. If I’m loading for other people I like to use up powders that I have on hand, that I don’t “need” for my own needs. Benchmark, Win 748, BLC2 and 4064 all get no complaints.

H414/760 is underrated and over criticized in many cartridges.

I’ve done that same sort of thing with my .223 propellants for my AR and what I do is go to the manufacturers web site (Hodgkin, Alliant, and Ramshot all have excellent resources) and pick a middle of the road charge (literally calculate halfway) and dump until I run out.

Been doing a lot of this since the shortage!

I've shot CFE 223 ion the 308. Velocities are faster than Varget with 165-168. but the accuracy was not quite as good. I plan on testing this some more. The last time I shot it, it was in the last batch i fired, and the difference could have been due to fatigue or operator error.

Reviving this. I've been playing with I4166 with 155s. It seems to be a touch more accurate than Varget under the 155 in my 10FP. Today's best 3-shoot was .35 moa.

2000MR is also very good with 155s and 175. My 5-shoot group for this powder (with 155s) today was .7 moa.

It's nice to have a 308, as it is one of the most powder flexible cartridges out there.

Varget & 155 Scenar’s produce one ragged hole groups in my 308.

4166 is a good varget replacement if you need one.

I am deeply impressed with TAC in the 308.

I've been working with TAC and Hornady 180-grain Interlock boat tails. With 42.8 grains, they're sub-MOA at 2,575 fps. It took a while to figure out OAL and I may be able to raise the charge. I'd love to see 2,650 but I'm not sure I can do that safely. I just lucked in a shovel full of 180-grain Patitions so I may revisit some of this work with them.

I also grabbed 500 Hornady 168-grain hollowpoint boat tail match bullets. Not my first choice but with 45 grains of TAC, they're sub-MOA at 2,775 fps, and there's a lot to like about that.

Both loads are in Lapua brass with WLRM primers.


Okie John

I was poking around, comparing load data. It's interesting that Nosler's loads for I4166 are quite different (lower) from Hodgdon's loads.

In the past Nosler's 308 brass was a lot heavier than the WW that Hodgdon typically lists. Current Nosler I don't know about.

If you examine a historical series of Nosler manuals you'll see that a lot of data for powders older than 4166 was simply carried forward from when Nosler listed WW brass. No changes in charges or speeds, so there's practically no way that data was re-shot and arrived at in Nosler brass. That's likely why the data for older powders is in better agreement with Hodgdon's and others.