Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Universal all-around pet load for the .308 and 150 gn bullet

What is your favorite all-around .308 Pet Load load using 150 grain bullets that performs well across different rifles and platforms?

My 308's shoot everything so well it is hard to choose. near max loads with BLC(2), 3031, 4895 all shoot great and provide plenty of power. If I had to pick I would say 3031 because it seems to have less muzzle blast. Favorite bullet being the Speer 150 gr. Hotcor.

45gr of Varget is never a bad choice for a 150

150 ballistic tips and 46.5 grains of Varget has shot well in all of the .308's I've had......and I've had A LOT of .308's, mainly lightweight hunting rifles.

I should reference that load came from an article Mule Deer did on the .308.

Others may be better but I'm happy with 43.5 gr of H4895 pushing 150 gr Hornady Flat Base Interlocks and 46.0 gr of IMR 4064 with 150 gr Partitions. Both are mild loads in my rifle.

H 4895 and a 150 GameKing. I use this in a 700 and a Savage 99.

150gn Hornady SP and 43.5gn H4350

Some gun writer once wrote the .308 would probably shoot very well with double-based horse manure, but I generally start trying 150s in a new-to-me .308 with 45-46 grains of Varget--as a lot of people apparently do. Can't remember when it didn't group 3 shots in an inch (and often much less) in any decent bolt-action .308, and it's also worked fine in a few lever-action, pumps and single-shots.

Huh?

I’ve seen a lot of game die from a 150 TTSX and 47gr R15. Pretty good do all 308 load in several rifles.

52gr CFE-223 under 150gr Nosler E-Tips, runs 2750 fps in my 16 inch barreled REPR's, accurate in one friends 22 inch bolt gun too, didnt chrono the load in his rifle, has to be near 2900 fps, i'd shoot anything in conus with that load.

I agree.I find 46.0 grains just a bit more accurate though.

I prefer W748, but 3031 and 4064 work well for me also.

Either H4895 or RL15 for me. Mostly I’ve gone to 165gr BT or AB blems, but have a pile if 150gr NPs I need to whittle down, and some Varget. Don’t want to be a hoarder.....

Yep

This is interesting and I appreciate everyone's feedback. If I had posted a go-to load at the beginning of this, it would have been 44 grains of 4064.

Thank god I bought a whole bunch of Varget a while back when it was cheap and plentiful.

It is looking like Varget has the consensus at this time but I am going to try 3031 just for grins as it was Ken Waters's go-to powder for the .308 if I remember correctly. Does anyone remember the specifics of KW's 150 gn .308 pet load?

I am also going to play with 4895 as I have heard incredible stories on loads with that powder.

I load 45.0 gr. of IMR-4064 with a Hornady 150gr. SP for a cousin's 308. Very accurate in his Tikka and has killed everything from Antelope to Elk with no problems.

Elk Country

150 SST and 44 grains of IMR 4064. A milder load than most of the others listed here but it has shot very accurately in both of my .308W bolt guns. A Savage 16 Weather Warrior and a Rem.40X.

My son’s model 7 stainless does very well with a near max load of 748 and either150 gr Speer Hot Core or Nosler 150 gr Partitions.

Shooting up close in the woods I use 44gr of 4064 under a 150gr Interlock FB. I use this load in both a Ruger 77 ultralight & Tikka T3x superlight. Both are accurate around or under moa. I like 4064.

Is anyone using TAC with a 150?

thanks,


Okie John

48.0 gr. of W748 with the Sierra 150 is my go to load.

46.0 gr of TAC shoots very well in my .308 with 150’s. YMMV

Mine too, but my "go-to" is 46-47 grains of Varget with a 155 Scenar.

I use 44.5 gr of Varget with 150 Nosler Ballistic Tip and Fed 210 primer in 3 different 308's. All will shoot at least .65" groups. My wife can shoot a 5 shot group into .38"with a Ruger American Predator with a Leupold 3.5x10 at 100 yds

Yup, 46.5 TAC under a 150 Nosler Partition. Shoots under an inch and 2849 pfs.
In a Tikka T3x and a Browning BLR.

A 150 grain TTSX over 45 to 46 grains of Varget is mighty hard to beat 👍......Good hunting...Hb

150 Hornady Interbond loaded with 46.5 grains of IMR-4064.

It seems like that would require a drop tube and some compression as well.

Once I used a friends scale at his place and instead of 44 grains of 4064 I mistakenly loaded 40.4 grains. It was three inches low at 200 yards but under an inch 3 shot group. Milder recoil, no idea the velocity but I bet it was superior to a .30-30W.

Nosler load data says 44 gr of 4064 under a 150gr bullet is good for 2740fps out of a 24" barrel. Sounds like you were getting close to 2700 out of your Savage (22" bbl?).

Different rifles shoots different loads the best, but for good accuracy I have always found H335, WW 748, 4895, 4064 and BL-C2 to be top pics. In my life I have owned about 15 different 308s and these powders gave me good to great results in them all. As of now I only own 2, and AR10 type I made myself and a Mossberg MVP.

For a 150 grain bullet I found the Hornady Flat Base Inner-Locks, the WW Power Points and the Nosler Partitions all to be good. I killed some elk with the Winchester bullets and found them to hold their weight far better then I expected. I recovered two and one weighed 131 grains and the other weighed 128 grains which is exceptionally good for a cup and core 150 grain 30 cal bullet.

For game up to about 300 pounds I don't think there is a lot of difference in the way the 3 of them kill and pernitrate, but on heavier game the Hornady is not as tough as the Partition or the Power Points (in my experience --- not just form the 308 but also from the 30-06) Most people will hunt deer and maybe hogs with their 308s so once you get an exit all the damage a bullet can do has been done, so nothing else really matters. The Hornady Spire Point is the one of the 3 that holds the lest weight, after expansion but still for most shots you get exits, so I would not hold back on hunting with them on any animal up to about 300 pounds.

In my 308s I found the Hornady RN to shoot the best groups but they don't make them anymore. Under 1/2" in my rifles.

The Hornady Spire Point is almost as accurate with some groups coming in at around 5/8"
The Partitions shoot about larger groups at .750" to 850" and the Power Points shoot the "worst" of the 3, but still in my guns they come in at about 1"to about 1-1/16", so clearly good enough for most hunting I would do with a 308 and a 150 grain bullet.

I was working up some loads with Varget and 165 TTSX but got off track with some other projects. Right now, the only load I have a significant quantity of is 140 gr Barnes MPG for coyotes, etc.

Ken Waters shows two loads with IMR3031 and 150's...42gr with a 150 Sierra and 43gr with a 150 Speer this he states "near max"
Hodgon shows 43.5 IMR3031 with Nosler 150 BT 43.5 max
I like BLC-2 and Reloader 15

Nope. It fills just fine. This load shoots lights out in my Winchester 70 featherweight with a Kreiger barrel and my Tikka T3X stainless.

Nosler lists 44.0 starting, 46.0 mid range, 48.0 max load.

45.0 H4895 150 horn sp.

With Varget nearly as scarce as hens teeth, I've turned to 45 grains of Shooters World Precision Rifle, and a 150 ballistic tip.

Precision Rifle is very similar to Varget and works great in my Bergara wilderness Ridge.

I tried two 150grbbullets with 43gr of IMR8208xbr. The velocity seems sane, the brass/primers look fine.

WLR primers, once-fired Starline brass. The Hornady Interlocks have a COL = 2.7", the Nosler 150gr Ballistic Tips COL= 2.8".

2800fps from a 20" barrel.

The Ballistic tips shoot tiny groups. But I haven't used either bullet on game - yet.

Same here. 45gn H-4895 with a Hornady 150 Interlock, BTSP.

Actually the super secret load is 47 gr Varget in a Hornady case using Federal 210M primers pushing a 150 gr Barnes TTSX, but don't tell anyone. Mine is right at 2894 fps at 2780' elevation. These numbers were generated using a Winchester Model 70 Extreme.

Is H380 a good match for the 308?

Generally on the too slow side.

Don't want to wander too far from the 150 gn subject - but would H380 do better with 165 or 180 grains?