Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles 165 gn bullet for mild 308 Win loads

Try 44 grains of Varget. I use 46 grains with the Hornady 165 flat base loaded to SAAMI spec length in a W-W case, and get 2600 fps from an 18" barrel, a Ruger American compact. Not knowing your barrel length, 44 should get you in the ballpark with the Remington case. Varget is temperature insensitive with the best of such powders, and will give good accuracy.

Regards,
Manny

Forget Big Game for this application.

The other two should get you where you want to go.

I could spare some if you need them.

My go-to Rifle Opener weapon is a Savage 99 in 308 WIN. For whatever reason, I could not get 150 grainers to group, so I tried 165 grain Hornady IL SPs and have been hunting with them for 20 years. I use a load of H4895 that is well off MAX. They chrono about 2650 fps or so. Performance on deer has been quite good.

Going to use Varget. For my own information, why is Big Game not good for this application?

Be hard to kill a deer deader than a 30 cal.150 grain bullet will.

What would be wrong with a round nose soft point bullet at 100 yard ranges.

No difference at all. Both will work fine, as will about any 150-165 soft point. One will probably shoot better in your gun, though that doesn't matter much at your ranges. I doubt the cost will be much different either.

Great bullet, and usually delivers excellent accuracy in the 308 Win.

Here's a bull I took with the 308 Win/165 Hdy BTSP. Should work on smaller deer too

IMO it is on the slow side for the 308, and ball powders often are not the best for less than full throttle loads.

Unless there's a medical condition or child involved I've never understood the desire for a light load in a hunting round. In those two circumstances a cartridge change would be a better solution.

A 308 shooting a 165 at 2500-2600 would actually be more of a "middle of the road" load. Why on Earth would that not be a good choice for deer at woods ranges? I'd be hard pressed to name a better one for this use.

You are still running about the same as other rounds.
300 Savage, 308 Marlin Express, 30-40 Krag.
I am looking into a BLR in 308 and while I prefer the 150 I have a good supply of 165 that I shoot in my Garand. I would go with what shoots best in your gun.

What if you like a given rifle and don't need all of its performance capability and also don't want to put up with unnecessary recoil/blast? If you can effectively turn a 35 Whelen into a .358Win, or a 338WinMag into a .338-06, simply by altering the load, I feel that is yet another nod in favor of the value of handloading. Some rifles still perform well at 80-90% throttle, while being able to go back to 100% if you want. Now if a rifle doesn't like the lighter-load concept, then I'd agree that your only route is to move down to a smaller round to get to the desired level of performance or recoil. Also, some of the larger chamberings may only be present in physically large platforms, so if your goal is to have that moderate level of performance in a perfectly-scaled rifle (smaller package), then downloading a big/heavy rifle may not be applicable in that scenario either.

Agreed.

I've shot thousands of 308 loads that mimic Lake City Match, and a couple of thousand of the real thing. It isn't full throttle for a 308, but a 165/168 at the 2500/2600 fps level isn't what I'd characterize as a light load.

It's also one of the load levels where groups come together.