Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Good .308 Loads

i havent run it through a chrony yet

Here's another that is looking promising. Tried 42, 42.5, and 43gr. 43 shot these and averaged 2733fps with a SD of 4fps...



John

I was playing with IMR 4895 the other evening. I loaded 42,43, 43.5, 44. My rifle is a Tikka T-3 308 Win with a 20 inch tube.
Bullets were 165 grain Hornady SP to OAL of 2.80.

I don't own a chronograph but here are the accuracy results. This little rifle will really shoot. Results are the average of 2 x 3 shot groups.

42 grains 0.54 inch
43 grains 0.39 inch
43.5 grains 0.585 inch
44 grains 1.10 inch

I let the barrel cool for five minutes between each group. Started with a clean bore and no cleanings afterwards. Just got some Varget and am going to try and work up a load with the same bullet (my favorite hunting bullet).

Anyone have something that will work in a Winchester 100 semi-auto ?

Anyone have any luck with 180 grain bullets. I took my tikka 308 to the range and using IMR 4895 with 180 grain Hornady SP I ran loads from 40 grains up to 43 grains and accuracy was lacking to say the least. Groups ranged from 1.8 to 2.5 inches which is terrible compared to what it does with 150 and 165 grainers. The funny thing is, my 7600 308 (19 inch barrel) with 41-42 grains of IMR 4895 shoots these 180's in 1.5 inch (3 shots) pretty regularly

I ran onto a good deal on 330 165 gr. Sierra Gameking .308 bullets a while back. I finally got around to trying them out. They don't give up much to a 168 gr. MK, that's for sure! The accuracy load in my FN PBR XP is .5 gr. less with the 165 gr. GK - 46 gr. Varget (46.5 for the 168 MK) I'll be harvesting a couple mulies with this load come November. I've never taken a deer with a Sierra Gameking, mostly Nosler BT and PT bullets. It will be interesting to compare bullet performance with the Nosler BT.
Selmer

I also had excellent (1/2 MOA) results with 168 gr. MK 168 gr. Nosler Custom Competition, and 165 gr. BTHP Sierra Gamekings in front of 45 gr. of RL15. The 168 gr. MK OAL with Sinclair comparator is 3.150", 2.800" on the tip.

I worked up with some Varget in my 308 Tikka 20 inch bbl. Used my favorite hunting bullet, the 165 hornady sp and some 150 grain Sierra pro hunters.

45 grains Varget seems to be the sweet spot for my gun with the 165's. With winchester brass, CCI 200 primers, and OAL of 2.805 I averaged 0.76 inches for 3 shots (average of 3 groups). The groups were very consistent.

The 150 grainers did not shoot as well but were the best at 46 grains (same brass, same primers, and OAL) averaging 0.85 inch for 3x3 shot groups.

I found a guy with a chronograph that is going to check the velocity of my IMR 4895 top loads and my varget loads. Will publish as soon as I get the results.

I think I am getting addicted to reloading.

Ok, so FNG question.

i am getting the impression that there are 'pet loads' that work well for a given cartridge. So if such 'pet loads' generally exist then does it matter whether the loads are used in semi autos or bolt actions?

Even with the same bullet weight and muzzle velocity different powders produce different pressure-time curves. This means a particular powder may not be well suited to the operating cycle of a given semi auto.

For example, if you're going to shoot 168 grain match bullets out of an M1A you need to be looking at 4895 or something pretty close to it. If the powder is much slower than that it will produce excessive port pressure and batter the action.

Dude...my load exactly! 1/3 MOA is the norm...and I've never seen a better performer on medium sized game.

I get sub half MOA out to 1000 yards (3's at 100) with, 46.8gr RL-15, 155 Berger VLDs, Fed 210M, Lapua brass, jammed 0.015". I see some pressure signs at 47gr, right around 3100 fps (30" barrel). I usually run just shy of 3000 fps with 46.8gr. The same load with the 2155 Sierra Palma (the old one) gets better than 3100 fps with good accuracy jumped 0.020.

The rifle is a Savage Model 12 FTR.

600 yard group that measures 2.4" or rougly 0.38 MOA:

Just loaded up some 130gr TTSX's, Lapua brass and a whole bunch of TAC. Will see what they do for me.

Look forward to seeing your results. I didn't get the 130 TSXs to shoot for me as well as I would like, but I still want to give it another go with TTSXs, playing more with seating depth this time...

John

Interested to see how that TAC worked out.

Loaded some 130 TSX and R 15. A little slower than I thought I would get, but the groups were sufficient.

This is one of the many threads that has cost me money, I bought a 308 about a week ago and just took it for its first test drive today. 46 grns of Varget and a 150 Nosler B-tip goes into a tiny cluster. RL-15 not so much.

Im limited to how far I can seat the bullet out due to the mag box, anyone got a fix for that? Who makes a longer box?

+1 i just ordered a 700 sps stainless in a .308 because of this thread.

This is the dumbest thread I've seen yet. Is there a bad .308 load? We might better have a thread entitled ".308 loads to stay away from."

cra1948, I would have agreed with you before I met this ruger rsi that I got for christmas last year. I gave up on it then for our extended doe season as I couldn't find anything that would shoot in it. This week I have been trying it out again with some ramshot tac and this looks promising....

Ive had good luck with the following out of my Howa ranchland security rifle (20" barrel)

Brass: Nosler
Primer: CCI
Powder: 43g of IMR4320
Bullet: 165g Sierra HPBT