Home Forums Reloading Varmint Rifles Winchester 748 powder.

Friend gave me 8 pound jug of Win 748. Never loaded it before. ANy good loads for 222, 243, 30-06 for it.

That's a good friend!

I used to load a fair bit of it in 308 Win.

Good powder.

Great stuff, like hen's teeth around here right now.

Load it in 222/223/243/7mm-08/308/338 WM/9.3x62/405Win. Not optimal for all, but works and was one of the premiere BR powder 25 years ago. Some say Temp sensitive, meters well(except in my 338WM), dirty in low end of pressure range(338 WM), accurate in all I ve tried.

Estacado

Loved it in my 223. It should work ok also in 222. Factory loads for 308 and 30-30 were 748 some years ago.

BT99: Speaking of friends and W 748 - I just bought a like new Remington 700 SPSV-SS in 223 Remington from a 45+ year friend of mine.
He is an eccentric AND he is wealthy.
He bought the Rifle in question only last spring and loaded up some W 748 and 40 grain V-Max bullets for it.
He claimed it was the most accurate factory 223 Remington Rifle he had ever owned (and he has owned a LOT of them!).
Why, he then decided to sell it, only an eccentric could understand?
So I buy it from him at an impressive discount price and bring it home for "testing" of my own and to see if it can earn a place in my current stable of 13 Varmint guns in caliber 223 Remington.
So I wait for the wind to calm here in SW Montana and when it finally did off I go to my local range to shoot some of the 80 rounds of handloads he gave me in the deal.
Once sighted in (I had to provide a scope for the Rifle - a Weaver V-16) I fired one group of five shots at 100 yards that measured .307"!
It was simply to cold to do any more accurate shooting on that day with the Rifle.
Needless to say that Rifle is not leaving my vaults for any reason other than to go Varminting with me.
If you should happen to get a 223 Rifle then be sure and use some of that W 748 in it along with the Hornady 40 grain V-Max and Federal 205 M (match) primers - double check this but start at around 27.0 grains and work up.
I have used W 748 in a myriad of Rifles for the last few decades - it is a great and reliable powder - staying consistent in load and velocity over that time.
I will second the fact that you have a good friend and a generous one. I would no more give up any of my stores of W 748 than I would amputate any of my toes.
Enjoy your W 748.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

another old powder that is excellent, but has fallen out of grace with the shooting public, due to the release of newer, more trendy powders...

True words.

Always associated W 748 with Varget and BlC2 in the .223....works better with heavier bullets. The stuff is beyond filthy.

seems to work pretty well with the 50 grain and heavier .222 bullets.

works good in 223 with 55gr hpbt

Just echoing what others said. It gives top accuracy and pretty well top velocity in the .223 and .308 with their mid-weight bullets respectively but it leaves a lot of powder fouling. It is easy to meter. It generally gives its best accuracy at the upper end of the pressure range. At least my most accurate loads always seemed to be the top end ones. If you have some, use it up. It's still as good as it ever was.

Once I used up my last pound of 748 a while ago I went to TAC. It does the same things as 748 - top accuracy and really top velocity - while burning a lot cleaner. It seems to share the propensity of 748 in not giving its best accuracy until you hit the top end.


More to your original question, I don't think you will find it a good choice in the .243 except for maybe lighter bullets, it's burning rate is too quick. It works okay in the .30-06 with 150 grain bullets but again is just a tad too quick for optimum use there, the 4350/RL19 range is where the '06 comes into its own with full power loads. I've tinkered with 748 some for milder loads but accuracy wasn't particularly good, and when trying for top end loads you run out of pressure before you hit top speed.

Try a light to medium crimp when you're using 748. It will burn cleaner. Depending on the cartridge, you may find that velocities even out too.

Bad advise.....you never need to crimp a bottle neck case. if crimping does something positive then something is wrong with your load.

Not bad advice, just differing opinions.

Try a light to medium crimp when you're using 748. It will burn cleaner. Depending on the cartridge, you may find that velocities even out too.

Indeed you may.

748 is great powder. It's possible that it will be replaced eventually by CFE for me, but I'm in no hurry to find out.

There aren't many more accurate loads than 25.5gr of 748 and a 52gr match bullet.
Who says it doesn't shoot well until the load gets hot?

Always used a magnum primer when loading 748 in 22-250 and 223.

Seemed to burn cleaner this way.

Virgil B.

I run 748 in my .204 and my .358.

It works very well in both.

Just wondering, how does 748 compare to 760?