I am thinking about picking one up with a 20 inch barrel to carry around the deer woods. I like the idea of lighter and shorter these days.

Back when I was loading for my dad's .308 (his is a lefty so its not for me!) we used 4064 and 748. What's the preferred propellant these days? Will most likely be shooting 150 gr. bullets.

A 308 isn't a picky eater. What's your preferred bullet weight and how fast do you want to move it?

Edit: Your edit beat my post. How fast do you want to move a 150?

Varget is always a safe bet in the many 308's I have loaded for. Temp stable too!

Mine likes Varget - a LOT - but I'm pushing 165's, not 150s. It wouldn't be a bad choice for 150s either.

I still mostly use 4064,4895,or H-335.

Varget, Reloder 15, IMR 4350, as mentioned above, the .308 isn't picky, whatever you have on hand that there's load data for, or if there's a certain velocity you want to achieve, you could use that as a deciding factor also, up to you really. I'm a big fan of Varget and Reloder 15 as I've had great accuracy in multiple cartridges with them.

I kinda had a feeling Varget and RL15 would show up. I'm not looking for reduced loads. I wanna push 'em as fast as I can while being safe and maintaing good accuracy. I'll give up 75 fps in order to shrink a group by .5" or so.

For full house loads Varget and RL15 work nicely.

Don't tell anybody, but IMR4320 works really well in full power 150 grain loads too. Varmint/match grade accuracy if the rifle is capable.

Dan, given your location and possible weather extremes, you may want to consider Varget or RL15 for loads.

Mine likes RE15 as seen in this 200yd 4 shot group, 4 shots cuz thats all I loaded since i had 4 shells trimmed at the same length. The others were longer so I loaded them for a primer test. BTW, measures an inch.

4895 if you're anal about MV. Varget or 8208 XBR if you're anal about temperature.

MR2000 seems to be the new challenger powder in the 308. A poster here used pressure testing equipment and wound up with about 2930 fps at 59k pressure. I think he had a 22 or 23" barrel. That was using a nosler ballistic tip 150.
In comparison hornady factory superformance gmx's did 2849 fps at 58k pressure.
I used his same load and wound up at 2900 with a hornady 150 bt spire point and great accuracy. This was out of a 20" rem vtr. Thats pretty much 30-06 factory ammo performance for most guns.

Varget and R15 is where I'd be looking

Dober

Youre correct Don, had a nice group going until I pulled that one to the right. Still a nice group at 200yds.

Another vote for Varget.

When I had my Ruger UL I used VV-N550 and the 165 gr Hornady. Great velocity, accurate and absolutley deadly on deer.

if youre going to be shooting 150s, Id go with 47grs RE15, very accurate in my 308 albiet Im using 155AMAXs.

+1

I don't see many people recommending 4320 for much of anything but that is the powder that has given us the best accuracy so far in my son's Ruger Compact in 7-08 with 150 gr. Ballistic Tips. The load we use is 38.5 grs.

4320 is an underrated powder and seems to be a virtual twin to 4064. I found a steller load for my 300 win mag with 4320 with 150 grainers. It shoots moa all day long at a nice gentle 2800 fps. It's fun when powders can give you alot of versatility.

Reloader 15. I use it with the 165 Speer or the 165 partition, and it shoots very well indeed. Good velocity too.

RE 15

Varget,H4895,W748 or RL15 all work well with 150gn pills in my 308