165 Grain Accubond in .308

[Alderman]

Will be working up a load with 165 grain Accubonds for the .308.
Will do a work up from the starting recommended load but just wondering what powder is working well with this combo.
Shooting out of a Ruger Hawkeye Predator.

 

[PJGunner]

The only 165 gr. bullet I've ever used in the .308 was the Speer Hot Core. That's mostly because it was the only bullet that would give any kind of accuracy for hunting from a Ruger M77 RSI. Took two years to find that load. kind of a special circumstance deal really. The load is 49.0 gr. W760 (CAUTION, MAX LOAD IN WINCHESTER DATA SHEET #15) Winchester brass and WLR primer. Velocity from the 18.5" RSI barrel is 2550 FPS and the load does 2610 FPS from the 22" barrel of a Winchester M70.
The only use of the 165 gr. AccuBond I've done was from a 30-07 and it was doing 2880 FPS IIRC. Took a nice fat cow elk with that load.
I probably could have gotten more velocity from the .308 but that load was developed strictly for the RSI and only tried to see how it performed in the M70. FWIW, the load duplicated the Speer Nitrex 165 gr. factory load almost to the same velocity in both rifles. I wish Speer hadn't dropped that loading.
PJ.

 

[JD338]

46.0 grs Varget with the 165 gr BT and 168 gr ABLR shoot sub MOA with good speed and low SD's in my Nosler M21 308 Win

JD338

 

[TackDriver284]

I use Varget with the 165 Ballistic Tips, the 165 AccuBond has the same BC and SD as the Ballistic Tips. Both have the same ogive. Varget will do wonders in the .308 as well as IMR4064 and RL15. You won't go wrong with any of those powders. I get into the 2800 fps plus range with 45 grains of Varget, give or take. I would load from 44 grains in .3 increments to 46 grains , check for pressure. You should find a node between those two numbers. Good luck in your reloading endeavor, keep us posted with some results.

 

[deltahunter]

44 grains of Varget & fed 210M primer

 

[filmjunkie4ever]

Try Varget. Varget is to the .308 what IMR4350 is to the .30-06. What H4831 is to the .270…I will stop now

 

[Wolfshead]

I don’t shoot 165’s but I do shoot 150 grain Accubonds from my .308.
I get really good groups using 46 grains of Varget.
i get softball sized groups out at 305 yards.
not sure about further than that as that’s the limit at our range and that’s probably as far as I need to take a shot anyway.

 

[BradMT]

46.0 Varget is the no-brainer of the century load. This has worked with any number of different 165's I've used in my 308's. TAC is also a great 308 powder.

 

[SJB358]

I used Rl15 and the 165 AB when I had a 308.

Hard to look past Varget if you have it though.

 

[TXbaldhunter]

44.5grs of TAC
45.0grs of IMR4895
45.5grs of Varget
46.5grs Accurate 4064
Are my go to loads in my 308 Win's with 165-168gr bullets.

 

[Alderman]

Thanks for the info. Been away from the site for a bit. Think I will give Varget a try for starters.