308 Loads
- Thread starter CTFlatlander
- Start date
noslerpartition
Handloader
- May 26, 2018
- 1,021
- 396
Are Lovex or Reload Swiss powders available in the US?
The Lovex D073. series produced very good speed and accuracy in 308 and 30-06 for me and at least over here, they are reasonably priced.
The Swiss is more expensive, but S040 for the 308 and S060 for the 6,5 Creedmoor do very well.
If you can get them, give them a try.
The Lovex D073. series produced very good speed and accuracy in 308 and 30-06 for me and at least over here, they are reasonably priced.
The Swiss is more expensive, but S040 for the 308 and S060 for the 6,5 Creedmoor do very well.
If you can get them, give them a try.
"It's been a long & interesting journey with the 308 Winchester cartridge. 
"
Yup! I never gave the .308 much thought as I always thought it was a 30-06 swannabe. WE all make mistakes. Anyway, I got my first .308 in 1973, a Remington 660. I thought that thing kicked like a mule even after I restocked it with a Mannlicher style stock. I had my eyes opened real quick when I took a shot at a running Mule Deer that was rather way out yonder and dropped it first shot, My hunting buddies had wounded it and it was getting away. We paced it off at 426 paces. I looked at the .308 with a lot more respect after that shot. I was running Sierra bullets back then almost exclusively and IIRC, the bullet was the 150 gr. Pro-Hunter Don't remember if they were calling the that back then. I found out early on that the kick wasn't all that bad but the muzzle blast from a stiff load of H335 made it seem to kick much harder. Earphones took care of that.
Sometime in the early 80s I acquired a Ruger M77 RSI in .308 cheap as the owner said he couldn't get it to shoot anything with any kind of accuracy. Working off and on I finally found a load that would consistently give me a 1.5" group which was good enough for deer. That load has taken deer as far out as 250 yards, the farthest I've had to shoot with that rifle. I did some tinkering with the fit of the muzzle cap on the rifle and now it somes shoots as tight as 1.25". It's not a target rifle and a near perfect stalking rifle. Velocity of the 165 gr. Speer Hot Core is 2550 FPS from the 18.5" barrel. That same load will do 2610 FPS from a 22" Winchester M70 Youth Ranger that I restocked in a Ramline I picked up at a gun show.
One day, with some curiosity and nothing better to do I went to the range with a Winchester M70 Youth Ranger I won in a raffle (22" Barrel) and a few rifles in 30-06 22",24" and 26". Ammo I had was Winchester 180 gr. Power points for both cartridges. I tried the .308/22" first then the 22" 30-06. The .308 was 20 FPS faster than the 30-06. IIRC, 2640 FPS for the .308 and 2620 FPS for the 06. The only time I got speed that matched factory advertised velocity was from the 26" Ruger Number One B.
Paul B.
"Yup! I never gave the .308 much thought as I always thought it was a 30-06 swannabe. WE all make mistakes. Anyway, I got my first .308 in 1973, a Remington 660. I thought that thing kicked like a mule even after I restocked it with a Mannlicher style stock. I had my eyes opened real quick when I took a shot at a running Mule Deer that was rather way out yonder and dropped it first shot, My hunting buddies had wounded it and it was getting away. We paced it off at 426 paces. I looked at the .308 with a lot more respect after that shot. I was running Sierra bullets back then almost exclusively and IIRC, the bullet was the 150 gr. Pro-Hunter Don't remember if they were calling the that back then. I found out early on that the kick wasn't all that bad but the muzzle blast from a stiff load of H335 made it seem to kick much harder. Earphones took care of that.
Sometime in the early 80s I acquired a Ruger M77 RSI in .308 cheap as the owner said he couldn't get it to shoot anything with any kind of accuracy. Working off and on I finally found a load that would consistently give me a 1.5" group which was good enough for deer. That load has taken deer as far out as 250 yards, the farthest I've had to shoot with that rifle. I did some tinkering with the fit of the muzzle cap on the rifle and now it somes shoots as tight as 1.25". It's not a target rifle and a near perfect stalking rifle. Velocity of the 165 gr. Speer Hot Core is 2550 FPS from the 18.5" barrel. That same load will do 2610 FPS from a 22" Winchester M70 Youth Ranger that I restocked in a Ramline I picked up at a gun show.
One day, with some curiosity and nothing better to do I went to the range with a Winchester M70 Youth Ranger I won in a raffle (22" Barrel) and a few rifles in 30-06 22",24" and 26". Ammo I had was Winchester 180 gr. Power points for both cartridges. I tried the .308/22" first then the 22" 30-06. The .308 was 20 FPS faster than the 30-06. IIRC, 2640 FPS for the .308 and 2620 FPS for the 06. The only time I got speed that matched factory advertised velocity was from the 26" Ruger Number One B.
Paul B.
filmjunkie4ever
Handloader
- May 4, 2011
- 1,928
- 1,212
If asked to choose, I certainly prefer the .30-06 for hunting applications. That said the .308 also has my complete respect not only as a hunting rifle, but for target/match/defense applications.
My current only .308 is a well used and proven Savage 99E with 22” skinny barrel. It has always preferred 180 grain flat base bullets going around 2520 fps according to my chronograph. At some point I would love to buy or build a quality bolt action (synthetic stock and push feed action probably) to shoot nice groups and also use for the occasional hunt. I had bought a well used Win 70 (post64) years ago that simply would not do better than a 2” group no matter the load. It obviously had problems but sold it to a friend who wanted it to build a 7mm-08 on the action before I could do much tinkering. That’s literally the only .308 I’ve ever had any trouble with.
I have loaded lots of 168 grain BTHP and Amax bullets for bolt and gas gun alike for friends over the years. The .308 is a winning cartridge, and easy to load for. I believe JB said (to paraphrase) that if you could stuff the case full of enough single based horse pucky, it would still shoot well.
I see lots of .308 vs .30-06 debates online. That’s an easy problem to solve, get one of each. A much greater man than I said “the .30-06 is never a mistake,” well neither is the .308, in my opinion.
My current only .308 is a well used and proven Savage 99E with 22” skinny barrel. It has always preferred 180 grain flat base bullets going around 2520 fps according to my chronograph. At some point I would love to buy or build a quality bolt action (synthetic stock and push feed action probably) to shoot nice groups and also use for the occasional hunt. I had bought a well used Win 70 (post64) years ago that simply would not do better than a 2” group no matter the load. It obviously had problems but sold it to a friend who wanted it to build a 7mm-08 on the action before I could do much tinkering. That’s literally the only .308 I’ve ever had any trouble with.
I have loaded lots of 168 grain BTHP and Amax bullets for bolt and gas gun alike for friends over the years. The .308 is a winning cartridge, and easy to load for. I believe JB said (to paraphrase) that if you could stuff the case full of enough single based horse pucky, it would still shoot well.
I see lots of .308 vs .30-06 debates online. That’s an easy problem to solve, get one of each. A much greater man than I said “the .30-06 is never a mistake,” well neither is the .308, in my opinion.
- Thread starter
- #25
CTFlatlander
Beginner
- May 17, 2020
- 15
- 24
OK - It's been forever since I made the original post and I finally got to the range with time to try these.
Instead of the NBT or Accubonds, I ended up loading this all with 165 Sierra Game Kings and all shooting was done with the HCR Harvester Plus with a 20" barrel.
The control group was 45gr of Varget: 2627fps, 6.6fps STDEV about .625"
41gr of ARComp: 2557fps. 6.2fps STDEV about .75"
47.7gr of 2000MR: 2653fps, 5.19fps STDEV. The group was 1.1" but that was probably me. The first 2 were almost the same hole. Point of impact slightly left.
44gr of 4064: 2627fps, 5.18fps STDEV. Group was just around an inch. Same POI as varget.
43.5gr of 4166: 2582fps - this stuff was awful. Huge group. I am not sure why. I had pretty high expectations. But I guess it doesn't matter since IMR stopped making it as far as I know.
I didn't do this perfectly - I should have randomized the shooting order and I didn't spend a ton of time fine tuning any of these. Also, I was rushing towards the end because of life stuff. But all in all, I feel comfortable saying I have 4 loads for the 165 308s if we get into a powder situation again.
Hope this helps
Tim
Instead of the NBT or Accubonds, I ended up loading this all with 165 Sierra Game Kings and all shooting was done with the HCR Harvester Plus with a 20" barrel.
The control group was 45gr of Varget: 2627fps, 6.6fps STDEV about .625"
41gr of ARComp: 2557fps. 6.2fps STDEV about .75"
47.7gr of 2000MR: 2653fps, 5.19fps STDEV. The group was 1.1" but that was probably me. The first 2 were almost the same hole. Point of impact slightly left.
44gr of 4064: 2627fps, 5.18fps STDEV. Group was just around an inch. Same POI as varget.
43.5gr of 4166: 2582fps - this stuff was awful. Huge group. I am not sure why. I had pretty high expectations. But I guess it doesn't matter since IMR stopped making it as far as I know.
I didn't do this perfectly - I should have randomized the shooting order and I didn't spend a ton of time fine tuning any of these. Also, I was rushing towards the end because of life stuff. But all in all, I feel comfortable saying I have 4 loads for the 165 308s if we get into a powder situation again.
Hope this helps
Tim
fill you commercial brass to the top with whichever powder you use then dump powder and weigh the powder. then take the mil-surp and do the same thing and you'll know where to start. either you'll have more or less volume with the mil-surp. if you have more then start there and if you have less back an extra grain off or 2 to be safe. mil-surp (7.62x51 nato) brass is lower pressure than 308win and might act differently!
wvbuckbuster
Handloader
- Nov 5, 2015
- 2,630
- 2,280
Always good to have options. Like you I want to have more than one powder-load combination for each of my rifles. Dan.
