Using 30 caliber .308 diameter 150 grain spitizer Nosler Ballistic tip in a 30.06. What is the recommended grains of Hodgon Varget for the best results ? Hodgon Varget information showed starting load 47.0 grains/maximum load 51.0 grains. Trying to find what is the sweet spot in grains for a Browing A-bolt with BOSS.
Using a 30 caliber .308 diameter 150 grain spitizer Nosler Ballistic tip in a 30.06. What is the recommended grains of Hodgon Varget powder for resul
- Thread starter ncgobbler
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highoctane
Handloader
- Apr 20, 2018
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Welcome to camp friend! Loads that are safe in other rifles may or may not be safe in your rifle. Start off by loading up several different powder charges and try them to see what YOUR rifle likes..
salmonchaser
Ammo Smith
- Dec 13, 2013
- 6,065
- 8,756
Welcome aboard. Absolutely no way to know! I have found Abolts to be relatively accurate and the few I’ve loaded for shot well with hotter loads. I personally use IMR 4064, H4350 or RL 22 in the 06. Load some up and shoot, tell us what you learn. I’m a big fan of the 150 ballistic tip for deer.
- Thread starter
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I have been using for 20 years Alliant Reloader 19 of 62.0 grains with the 150 grain spitzer BT in my a-bolt which was maximum grains but with good results . With R19 difficult to find now I am turning towards Hodghon Revert what I researched is an overall good powder for my setup.
salmonchaser
Ammo Smith
- Dec 13, 2013
- 6,065
- 8,756
Any of the Alliant powders have proven difficult to find and expensive. I’ve been shooting the same load of IMR 4064 for at least 30 if not 40 years, in the same rifle. I have had the rifle since 1968. Still shoots very well. When I can’t find an Alliant powder I need I find the Vihtivori powders to be good.
- Nov 4, 2004
- 27,268
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IMR4350 was always my go to powder for the 30-06 with 150-180 gr bullets.
JD338
JD338
wvbuckbuster
Handloader
- Nov 5, 2015
- 3,450
- 4,015
I've had my current 30-06 since 1986. In the past used IMR4350 and Win 760. Recent years it has been H4350 and Big Game.
RL338
Handloader
- Mar 23, 2017
- 4,715
- 8,249
H4350 will give a better case fill versus Varget , that’s what I use.
Well Varget is not a powder I've ever worked with but I've worked with and used the 30-06 for years.
I use a chronograph while working up my handloads but I'll have to presume, at least at this point in time you don't have or have access to one.
Here's how I did it during the dark ages of my reloading practices. I'd load five rounds of the start load and work up half a grain until close to the max, keeping a close eye for too high pressure. At that time I was a bit leery of going all the way to the max loads.
One powder I used a lot with the 150 gr. Sierra spitzer flat base bullet, that they didn't call the Pro-Hunters back then was H4895. My 30-06 was a JC Higgins M50 which I sill own. Most manuals today show 51.0 gr.as max. My M50 made it to 49.0 gr but 49.5 made for stiff bolt lift. I later went to the 180 gr. Sierra PH for deer as the 150 gr. messed up too much good eating meat.
Fast forward to sometime in the mid 80s when I finally acquired a chronograph and used it to work up loads. In most cases one can run loads over the chronograph and plot the velocity on graph paper. As powder increases so does velocity and within the pressure limits the change will mostly be linear.
I then loaded up a few of the load that had worked so well in that rifle and had to back off a full grain from 49.0 to 48.0 gr. Same brass, bullets and primer with the only difference being a fresh lot of H4895. The load locked up the action and I got it open with the help of a hunk of wood. I guess it slipped my mind that H4895 might have changed some in the roughly 12 years between shooting that load. My bad. I never did find out that that original load did but I dropped 150 gr. bullets for the .308 and 30-06 years ago Now I use the 165 gr. Speer Hot core in the .308, the 165 gr. AccuBond in the 30-06 and the 200 gr. Speer Hot Core in the .300 Win. mag.
PJ
Aussie Wanderer
Handloader
- May 5, 2022
- 340
- 798
I have a remington with a 26 inch barrel that wouldn't fire any 165 grain projectile with H4350 which was what I thought would be the go to in this rifle. Turns out Varget was what it really liked. With a 165SST, I load 52.5 grains of Varget for 2,907fps and an SD of 6.5. It is a genuine 0.5-0.75moa rifle with this load, but finicky as hell with others. I was about ready to swap the barrel out before finding this load.
