Seeking Federal Gold Match 308 Pet Loads

[Leadman]

Here is my one of many loads you will get from a question like that.

I have a Remington LTR
168 Gr. Hornady BTHP match moly
44.7 gr. Varget
WLR Primer
OAL 2.825

Last group .488 5shot at 100 yds.

Good Luck!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Bart B.]

IMR4064 has probably been used in more .308 Win. ammo winning matches and setting records than all other powders combined. Both bolt action match rifles and semiauto service rifles did their best with it. Military teams bought millions of rounds of Federal GM match with 168's atop IMR4064. This powder's also been the one that's shot the smallest test groups through 600 yards from .308 cases; sub 1.5 inch 10 shot groups at 600 for example. Or 40 consecutive 190 HPMK's in under 2 inches at that range. No ball powder's even come close.

44 grains of IMR4064 under 168's is the max load of choice. 41 grains does well for reduced loads for up to 300 yards with 168's.

And Federal cases are fine. Folks have full length sized their .308 ones dozens of times shooting max loads in standard SAAMI chambers and never annealed a neck. Of course if you don't set the die correctly in the press, only a few reloads are all one's gonna get.

[Unclenick]

In the Dave Milosevich's chapter on High Power bolt gun loads in the Precision Shooting Reloading Guide (Precision Shooting Pub., 1995, p. 102) a comparison is made between IMR-4895 and IMR 4064. It starts at moderate loads, where the IMR-4064 acts as the faster powder of the two powders. As the workup progresses, the IMR4895 and IMR-4064 cross over at 2400 fps, with the IMR 4064 behaving as the slower of the two powders at higher velocities, therefore producing less pressure per grain than equivalent increases in IMR 4895.. It is as if IMR 4064 just doesn't respond to higher pressure by burning as much faster as IMR-4895 does under similar pressure increases.

Charge needed to achieve given velocities from the book. Less IMR 4064 for 2200 fps, but more for 2500 fps:

         2200 fps   2300 fps   2400 fps   2500 fps   2600 fps
IMR 4895   37.0       38.5       40.0       41.5
IMR 4064   35.9       38.0       40.1       42.2       44.4

I've seen the remark made previously that IMR powders seem to be less sensitive to pressure change than many others, but IMR 4064 in particular. This has useful implications: One ism is it should be less sensitive to small charge errors thrown by a powder measure. Another is it should be easier to get consistent muzzle velocity by controlling charge weight precision, which is important at 600 yards, in particular. A third is that it should be less adversely affected by sitting a little while in a warm chamber, as happens in service rifle matches, which only allow one minute per shot in the slow fire.

Since both Federal GM .308 loads and the military's M118LR now use Reloader 15, it might be worth making the same comparison between IMR 4064 and Reloader 15? Maybe that's a good project for when good weather returns.

I recently looked back over a number of forum posts and other information on experiences with Federal brass. They range from people who've had primer pockets expand on firing Federal's own original loads and Dan Newberry's declaration that he doesn't consider it suitable for reloading, to people, including a couple I know personally, who've gotten exceptional load life from it. If there is any agreement, it appears to be that Federal brass is softer than average. That should mean less tolerance for hot loads, but also longer load life before annealing is required (less prone to splits) when loaded to less extreme pressures. The bottom line, same as with any other brass case ever made: you should not load it hotter than the brass will tolerate. Duh.