savage 10fp 308 loads

[livpaintball]

Can you people share your load data and what kind of performance your getting out of it. Just bought the above and have not reloaded for 308. Just pistols so far. Any advise or help makes me a happy person....

[WIL TERRY]

Everything you will ever need to know to handload the 308win is in any loading manuals published in the past 50 years.
Your having a half dozen of those manuals from their purveyers will give FAR more information than Winchester had when they introduced the cartridge to the market place.
Since every rifle ever made in the history of the universe is different the very joy of handloading is finding out what YOUR rifle likes, it matters not what all my 308WIN and 7.62NATO rifle like to shoot.

[rwilson452]

As others have said, What your rifle will like best is not known. I have found that the savage for the most part like a 150-165 gr bullet moving along at around 2650 FPS. Some years back DOD picked RE15 to load the the 7.62. I would suspect a powder with about that same speed should be looked at. Some have had good luck with varget. Rummage around in your data manuals. My Nosler book suggest N140 for the 150 gr bullet and BLC(2) for the 165 grainer. Once again, your mileage my vary.

[livpaintball]

What I'm looking for is not general load data that you pull off of the shelf(general ballistics) I want people who have the savage 10fp in the 308 to tell what they get the best accuracy out of. That is what I am looking for, 1/4 inch groups at 100yards would be nice. Thanks for replying

[essixx]

I have the DPMS LR308 rifle and my friend has the Savage rifle in 308. I load this round for both rifles and it is the best one I have found. I have tried many! I have used Winchester, Remington and Federal Match cases. The Federal seem to give the absolute best results but you won't be dissapointed with the others. CCI 200 primer, 47.5 grains of Accurate 2520 with a Sierra Varminter 110 grain Hollow point bullet. This is the maximum charge Accurate recommends. I load this with Lee dies and the Lee Factory Crimp Die. You should get your 1/4 inch at 100 yards easy with this load. I hope this helps.

[livpaintball]

That is the kind of info I'm looking for! I also have a stg58 with the 16 inch barrel. I need to find out the rate of twist on it but I will give your setup a try. Thank you again. One question, have you tried that in a mill. case?

[from the Hip]

I have the savage 10le2a it has a 26" heavy barrel and a 1-10 twist. She does ok(sub moa) with 120-140 grain bullets. She absolutly hates 150gr anything . the range she likes best is 168-180gr. with her personal favorite being the 178 grain Hornady a-max molly (#30714) Several powders work well with this bullet including Imr 4064, Varget, and belive it or not aliant Rx 15. Due to the long barrel and fast twist my Savage 10 likes to throw the heavy tiped bullets. But every barrel is different. take any rifle and change the barrel to even the varry next one produced in the same factory and the will not shoot the same. if I may, I sugjest you take advice about loads for your rifle as a starting point not gospel. Besides finding that one load is the fun part. I remember the first time I got Just one hole and the work it took to get there, made me as giddy as bunny in a garden. Good luck. FTH

[essixx]

from the hip added a good point, use what is said as a starting point. The Accurate manual listed 42.8grains as a starting point for the 2520 load I listed. So you may want to work up from there. I never did try the military cases. I got a good deal on the Federal match cases and my friend already had a stash of other brands. I never could get either of those rifles to group well with the heavier bullets. I don't even remember where I got the idea to try such a light bullet for the 308 to begin with. Once I landed on the 110 grain Sierra bullet I didn't look any further.

[amamnn]

Your rifle will undoubtedly "like" a load that is different in some ways than mine. Shortcutting the load development process is really a mistake, and most times disappointing (see above). You learn a lot by working up loads from the manuals and trying different things. All that general information is worth knowing and will someday be of value to you, even if you don't think so now.

With all due respect to my fellow members who have posted replies, free advice is worth every penny, and the invention of the www has done more to spread bad information further and faster than any other human invention. There are some very nice folks on this forum who would sincerely like to help you and there are some characters posting (no one I noticed on this thread so far) who don't know one end of a die from the other, but will still sound off.

Good luck with the Savage, they can be great shooters.

[Powderman]

I have the 10FP-LE2A, currently in service as a duty rifle. With duty ammunition, which is the Federal Gold Medal Match round, loaded with the Sierra 168 grain MatchKing, it will literally put 3 rounds almost in the same hole at 100 yards.

I have used 42.0 grains of IMR 4895 and the same charge weight of IMR 4064 with the 168 grain MatchKing with good results in my rifle, for practice. I load to an OAL of 2.800 in new and once fired Federal Match cases. Trim your cases to 2.000 to start.

Remember, your rifle is different than mine. Both loads are below published maximums, but be careful and observe for pressure signs, especially if you load your rounds close to the rifling. I also check and verify my cold bore zero by shooting my first practice round without cleaning; before I leave the range, I will clean my bore, using Hoppe's, then Sweets using patches only; I patch until the bore is totally dry, then put one patch with a 3/1 mix of Kano Microil (3 parts) to Kano Kroil (1 part) down the bore, followed by one dry patch. I will then fire three foulers, let the barrel and rifle cool 30 minutes, and fire one verification round before I leave the range.

(Yep, it's a bit retentive--but it IS a duty rifle. )

[livpaintball]

Thank you for the info, I think I will start with sierra 168 mk for the bullet. It sounds like a good place to start

[moredes]

I think the conventional target bullets that seem to give best results for that rifle are 168SMK, 175SMK, 168 Nosler J4's, and 178AMAX. Anything lighter might work for short range, but at the 600yd line, things get 'iffy' unless one is using a 175gr+ to buck the wind. Ain't nothin' worth shootin' at 100yd... I ain't walkin' that far .

I got great groups with all four bullets. I used FedGM 210 primers exclusively, and rotated through IMR 4064, RL-15, Varget, and Vihtavouri N150(? as I recall). I used LC brass, WW, Federal, and Lapua.

My best personal 10FP groups came from 178AMAX loads; powder and cases didn't seem to make too much difference, though if I had to give the nod to a combo, it'd be RL-15/Lapua brass. RL/Lapua might be good for another -.13MOA from any other combo, if my game was sharp that day. Runnerup would be 168J4's with 4064/LC brass. I'd rank the Varget/WW combo last for my particular rifle. Past 600yd, 178AMAXs yielded 15% tighter groups than 175SMK's for me.

You're gonna end up with boxes and boxes of odd-lot bullets and primers, and mebbe a few 1lb. cans of half-filled powder.

[Master Blaster]

Check the manufacturer of the bullets and powder for reliable safe data.

My load for my 24" barreled 10fp is 43 grains of 4064, Lake city brass, fed match primer, 168 Sierra Matchking HPBT.

Call sierra and ask them for data they have an 800 number on their website.

[livpaintball]

TTT!! YOU GUYS ARE GIVING ME SOME GREAT INFORMATION, I'VE BEEN ON THE WEB SEARCHING AND I KEEP COMING BACK HERE. I WILL GO TO THE MANUFACTORS SITE WHEN I MAKE THE FINALL ON THE COMPONENTS. KEEP IT COMING!!