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Old March 11, 2012, 09:16 AM   #1
parker5920
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what is your best load for 308

hey everybody i am shooting a 308 vrt with 20'' barrel.i am useing 175 smks with imr 4064. if anybody has any load data for this load could u please share.thanks.
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Old March 11, 2012, 05:08 PM   #2
Jimro
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Start at 41.5 grains of powder. If you are happy with the accuracy stop there. If not keep working up.

I use 41.5 grains IMR4064 under 168gr bullets and it does just fine.

175 GR. SIE HPBT IMR IMR 4064 .308" 2.800"
41.5 2500 45,200 PSI 45.6C 2728 59,500 PSI

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Old March 12, 2012, 10:33 AM   #3
Clark
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110 gr Vmax moly .308 LC or WW brass, 44.9 gr surplus bulk IMR4895 that
acts more like H322, 2.815"

This is wimpy ~ 43 kpsi. There is more room in the WW brass, but this load will shoot great groups at 100 yards in every rifle, if I take 1/2 dozen 308s to the range.
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Old March 12, 2012, 11:04 AM   #4
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Parker5920,

Welcome to the forum.

Your combination is good. One problem with .308 is that there is a wide weight and capacity range among different brass headstamps. I've measured cases from 156 grains (Winchester) to 186 grains (IMI) and that represents enough internal capacity to affect some powder charges by a couple of grains. So we'd need to know your cases and knowing your primers may not hurt, though that's a less predictable quantity. For example, if you look at Hodgdon's site they use a Winchester case (high capacity) and Federal 210M primer with the 175 seated to 2.800" COL, and have a starting load of 41.5 and a maximum compressed load of 45.6 grains. Well, if you got some Lake City brass, instead, that top load would have to come down to 44.0 grains to be at the same peak pressure. If you got a some magnum primers instead, another several % might have to come off the powder charge.

So, fair warning there. Start with your loads low and work up in all cases, but especially in .308. Only .300 Win Mag is even worse in this regard. Because of the case variation in .308, I would actually start at 39.2 grains if I had military brass, and more like 40 grains with commercial brass other than Winchester. Remember that performance is useless without accuracy so when accuracy peaks you are wise to stop trying to get more fps out of it.

The above is one reason universal recipes are difficult to come by. Everyone's gun is a little bit different in dimensions and recoil moments, and especially if the brass and primers you have are different, you want to find what your gun actually likes best and fine tune to that. That ability to match the load to your particular gun is the main value to the act of shooting that handloading has, other than reducing cost.

That said, some recipes do fairly well in a number of guns. I recommend Dan Newberry's load development pages for a systematic approach to tuning your own loads. It also puts you on the path to finding those that are a little more universally applicable, should you have a number of guns you want to use the same rounds in. Please note that if you look at his recipe loads you will find they are all put together in Winchester brass, and may be too warm in other brands.

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Last edited by Unclenick; March 12, 2012 at 11:09 AM.
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Old March 12, 2012, 03:44 PM   #5
from the Hip
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I used to use 43.5 gr. of Ali -Rx15 with A Sie. 168gr. hpbt. Now I have fallen in love with 49.5 gr. of Ali - Power Pro 2000mr with a Hor. 168gr A-Max. I also recommend/use the O.C.W. method of load development.
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Old March 13, 2012, 11:08 AM   #6
larzb93
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i personally shoot 40 grains of 4064 with 168 gr SMK. its not about the power behind the bullet. its the timing when it leaves the barrel, my point being, the smallest amount of powder may give the best results
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Old March 13, 2012, 01:05 PM   #7
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Quote:
what is your best load for 308
43.0 grains of RL15 and a good 168 match bullet. Or that same load with a good hunting bullet. It's not a max load by any means, but it's shot well in every rifle (seven rifles, as of this counting) that I've fired it in. I believe that it duplicates the Fed GMM load

All the replies you get should tell you that every rifle is different.
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Old March 13, 2012, 02:40 PM   #8
parker5920
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hey unclenick i am using win.case and f210m primers with 43.5 of imr 4064.went to the range today and it shoot one hole groups at 100 yrds.my oal is 2.830.do you have any comments on a load for 1000 yd. load. or should i stay with this one.http://thefiringline.com/forums/atta...1&d=1331669648
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Old March 13, 2012, 05:41 PM   #9
Jimro
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43.5 grains of Powder behind a 175 smk? You are good to go for 1k shooting.

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