Best powder for a .308 win. ?

[Country Boy]

 I have a rifle with a 20" bbl. and I can't afford to buy a lot of powders and bullets for expermentation. I will use 150 grn bullets for deer hunting. So what will give me the best vel. and accuracy. Some have suggested 748,3031,4064 R 15 etc. I know each rifle likes different things. But, what would you use to start with ?

[cwlongshot]

All/any of those you mention are in the correct "range" and should do anything you could as of the 308 Winchester.

Personally, I load one powder and bullet for the 308.

IMR 4320 powder and the discontinued SPEER 165 RN bullet.  I haven't loaded this in some time, so I don't remember the powder weight, but do remember it was not a top load.  The load has shot very well in a half a dozen 308's in my family.

 On a personal note, I have a 20" 308 Handi barrel coming my way very soon. With luck this load will be THE load for it as well!

 CW

[The Sodbuster]

In my experience with just one .308 Win rifle, it's not a terribly finicky cartridge to load for.  About everything I've fed it has shot well.  My powder of choice is Varget.  I've also seen good results with AA2520, IMR4064, H380 and BL-(C)2.  Mostly I've shot 150 grain Sierra Gamekings and Nosler Ballistic tips.  The powders you mentioned are all good too.  Like I said, it's an easy cartridge to load for.

[Savage]

Add IMR 4895 to the list. It's at the top of mine!
Savage

[Davemuzz]

Try either the 165 grain or the 150 grain Nosler Balistic tip bullet. Seat it 20 thousands off the lands and use Varget.

This seems to work the best in both of my 308's. The 150 grain bullets give me about a 1\4" tighter group at 100 yards than the 165 grain bullets. Here in Pa., that's really not a big deal as most of the time your shootin at a whitetail at under 100 yards. But I load the one with the tighter group.

I hope this helps.

Dave

[warrior1]

for a general purpose powder give imr 4895 a try. to me it's like a journeyman powder. check your manual and you
will find it listed for alot of calibers.if you find you are satisfied with it then you can geta pretty good buy on military surplus imr4895. otherwise, the powders recomended here are all good choices,your rifle will let you know when
you feed it something it really likes.if you were close to se mich i'd give you some my 3031,varget,imr4895,4064,
or 748. i haven't tried r15,but i've heard it does pretty well in this caliber. here again,if you were close enough i'd split a lb with ya just to try it.  a couple of years ago i got my buck the last day of the season at 8:30am , the load was w748
and a 180 gr sierra rn.good luck,dan

[jd45]

Hi Dave, just curious, does seating the bullet .025" off the lands prevent the cart from working thru the action, making it a single shot, instead of a repeater? Thanx, jd45

[Davemuzz]

Hi Dave, just curious, does seating the bullet .025" off the lands prevent the cart from working thru the action, making it a single shot, instead of a repeater? Thanx, jd45

jd45,

You have to try it in your specific gun. It works in my Winchester Lever and my Stevens 200. I can't give you the OAL off the top of my head, but you do have to see if it works. If you find that your chamber space is generous, then you have a decision to make. Either keep looking for another load that will make you happy, or tell yourself you now have a great shooting single shot.

Dave

[jd45]

OK Thanx, Dave. Good shooting! jd45

[Cheesehead]

Recently bought an 8 pound jug of RL-15 and 1000 150 grain .308" Bronze Points and that combination works so well in my M1A. Very small groups and very large holes in deer, relatively speaking.

Cheese

[jd45]

Cheesehead, I've heard great things about Reloader-15 & the Remington Bronze points, might try both in my Rem. V-SYN. Have you heard whether Wisconsin for this deer season has the "earn-a-buck" rule in place, where you have to shoot a doe before you can shoot a buck? We're huntin north of Eau Claire this year. Thanx, jd45

[Lloyd Smale]

i mostly have loaded wc842 lately because of cost savings but my favorite would have to be benchmark followed closely by varget. Id pick benchmark first because i load on a progressive and it meters better then varget.

[the jigger]

the only "best" with which i am familiar is what works for my rifle. my 308 is a savage "sierra" with a 20" barrel. i use varget! it shoots as well as i am capable. every deer i have killed with it was recovered in less than 50yds.

[nomosendero]

I like Varget, IMR4064 & H4895 for 150gr. bullets,though I don't use those much anymore & Varget & H4895 for 165-175 Gr. Bullets.

Let the pros tell there side of the story, great 308 info!!!           http://www.6mmbr.com/308Win.html           Hmmm, type it in & it will go.

Good shooting

 http://www.6mmbr.com/308Win.html                     There it is!!!!

[Davemuzz]

Great link. Thanks Nomo! (Did I say that?)

Dave

[warrior1]

good info nomo,dan

[Cheesehead]

Nomo

Very good link! It answers all my 308 questions, some I had never thought of. It is now book marked.

Cheese

[nomosendero]

Great link. Thanks Nomo! (Did I say that?)

Dave

     Thanks Dave !

[benchracer]

Wow! Awesome link!  I could stay on that site for hours (I just did).  What a wealth of information.  Thanks for showing the way to that website!

[dave375hh]

My best powder for a .308 with 150grs has been AA2520. With 165grs. I get the best vel & acc. from H-414. I've tried most of the other powders listed above and in my .308 H414 is the best of all of them because I use 165's for everything. I use std cup & core, bonded, and Barnes TSX depending on what I'm after. Before I'd go to a heavier bullet I'd go to my .375 HH, with todays bullets it's even more flexible than before.

[Davemuzz]

My best powder for a .308 with 150grs has been AA2520. With 165grs. I get the best vel & acc. from H-414.

Dave375,

It must be your rifle. I've loaded H-414 with 165\168 grain bullets and it looked more like a shotgun pattern than a group. I dunno, maybe I needed to fool with the OAL more.

Dave

[dave375hh]

Dave,

Yep, that's why I stated "in my rifle". Posts of this type can give a broad spectrum of loads, that may or my not be any good in Country Boy's rifle. We've all heard hundreds of times "every guns different". Like I stated I intend to use 165's only because it's the best balance in a .308, IMO. I only tried the 150's because I had a bunch of them left over from another project. All the hunting I've done with a .308 has been with 165's. This rifle will shoot 4 or 5, 3 shot groups into a 1/2" then they open up to 7/8" to 1 1/4 after that. It really likes to be clean. I've worked on others that can shoot all day without much change. They are all different after all !

[El Hefe]

Add IMR 4895 to the list. It's at the top of mine!
Savage

  I second that and add Reloader 15.