This thread brings back a ton of great memories! In 1970, I turned 12, and dad bought me a Remington model 760 .308 rifle. He had bought one of the first 760s years before, also in .308. I have been deer hunting with it ever since. A few years ago I also purchased a Remington model 700 in .308 and have been using that while my son borrowed my 760. I love both rifles in this caliber. My son recently decided he wanted a bolt action .308, so I bought him a model 700 he picked out.
I wanted to shoot my .308 all year round, so I started reloading at 15 under my uncle's guidance. I used 150 gr. (this matched the weight dad had me using for deer) Sierras (the only brand the local gunshop carried). This shop only carried DuPont (IMR) powder. My uncle had me buy 4350 for my first go-around. I suspect he thought this would be a "safe" powder for a new reloader to use. As I remember, this ammo shot well enough. However, 4350 had long grains that did not measure real well, and most of the loads were compressed which I never did come to like much. My second pound of power was DuPont 4320. This stuff was Great - accurate, with shorter grains that did not require compressed loads to achieve good velocities. I used this powder and 150 gr. Sierras for years and the biggest buck on my wall was harvested with this combination. Sometime in my early 30s, I bought a pound of W748 "ball" powder that my friend had been praising so highly. I never bought IMR 4320 powder again. W748 powder, along with Speer 165 gr. boattail bullets (another item my friend praised) became my "go to" load and I have shot a pile of deer with them. W748 also worked great with Speer 125 gr. TNT bullets for varmints and plinking. Along the way, I bought a pound of IMR 4895 to try out. It worked fine, kind of reminded me of my 4320 days, but one pound was enough. I also tried a pound of Varget. It also worked fine. It seemed cleaner - perhaps because it does not have the graphite coating. However, many of the most accurate (in my rifle) loads, were compressed, and this probably led me to never buy a second pound of Varget. A couple years ago, I started using Benchmark powder in my .223 rifles. A kernel of Benchmark looks just like a Varget kernel cut in half. Benchmark is clean, temperature stable (I had to be careful about not leaving my W748 loads in the summer sun), and is faster burning so I can totally avoid compressed loads, and it is amazingly accurate. Again, I first bought Benchmark for my .223, but Hodgdon, advertises this powder to work "extremely well in .308 Win". So I tried it my .308 and I agreed so much that now all I use in all my .223 and .308 loads is Benchmark. I'm going to be 50 this year, and it's been quite a journey with my trusty .308. I know that you don't hear much about it, but Benchmark is where I'm at now. I highly recommend that you buy a pound and see what you think. If you also have a .223, you have even more reason to buy a pound. Thanks for letting me reminisce and share what has worked for me over the years.
Regards, Chappy
