308 load development?

Compared to these guys I know nothing but out of my 20" 30-06- 10 twist I developed much more speed ( over 100FPS) with IMR 4064, it has a slower burn rate than the H4895 , and I was running the Barnes Monolithic 130 grain TTSX a totally different animal than the Hammers . How ever , heed what they told you about stripping the barrel when going to Mono bullets or switching from Monos to lead core bullets . I have the AH Hammers to shoot but have No experience with any of the Hammers as yet but will be loading and testing next month when I return from Montana . Good luck and good shooting Sir .
 
I've tried many powders in .308s with many bullets in the 150 - 180 grain weight range. Lots of good powders, but I prefer H4895 for best overall accuracy and velocity. Varget, IMR-4064, and Reloder 15, and TAC are often very close seconds and in some select loads may actually improve on H4895 results, but differences are often small. As for hunting bullets, I've found Barnes very easy to develop loads with. They're generally very accurate and have always worked well for me on game (bull elk), but other bullets may do as well; not a point I'd argue.

"Deep cleaning" is a popular, overused term these days and you can certainly overdo a bore cleaning, depending on the barrel. Cleaning to bare metal may require up to a dozen or more shots to bring back accuracy in some situations. I clean after shooting, but generally, I've found no harm in leaving slight copper and carbon fouling in the bore. I don't go to bare metal anymore, but there are always exceptions and experimenting may be in order.
 
2" groups @100y is not so bad for moose, especially if the shots will be 150yards or closer. How far will you likely be shooting? Also check groups at say 200 yards. My 200 yard groups are almost always better than what I expected given what a rifle shoots at 100yards. I never could understand why but I get better looking groups when I shoot at 200-300 yards.
 
lotech said:
I've tried many powders in .308s with many bullets in the 150 - 180 grain weight range. Lots of good powders, but I prefer H4895 for best overall accuracy and velocity. Varget, IMR-4064, and Reloder 15, and TAC are often very close seconds and in some select loads may actually improve on H4895 results, but differences are often small. As for hunting bullets, I've found Barnes very easy to develop loads with. They're generally very accurate and have always worked well for me on game (bull elk), but other bullets may do as well; not a point I'd argue.

"Deep cleaning" is a popular, overused term these days and you can certainly overdo a bore cleaning, depending on the barrel. Cleaning to bare metal may require up to a dozen or more shots to bring back accuracy in some situations. I clean after shooting, but generally, I've found no harm in leaving slight copper and carbon fouling in the bore. I don't go to bare metal anymore, but there are always exceptions and experimenting may be in order.
Click to expand...
By mistake a few weeks ago , i had a powder order show up containing IMR3031 instead of 4831( for my 300 win mags ) . I asked around and some folks told me that the 3031 is good for 308 . So , after a few weekends of trial and error and various seating depths , i can honestly say , this is my new "go to " powder for my 308 . Regularly shoots groups of 1.5" at 225 yards .Two weekends past i managed a 5 shot group at under 1" at 225 yards. That's using 42g of IMR 3031 and 155 g Nosler Custom comps . Going to try it next with 155g SST,s for hunting load .
 
lotech said:
I've tried many powders in .308s with many bullets in the 150 - 180 grain weight range. Lots of good powders, but I prefer H4895 for best overall accuracy and velocity. Varget, IMR-4064, and Reloder 15, and TAC are often very close seconds and in some select loads may actually improve on H4895 results, but differences are often small. As for hunting bullets, I've found Barnes very easy to develop loads with. They're generally very accurate and have always worked well for me on game (bull elk), but other bullets may do as well; not a point I'd argue.

"Deep cleaning" is a popular, overused term these days and you can certainly overdo a bore cleaning, depending on the barrel. Cleaning to bare metal may require up to a dozen or more shots to bring back accuracy in some situations. I clean after shooting, but generally, I've found no harm in leaving slight copper and carbon fouling in the bore. I don't go to bare metal anymore, but there are always exceptions and experimenting may be in order.
Click to expand...
He's shooting Hammers not Barnes and a "Deep Cleaning, is a must when switching to these Bullets
 
Sasman said:
By mistake a few weeks ago , i had a powder order show up containing IMR3031 instead of 4831( for my 300 win mags ) . I asked around and some folks told me that the 3031 is good for 308 . So , after a few weekends of trial and error and various seating depths , i can honestly say , this is my new "go to " powder for my 308 . Regularly shoots groups of 1.5" at 225 yards .Two weekends past i managed a 5 shot group at under 1" at 225 yards. That's using 42g of IMR 3031 and 155 g Nosler Custom comps . Going to try it next with 155g SST,s for hunting load .
Click to expand...
None of this applies to the Op's question
 
I also suggest deep cleaning and the Bore Tech products are excellent as suggested earlier.

You might also consider a carbon removal with Slip 2000 Carbon Killer, another excellent product.

The OP is lucky in that the 308 Win is one of the easiest cartridges to load for.
 
I have had good accuracy results with 41.7 grns of IMR 3031, and Berger 115 Grn Bullets , and Win LR Primers . in my .308 Medium heavy barrel savage 110. This is target load, but 3031 was once a powder commonly used in 308s. 45 to 46 Grns of 3031 with a 130 Hornady SP was good for about 2900 / 3000 fps. Very Nice deer Load, way back when.
 

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Lenny Foffa said:
I have had good accuracy results with 41.7 grns of IMR 3031, and Berger 115 Grn Bullets , and Win LR Primers . in my .308 Medium heavy barrel savage 110. This is target load, but 3031 was once a powder commonly used in 308s. 45 to 46 Grns of 3031 with a 130 Hornady SP was good for about 2900 / 3000 fps. Very Nice deer Load, way back when.
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Once again, absolutely nothing to do with the OP's question
 
zr600 said:
Ok my wife has a moose hunt coming up, she's going to use her 308 savage. I have it shooting 150g Sierra pro hunters 1/2" or so. I also have it shooting 168 Sierra tmk 1/2" or better. So I wanted a heavier and better penetrating bullet for the moose hunt so I ordered some 166g shock hammers. Anyways I run a Satterlee latter test with them had a flat line at 41.8-42. So I loaded 41.9 and grouped them and they shot a 2" group. Kind of disappointed so far. Could it be the seating depth? The tmks took some work with seating depth to get them to shoot but when I got it they shoot good. The powder used was varget, primers Winchester large rifle, and Winchester brass that's been prepped. So I'm just kind of worried with getting closer to hunting season. Velocity was 2707 for 41.8 and 2706 for 42g. Any advice would be great. This gun does have a 20" barrel too.
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I have tried many bullets in the 308 over the years and settled on the 168 grain Hornady A-Max years ago. Shot it out of many brand's of rifles over the years and settled on it overall.
 

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