New member- .308 help

[angus1336]

Looking for a great reload to hunt whitetails. Looking to shoot up to 700 yards with a Savage model 110 .308.

I recently started seeing a young mans mother and got the chance to bring him hunting on PA's past whitetail hunt. Rifle season was a bust for him, but was able to help him harvest a nice 6 point in late muzzleloader.

Long story short, my hunting ground holds a few opportunities for long range shooting. During that time, he carried my 7mm STW and my fathers .338. We do our own reloading but do not have any good rounds or idea where to start with his. It was his fathers gun and wants to carry build it to shoot longer range.

Closest thing I got to building a round for him, would start with my 7mm-08. which is a Remington model 7, 150 gr. Nosler ballistic and Hodgdens H380 at 44.5 gr pushing it.

I guess what I'm asking is........ Does anyone have a good load to try that is not eating up casings, carrying some velocity and is still a good whitetail round.

I looking for something that will be good for 0 - 700 yards. Would like to stay around the 150 gr. bullet........ Any help would be great

 

[wbm]

Not sure what you want to load for. 7mm-08 or .308?

 

[angus1336]

I want to load the .308. So many differences. My 7mm 08 is a much shorter barrel. great load but not sure that I really can compare it. Same round, just necked down to fit a 7mm. is it in the same ball field?

 

[wbm]

7mm-08 has a bit better ballistics than 308 but is more limited in bullet weights.

Lot's of good loads for the 308 in 150-155 bullets. H4895 or IMR4064 are always good powders in the 308 as is Varget.

A 150gr Nosler Ballistic Tip pushed at 2800fps (calculated with 24" barrel at 800' elevation) will get you to 700 with enough energy left to take a white tail.

45gr of Varget 150 NBT

 

[Str8shooterTX]

IMHO at 700 yards the 308 is not having enough energy I'm getting around 780FPE on my calc. I don't like below 1100 FPE for Whitetail. YMMV. So really with that FPS with 150Gr bullet you're good out to 450-500 yards.
But how often in PA will you take a 700 yard deer shot if ever? With the 7mm-08 you are getting similar energy numbers.

308 has better selection and availability of brass, bullets.

Edge goes to 308.

 

[angus1336]

Not knowing anything about Varget. Is this a powder you use? I have always stayed with Dupont and Hogdens. I am willing to try, truly looking for best results.

We tend to reload with Nosler and Combined Technology ballistic. Just for the long range accuracy. For the range..... is it in your opinion that money spent is a waste? We shoot the same on groundhogs all summer long with the intent to maintain accuracy.

 

[wbm]

Varget is a Hodgdon powder and yes I use it in the .308. IMR4064 is also a very good powder for .308. The bullets you listed are fine for hunting. Sometimes you just need to load and shoot to find what a rifle likes.

Since you probably use the Noslers go over to nosler.com and check out their load data page. Lot's of powder bullet loads listed for the 308 along with their accuracy loads for different weight bullets. Also a good ballistics calculator available on line. Lets you put in all sorts of variables.

http://www.jbmballistics.com/cgi-bin/jbmtraj-5.1.cgi

 

[roninflag]

what .308 rifle ? what scope? what do your 500 yard groups look like currently? i would use nickel brass, and 168 ballistic silvertips; or 168 bergers and lapua bras ; either varget or I4064; either Br-2 or 210M primers.

 

[Zep]

I suggest you call up Sierra or Nosler and ask them about the 308 and terminal velocity at 700 yards. I don't think you are going to have the energy for a humane kill going out that far. There has to be enough speed for the bullet to open up and do its job. You want to have fun with this kid.

 

[scrmblr1982cj8]

IMR4064 is a classic .308 powder. My recipe using resized NATO brass is 42.5g with a 168g SMK BTHP. Varget also works well. I use a BArnes TTSX for my hunting rounds. There a number of powders that will give great accuracy and reliability. Reloader has a few powders that work well also. If you shooter greater distances than 600 yards, move up to the 175g bullrts.

A lot of people will only use one powder, but with powder availability as poor as it is currently, I want as many powders on hand as possible. Kinda like the Ford vs Chevy argument. Keep your options open.

 

[roninflag]

are you going to load for the stw?

 

[JoeS1044]

Varget is a Hodgdon powder and yes I use it in the .308. IMR4064 is also a very good powder for .308. The bullets you listed are fine for hunting. Sometimes you just need to load and shoot to find what a rifle likes.

Since you probably use the Noslers go over to nosler.com and check out their load data page. Lot's of powder bullet loads listed for the 308 along with their accuracy loads for different weight bullets. Also a good ballistics calculator available on line. Lets you put in all sorts of variables.

JBM - Calculations - Trajectory

+1 for varget I load that in my 308. Also load RL15 both shoot really well I'm using 168g Barnes ttsx bullet however.

 

[Greyfox]

Either round would do fine. I like the 308 for many of the reasons mentioned. For whitetails out to 600 yards, my favorite load in my Milspec 700 is a 165 BT or SST driven at 2800 FPS. I use Varget(45gr) with a Fed 210M(work this load up). This load shoots better than .5MOA and has good terminal performance, expanding well at all ranges.

 

[ltcjwb]

I'm certainly no expert, but the best 150 grain .308 factory load I can find is the Hornady SST Superformance, at 3000 fps, and it loses punch at 600-650. Assuming that you want 1000 lbs/ft at impact to reliably take down a deer, this round drops below that just short of 650. That's at 500', 59 degrees, and 78% humidity, per Nikon's Spot-On calculator, which is close to Hornady's and all the others I have seen. 7mm-08, with the Hornady 139 grain SST Superformance at 2950 fps drops below 1000 lbs/ft just short of 700, same conditions. Both of these rounds show enough power per the Hornady HITS calculator to take a deer at 700, but both are near the minimums.