Powder choice for 18” .308 win

[Raudy707]

Benchmark and CFE 223 will get those projectiles moving!

 

[Rflshootr]

IMR 4064, 4895 or Varget for both 165 & 180's.
My 1st pick would be 4064 for the 165's, and 4895 or Varget for the 180's.
If you're looking for performance, I'd stay with the 165's or even go down to 150's. 180's are getting too heavy for a short barrel in 308 Win IMO.

 

[tx338]

Varget and IMR 4064 are my top 2 choices.
Many others work, but these 2 are like having a cheat code for accurate 308 loads.

 

[Bigwilly556]

I have a 16.5" suppressed 308 running 178 ELD with 43.3 grians of varget at 2520. It's the easy button. 43.2- 43.6 (work up) is a very wide node but on the slow side. Benchmark if you want more speed.

 

[sturner]

Varget
Varget
………

 

[300grain]

shooting an 18" .308 win, will be using 165-180gr in a 10 twist. What have yall found that works best. Thanks!

Edit : These are the powders I have available to use at the moment. I've looked through several manuals but I know sometimes people have found multiple powders that work well that aren't listed in a book.
Tac
IMR 4064
IMR 4895
Varget
Benchmark
H4350
H4831SC
H1000
Retumbo
RL7
RL25
RL26
N570

Varget, start low and make up 10 rounds, then add .2 grams of powder increasing by .2 of powder till you reach maximum load. Go to the range and mark your target, identifying which powder load you are using.
My experience is the groupings will get smaller until you hit the sweet spot for your rifle. Then the groups will start to open up as you increase the powder load. Every rifle is different, but this will help you identify the load that works best. Good luck and enjoy the experience!

 

[Horse1]

I've run about 3500 rounds of 155's through my 20" 308. Varget and R-15 gave me virtually identical performance regarding accuracy, velocity, low ES/SD. Ultimately I chose '15 because it was more accurate/consistent through a Dillon powder measure than Varget. '15 will hold +/- .2gn, Varget for me was +/- .5gn.

 

[eshell]

I've run about 3500 rounds of 155's through my 20" 308. Varget and R-15 gave me virtually identical performance regarding accuracy, velocity, low ES/SD. Ultimately I chose '15 because it was more accurate/consistent through a Dillon powder measure than Varget. '15 will hold +/- .2gn, Varget for me was +/- .5gn.

Same experience with both 155 Scenars, 168 SMKs and 175 SMKs. R-15 seems a little more consistent lot-to-lot, which can be important for handloaders that buy powder in small batches.

I also got great short-range precision with several of the IMR powders, but stopped using them at long distance because of the temperature sensitivity giving me one more major variable to cope with.

 

[Horse1]

If I was staring over I'd be looking hard @ CFE223, Lever, Tac, and Big Game for their slick metering through automatic powder measurers.

Running prepped brass through a progressive is slicker than snot in a rock.

 

[Stokesrjsr]

I know this isn’t one of the powders you have on hand but several years ago I did extensive load development for my Blaser R8 that I had shortened to 16.5” and added a Thunder Beast Arms ultra 7” silencer.
I found many combinations to work well for accuracy but one that stood out above the rest. I have now many hundreds of this load through my rifle and continue to be impressed. I don’t use it on game beyond 600 yards but to that range it is deadly.
The load is with IMR 8208 XBR and 168 grain bullets, Hornady A-Max or ELDM, Sierra 168 tipped Match King or Berger 168 grain Classic Hunter. All are sub MOA but the Berger is just amazing many, many, sub 1/4 MOA groups and at 2670 fps avg and SDs, 5-7 fps.
The pic is of one of the better 5 shot groups, they aren’t all like that but none over .5 MOA.
The charge weight is above any reloading manual so I won’t publish it because it is safe in my oversized Blaser chamber but would not be safe in a SAAMI min spec chamber.
To develop this load, I noticed that as I approached the reloading manual max groups kept shrinking so out of curiosity I just kept going and found they continued to shrink. But I never ran into any pressure signs before they began to open up again. Where I settled is 1.5 grains above what one popular reloading manual lists as max.
To be clear, I am not recommending anyone do this, just sharing my findings for what has been my favorite short barrel loading for my short barrel .308. It has proven itself in the field and on the range.

 

[RB II]

I have a 16" Ruger American and it loves Verget and 168 gr bullets. Both A-max and LRX. Loaded mag length. The speed is not bad, 2550 from the 16” bbl, but good enough for a truck gun and 1-8 scope.

 

[arawls88]

I know this isn't one of the powders you have on hand but several years ago I did extensive load development for my Blaser R8 that I had shortened to 16.5" and added a Thunder Beast Arms ultra 7" silencer.
I found many combinations to work well for accuracy but one that stood out above the rest. I have now many hundreds of this load through my rifle and continue to be impressed. I don't use it on game beyond 600 yards but to that range it is deadly.
The load is with IMR 8208 XBR and 168 grain bullets, Hornady A-Max or ELDM, Sierra 168 tipped Match King or Berger 168 grain Classic Hunter. All are sub MOA but the Berger is just amazing many, many, sub 1/4 MOA groups and at 2670 fps avg and SDs, 5-7 fps.
The pic is of one of the better 5 shot groups, they aren't all like that but none over .5 MOA.
The charge weight is above any reloading manual so I won't publish it because it is safe in my oversized Blaser chamber but would not be safe in a SAAMI min spec chamber.
To develop this load, I noticed that as I approached the reloading manual max groups kept shrinking so out of curiosity I just kept going and found they continued to shrink. But I never ran into any pressure signs before they began to open up again. Where I settled is 1.5 grains above what one popular reloading manual lists as max.
To be clear, I am not recommending anyone do this, just sharing my findings for what has been my favorite short barrel loading for my short barrel .308. It has proven itself in the field and on the range.

This setup will be running suppressed as well. I’ll look to pickup a few more powders if I can’t find anything with these. This is a factory 700 chamber that I’ve never shot, I’ll start getting some measurements and load a few rounds this week.

 

[DustThroughaFan]

7828

Huh? While I love me some 7828, I always figured it was a little slow for 308.

 

[H2OBUG]

I am using TAC in the short barrel with 125gr bullets