reloading subsonic .308

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savage M110 BAS

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Does anybody here have personal experience with reloading subsonic .308? I have done quite a bit of reading and the general consensus is 10.5grains of trail boss seems to be the winner.

I have also read that it is critical to clean your bore every 5 shots to make sure there is minimal friction between your bullet and bore? Is this BS or recommended?

I want to try some subsonic 168gr Amax and 168gr Berger Tactical target bullets.

any help would be greatly appreciated.
 
Sure an awful waste of good bullets, to shoot them in the 1100 fps range. This is nearly a lways done with low price cast bullets.
And, with a 308 bullet of that weight going in the range of 1000 1100 fps, or just under the speed of sound, it will still be pretty noisy. If you are thinking of a load you can shoot in your basement, you would have to come down to more like the 500 fps range.
As far as I am concerned, you can forget about all this subsonic BS that is written about so much lately.
Those of us who have done considerable amount of experimenting with ultra lights loads, discovered long ago, that less powder makes less noise. If you started out with loading 11 to 12 grains of Unique, which would likely give you on the order of 1400-1450 fps, then dropped the powder charge down one grain at a time, until you were down to, say 6 grains, you would have fallen below the speed of sound at some point.
I will bet that not you, nor your buddies standing around listening, can detect the powder charge that put the bullet below the speed of sound. Less powder equals less noise, period.
Tell us what the purpose of your light loads are and I'm sure we could help you out.
 
I have played with subsonic cast bullets in a lot of rifles and have never noticed a problem with fouling so long as the powder is burning completely. If you are finding unburnt powder in your cases then you may want to run a patch down.
I find Trail Boss to work exceptionally well in some loads but not so great in others. As H4831 has said in other threads Unique seems to be the best reduced power powder out there. It doesn't always give stellar results but never gives horrible results either.

Personally I wouldn't waste quality bullets like A-Maxs or Bergers with subsonic loadings as they tend to require a lot of development to get accurate. Cheaper hunting bullets, FMJ's, or cast bullets are the better option.
 
for my sub rounds I use Sierra 200gr gamekings, federal brass with flash hole drilled out to 9/64", 10.8gr of trailboss and federal 210 primers. this gets me to 1050fps
 
not sure about the 308 but was thinking about doing this with the 30-06. 13 grains of trailboss with 150 grain bullets right around 1100 feet/second.something the kids should be able to handle pretty easy.drop a couple in with the brothers deer ammo for kicks.out to about 75 yards should still knock them down.or load with cast bullets for shooting steel.
 
Trailboss is by far the best and safest option.

Do not confuse cast bullets with jacketed. Cast are inherently lubricated and thus unlikely to stick in the bore. Jacketed bullets MUST be lubricated, either with fat, grease or moly or you run the risk of sticking a bullet.

Of all the bullet weights I tried, the 168gr weight is by far the worst for flight stability. Either go lighter or heavier.
 
I was running 10 grains of trail boss under 150 gr fmj's. If you haven't shot subs before I think you'll find it very entertaining. Something about aiming off wayy too much and watching your own bullet fly to a target 2-300M away in your own scope is a lot of fun.
I never did any kind of bullet lubing and I never had a problem, not saying you couldn't however.
If you don't see your bullet impact after your shot, check the bore, especially while doing load development.
 
I see lee makes molds for 110 and 120 grain .308 pills. I must say... I am tempted to play.


Does anyone pack their cases with wadding to take up the unused space?
 
A number of guys have good luck with 180gr. RN and 150gr.-170gr. .30-30 bullets over Trail Boss. Seems to be the most commonly available bullets used that will work in .308 Win. barrels that have twist rates in the 1:12" area. Since the OP hasn't specified what he has, it's a bit of an assumption here.

I've shot thousands of the 110gr. FMJ-RN .30 Carbine bullets and while great for making noise, they do little to inspire your shooting confidence as accuracy is relatively poor at best. I've shot Red Dot, Green Dot, and Trail Boss with this bullet and the best 5-shot average I've been able to produce is around 2.5" @ 100 yds.

I've had no luck shooting this bullets subsonic in .300 Blackout. It patterns at 100 yds. with Trail Boss.

I just bought 1,000 Hornady 100gr. XTP pistol bullets to play with in my .308's and .300 Blackout's. With any luck, they'll have relatively better accuracy. Anything near 1.5" 5-shot groups would be considered a success.
 
I have never played with subsonic loads for .308 or .30-06. Shoot em hard and fast up near max. Now, .303 and 7.62x39mm, that's different! Used Unique, Red Dot, 700X throwing a 220gn Game King out of an SKS from 700fps to 1090fps. Same powders for .303 to start my kids and run wax bullets in the basement. We also used to challenge each other at the range to see who could get the bullet the farthest out of the muzzle without failing out of the barrel. Now, THAT was fun times. Quite a challenge loading right at the bench. Never suffered any stuck bullets that caused any problems. Don't recall drilling out flash holes or using cast. Just hunting or FMJ. Cut the wax bullets with a 7.92 case, froze them, seated them. Worked fine.
 
Hi Ganderite, I have a bunch of 2400 and an interest is shooting heavy bullets subsonic in a .308. Can you share more details from your experience? What weight? What bullet? Powder charge? Barrel length? etc? I'm curious about the .311 as well.

I'm thinking about buying a heavy mold and casting my own slugs. I'd like something around 220 grains or more.
Thanks for any tips you can share!!!!
 
Stonewall7 said:
Hi Ganderite, I have a bunch of 2400 and an interest is shooting heavy bullets subsonic in a .308. Can you share more details from your experience? What weight? What bullet? Powder charge? Barrel length? etc? I'm curious about the .311 as well.

I'm thinking about buying a heavy mold and casting my own slugs. I'd like something around 220 grains or more.
Thanks for any tips you can share!!!!
Click to expand...

I too would be interested in any 2400 recipes or also bullseye recipes.
 
I got good results using 2400 and 200 gr jacketed bullets. The idea of heavy cast bullets and a fast pistol powder sounds like the way to go for giggles.

Flat based, round nose bullets were the most accurate. I used oversized bullets to help get the pressure up.
 
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I've farted around with a handful of cartridges with subsonic loads, including cast and jacketed in .308.

I've kind of settled on Lee 200 gr cast, gas checked, water dropped, tuble lubed, over 8.0 grains of TB with a CCI #250 primer.

Feels like shooting a .22 rimfire, doesn't foul noticeably, keeps you fed on grouse and snowshoe hares while hunting big game, and would be fine on a nosy coyote at close range. I never tried them very far out.

I have a basically identical load for .303 British, and my five year old son was shooting clay pidgeons at 20 meters with it out of a No4. He just needed some support holding that long, full wood rifle...
 
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