308 hand loading

ERICK TUIN

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Ok here goes. I am fairly new to handloading. I have been doing it for my 9mm for a year or so now and it seems like a natural progression of my sport. I recently put to gether a rem 700 5r. I had it beddded and a timney trigger installed and topped it off with a nightforce 5-22x50 zero stop. I have not shot it yet. I picked up a few boxes of 168 grain match ammo, federal, hornady and another one, the brand slips my mind right now. I have read so many threads on here I can't remember them all. First of all I am looking at target shooting. I read all about finding the load the rifel likes??? how do you go about this? Bullet weight and bc. How do you pick the weight? bc goes up with bullet weight, do I just go for heavy 230 grain berger or something like that??? My plans are to start at 100 yards and work my way out from there as my skill goes up with practice. Where do I find information about working up a load that the gun likes. My lyman reloading manual gives lots of info but is limited to what research they have already done. Do I just load a box of each that they list and shoot them to find the results? I think you get the picture, I am looking for a good source of information on the how to here and the why?
 
I started with a light load and worked my way up in .3 grain increments; from 42 to a max of 46 grns. of varget. I watched carefully for pressure signs as I approached the max of 46 grns. of varget. I only use 155 grn. bullets as I shoot a T/R rifle. On my 5 shots test groups you could see the groups open up where the barrel didn't like the pressure and then progressively close up at the pressures the barrel liked. It's a fun experiement. Of my test loads I picked the fastest tight group (for bucking the wind, I figured it would be best to pick the fastest) and then shot 3 more groups loaded at .1 grns intervals to fine tune the load. Then I played with the seating depth of my bullets to further fine tune. It's a lot of fun and it's amazing how it makes the rifle shoot to it's potential.

Don't let anyone tell you a certain load that works all the time for them will work for you. I believe every rifle to be different. My two .308 rifles like loads that are a full grain apart.

My pet loads are 155 SMK over 46 grns. of varget for one rifle and 45 grns of varget for the other. I seat my bullets .01 off the lands. These give me .5 MOA on good days.
 
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