.308 for the M14

Busta Capp

Busta Capp

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Since this is a magazine fed semi, was just curious if the .308 round, when loaded for the M14S, needs to be crimped?

Also, for those that do reload for the M14, what brass do you use? Is Winchester strong enough, or does this require a thicker brass?

Thanks for any feedback.
 
I would be inclined to crimp, but only if there is a crimping groove on your bullet. If there is no crimping groove, you could try to pick a load that fills the case to the base of the bullet, with the caveat that you avoid slow burning powders with your gas gun.
 
yes, winchester is good enough- i've been using it for years, but i change after 3-4 firings anyway as the 14 is hard on brass- use the 150 grain loads as a starting point , and don't go above 170 , and do some MORE READING as the fellows and stickies on here have GOOD recipes - i've only ever had one head seperate, and that was a winchester, but i can't tell you whether it was a range brass, how many times it had been fired, or what gun it came out of- i've got 4 of the things , plus a couple of hunting all in 308- i don't usually pick up range brass, but it's handy for file handles and other things
anyway, i change brass at 3 for once fired, 4 for virgin now
btw - some of the match loads use winchester- what does that tell you?
 
It doesn't need crimping or milsurp(thicker) brass. Nor do you need to pitch the brass after only 3 or 4 reloadings. Winchester brass will do nicely.
Think 165 grain hunting bullets and 168 or 175 grain match bullets with regular large rifle primers and IMR4064.
 
I have tried both ways, crimped and not for mine.

The only time I got a bullet driven into the brass was when I was using some commercial winchester loads and I had a miss feed.

I use once fired Norma brass, with my uncrimped rounds I have never had a problem, with the crimped ones there was a definite opening of the group size. Overall it was about 1 inch larger.

I do not crimp any more

So far I use only IMR 4895 powder, and have shot 175,168,155,150 gn reloads. I adjust the powder load for each to keep the pressure close to my reference load. This load is 168gn SMK, with IMR4895 41.5gn. My understanding is that this is the optimal pressure for the gas system. I am not sure how hard and fast this rule is but so far I have kept all my loads in this approximate pressure range.
 
Last edited:
roberti11 said:
So far I use only IMR 4895 powder, and have shot 175,168,155,150 gn reloads. I adjust the powder load for each to keep the pressure close to my reference load. This load is 168gn SMK, with IMR4895 41.5gn. My understanding is that this is the optimal pressure for the gas system. I am not sure how hard and fast this rule is but so far I have kept all my loads in this approximate pressure range.
Click to expand...

Thanks Mark, I actually have some H4895 that I was planning on using for this, so this might be a good starting load. What OAL where you using?
 
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