Best load for Rem 700 SPS varmint 308?

Papaclaude

Papaclaude

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Does anyone out there have a pet load for the SPS Varmint in 308? I'm working up some loads now, but no great success so far. The best load I've come up with is 45 gr. of Varget over Rem Brass and a Win Primer with a Nosler 150 gr. Ballistic tip, but even that is a little disappointing (1" at a hundred). I've got a Hogue stock on the rifle, trigger set to about 1.5 lbs.

Any help would be appreciated.
 
each rifle is its own beast and loads should be worked up. the SPS Varmints I have worked up loads for all varied a bit. For my Rem XCR lrt 26" fluted barrel my components are

Hornady Match brass (prepped of course)- volume sorted (actually all are very good), weight sorted (again pretty good)
CCI 200 or br2 primers
168gr berger vld or Sierra Match king
start at 42gr Varget and work up. find the accuracy nodes and velocities you are comfortable with and watch for pressure signs

Note that CCI primers have hard cups and do not show pressure signs as readily as a remington or federal primer cup.
 
you do realize we have a reloading section.

Yes I understand the OP's intent WRT precision loading and its related mutual interest but we have to keep things in their appropriate sections otherwise there is no point having them.

Ok, hijack aside and to bring it back on topic I have found 43-44gr of varget with 167gr lapua scenars to be very accurate.

I also recently tried a batch of 155gr SMKs both with BLC2 and Varget and both came out surprisingly well at 100x considering the twist rate of the barrel

I'm using a 5R though, but from what I have seem amongst other members here have shown a consistent love for varget powder with a variety of bullets.
 
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Moved to reloading.... ;)

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NAA.
 
I have looked at others loads and a lot of people seem to find good accuracy with 43.0gn of RL15 behind a 175gn Sierra Matchking.

For me I have a Rem700 VS (similar to yours but with an HS stock) in 308 and I have done load work up with RL15 and have found a 0.75 to 0.80 MOA accuracy with 43.0gn and a 175SMK. I also had good accuracy (sub MOA) with 44.5gn and 45gn of RL15. I will warn you that I have not found reloading data for this load (sierra load data sucks)... I was working my loads from 41gn to 45gn from what the Speer data has listed for an 180gn bullet (and what others have done safely). I had no signs of pressure until I reached 45gn and then I had a very slightly cratered primer (that is as high as I go with this rifle).

Next I tried varget to see if I could get better accuracy. I also liked varget because Hodgdon has all their load data on their website!! I worked up in their published range and found I got the good accuracy (0.70 MOA) at 44.5gn behind a 175SMK this is near max and should give me a velocity around 2700FPS so this is where I stopped and called it good. If I dropped it down by a node I could have a little better accuracy, but lost a fair bit of velocity.

Hopefully this gives you somewhere to start from...
 
I also have to say that RL15 was my go to powder for a long time. I`ve had some great results with it.

I only switched from it to try something new after hearing good things about varget.

My three main powders for .308 has been RL15, Varget, and BlC(2). However I just did a load of 180gr SMKs with IMR4064, another popular powder for .308.
 
h4895 and imr 4895 are pretty popular with 308 too. I use h4895, almost identical (if not identical) to varget, but witout the fun name, so I find it's available more frequently then varget at my local supplier.
 
Factory Remington chambers tend to be very long-throated (you'd think it was designed by a lawyer!).

If you are going to load your ammo to magazine length, you need to use a bullet that is fairly insensitive to jump. Sierra 168 and 175 are likely to be good choices, also the Berger 155.5 Fullbore.

If you need/want to load to be near the lands, you need a bullet with a long enough shank so that the case mouth can still hold the bullet. In a friend's .308 700 VS, a Sierra 155 MK would literally fall out of the case before the bullet would touch the lands! We ended up using Sierra 190 MK, seated out ridiculously long (3"+?), with a classic loading of IMR 4064 (from memory - 41 grains?). They shot better for him than 155 SMKs.

IMR4895, H4895, Varget, Reloder-15, N140 and N150 are all used to make first-rate ammo.

(P.S. H4895 and Varget are both made in Australia, where they are known as ADI (Australia Defence Industries) "AR 2206" and "AR 2208". They are next-door neighbours to each other!)
 
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RL-15 is better than Varget in both of my 308's.
Also, a great load to plink/varmint with : 125gr Bal Tip and 51gr of W748, magnum primers.
 
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