Updated with ladder test ... Using H4895 out of a .308 T3 Sporter

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Tikka223

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Like the title states, I'm looking for load data for my .308 T3 Sporter. I have fireformed Winchester brass, CCI BR2s, 185 Berger Hybrids and H4895. I believe the barrel is 1/11" twist.

I haven't found anything very specific on the Internet.
 
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You probably have a very short and easy job ahead of you.

One of the best local FTR shooter uses this:
- 44 grains Varget, giving 2650fps @ muzzle from a 27" Krieger on a Savage action.
- he uses .007" jump with the Berger 185 Hybrid but reports that this bullet is quite tolerant of this parameter; he has had the same sized groups with .020" jump and with .000" (i.e. touching))
- BR2 primers in Lapua cases.

You are looking to use H4895 instead of Varget; I'd think that if you started at 40 grains and worked up, you'd probably top out around 42.5 or 43.0 grains.
 
I'll have to give the Varget a go. I wanted to stick to H4895 as I have more in supply than I do of Varget. Varget is my .223 powder.
 
I use 43.0 of H4895 and COL of 2.970. Gives me about 2800 fps out of a 30" barrel and half MOA groups. That's the load I will be shooting in a competition this weekend and have had success with in the past.
 
I've loaded up some of the following:

185gr Hybrids, Winchester fireformed cases, trimmed to 2.04", CCI BR2s, loaded to 3.020" OAL which should give about .007" jump.

If find this OAL rather long but it chambers just fine. As well, there is plenty of room left in the case for more powder but I don't know anything about hot loads so I won't be dabbling too much into that.

H4895

6x 40gr (3 for sight-in)
3x 40.5
3x 41
3x 41.5
3x 42
3x 42.5
3x 43

That should give me enough for 3 ladder tests. My only concern is that the gap between loads may be too large. Thoughts?
 
It would be nice if you were able to do your testing over a chrono. One more piece of info to tell you how things are going.

Also, it would be nice if you could work up a bit higher; oftentimes accuracy and uniformity improves as you go hotter. Not advocating over-max loads here - just saying that is is OK to go _to_ max.

I would expect that all of this ammo will shoot very well for you, in fact there's a good chance that all 22 of these rounds(from lightest to heaviest) will go into one nice group.
 
I've gotten slightly better results with H4895 over Varget in the last 2 barrels with the 185 BT. I see no reason not to get equally good results with the hybrid version. I'm running standard Lapua cases and CCI BR 2 primers. Somewhere around 42.5-43.5grs should do it, around 2700 fps. Lots of folks are going faster, but this is where my barrels have wanted to be.
 
I am not sure what your twist is, but being a sporter barrel you will probably have a hard time spinning those 185 hybrids. They are really long and may have problems stabilizing. If it helps I am running the 168gn hybrids out of a 1:11.25 barrel with 46.7gn of VV N550.
 
Tikka223 said:
What would you suggest as a max?
Click to expand...

Nice to see mpwolf has answered. He's not the FTR shooter I was talking about earlier, but he is the other topnotch FTR shooter in NB so you should take full advantage of any opportunity to pick his brains.

In my response #9 I see that I had temporarily 'forgotten' that you were interested in H4895 and I was still thinking about the Varget info I posted in #2. For what it's worth, the shooter in #2 has also used 44.5 Varget successfully, so 44 Varget is not a "max" it's simply a good load.

It is up to you to determine the max for your rifle and the conditions under which you operate it but you have several good guidelines all of which are in pretty good agreement:
- Hodgdon online data indicates a max of 42.5 H4895 / 180 grain Speer / 49.7KCUP / 2595fps
- Varget data from my #2 posting suggests that at least 42.5 H4895 should be reasonable/achievable
- mpwolf indicates from personal experience with the (effectively identical for these purposes) Berger 185BT 42.5-43.5 H4895

I'd say the 24 rounds you've loaded are an excellent thing to take on your first trip to the range with the 185H's.
 
I was thinking of hitting the range tonight to see how they work but trees are literally swaying in the wind at the moment.

As well, I won't be forgetting your advice Daniel, I'll be placing a wind flag close to the firing line, not at the target. You're explanation the other day made perfect sense.
 
mpwolf said:
I've gotten slightly better results with H4895 over Varget in the last 2 barrels with the 185 BT. I see no reason not to get equally good results with the hybrid version. I'm running standard Lapua cases and CCI BR 2 primers. Somewhere around 42.5-43.5grs should do it, around 2700 fps. Lots of folks are going faster, but this is where my barrels have wanted to be.
Click to expand...

Thank you mpwolf, I will make up 3 more rounds at the 43.5 mark.
 
shell_guy said:
I am not sure what your twist is, but being a sporter barrel you will probably have a hard time spinning those 185 hybrids. They are really long and may have problems stabilizing. If it helps I am running the 168gn hybrids out of a 1:11.25 barrel with 46.7gn of VV N550.
Click to expand...

I'm quite certain it has a 1-11" twist. It's a factory barrel but not "Sporter" in profile. I've gotten .5MOA at 300m with 178gr AMAX and H4895.
 
your twist rate should be fine. I know of at least F/TR shooter running 200 hybrids in a 1-12". Of courxe, he's got a 32" barrel, and puching things pretty hard, but I bet you'll be ok.
 
Here are the results of today's ladder testing. I think I arrived at the range about an hour late, I arrived at around 11 and the sun was heating things up making the wind pick up and be all gusty and unpredictable. When I first got out of the car it was perfect, cloudy, literally no wind, etc. I did my best but I fear that the results of my ladder test may not be all that valid. I shot three "ladders" with the loads I mentioned earlier in the post. One string of shots were all done in more or less the same wind value, the second was a bit all over the place, and the third was mostly done while waiting for calm conditions. I guess the results speak for themselves but I'd like your expert opinions ...

The first photo is a combination of the three targets. The second summarizes each load and their total vertical dispersion. This was all at 300m.

A817EDAA_zpsa2d7b395.jpg


B5885B44_zps03b97192.jpg
 
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