What's your 308 recipe?
- Thread starter Threemorewishes
- Start date
rnbra-shooter
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- New Brunswick
A few comments first...
Varget is a great powder, but there are several things that you might want to keep in mind when using it. One, it has changed (lot-to-lot) a fair bit over the years, generally in a "slower" direction, moreso than most other powders. You might find people using 2 grains more of today's Varget than 10-year-ago Varget, in the same circumstances. Nothing wrong with this, but do keep this in mind when looking for and comparing loads, and also realize that there's nothing saying that the jug of Varget you get tomorrow or four years from now might be one or more grains quicker.
Varget also has some of the most "aggressive" loading data I've ever seen from a manufacturer. Hodgdon's data for a 150 grain bullet out of a hunting-length barrel gives velocities you'd expect from handloaded (i.e. probably hotter than SAAMI) ammo fired from a 30" barrel. The published load data, and especially the data you get from knowledgeable US shooters, is damn hot. They are often 2-3 grains hotter than the full-power (IMO) loads that I use in my target rifle for 1000 yard shooting.
So even moreso than usual, truly do treat published max data (from Hodgdon and from trusted sources) as not necessarily attainable in your chamber/barrel combo, work up prudently, and be more than usually aware of lot-to-lot variations. And don't feel "badly" if your end up not being able to reach the same max load that somebody else did - if you are getting good velocity, good velocity consistency, and good accuracy, you've arrived, regardless of whether or not you did so by reaching somebody else's published max load.
When shooting Lapua 155 grain bullets, I use a Lapua case, Fed 210M (or Russian KVB-7) primers, 45.0 +- <0.1 grains (weighed charges) of recent vintage Varget, seated to 2.84". This engages the lands by .010" to .020" on my .308 Obermayer chamber. This produces about 2950fps in a 30" barrel, which is a good full power load but definitely not "really hot" by any stretch. All the "hot" and "really hot" loads I've ever used with Lapua 155s have been pretty dismal failures - mediocre accuracy at all ranges, and atrocious accuracy at long range. But this 45.0 Varget works well for me from 300m to 900m, it is my principal competition load. It is capable of delivering 15 out of 15 shots into V-bull elevation at 900m, with no excuses offered, and doing quite a bit better than that at all shorter ranges.
When shooting Sierra 155 (the traditional #2155), I use Winchester brass (quite a bit lighter than the Lapua brass, 156-ish vs. 172-ish), Fed 210M primers, 46.3 +/- 0.2 grains Varget (thrown from a Redding BR-30 measure), bullet seated to 2.810"-ish (.010"-.020" jump). This is a somewhat hotter loading than my Lapua load (pretty much 3000fps even from a 30" barrel). Unlike the Lapua bullet, the Sierra 155 is pretty forgiving, and I have found it pretty straightforward to get very good results even with very hot loads. This load I would call "fairly hot" (some Yanks push them to 3100fps - those are the 47, 48 and even 49-grain loads that you read about, and I shake my head at). This load shoots well at all distances 300m-900m, and even though it uses thrown charges (carefully thrown, but a real timesave nonetheless), it is able to shoot very well at 900m (typically 1.7MOA or less vertical, counting all 12/15/17 shots). And at 300/500/600 it will reliably shoot sub-MOA 10-shot groups, when my sling and iron sights technique is in full tune and up to the task (read: if I don't flinch, or crank a shot! ;-).
Varget is a great powder, but there are several things that you might want to keep in mind when using it. One, it has changed (lot-to-lot) a fair bit over the years, generally in a "slower" direction, moreso than most other powders. You might find people using 2 grains more of today's Varget than 10-year-ago Varget, in the same circumstances. Nothing wrong with this, but do keep this in mind when looking for and comparing loads, and also realize that there's nothing saying that the jug of Varget you get tomorrow or four years from now might be one or more grains quicker.
Varget also has some of the most "aggressive" loading data I've ever seen from a manufacturer. Hodgdon's data for a 150 grain bullet out of a hunting-length barrel gives velocities you'd expect from handloaded (i.e. probably hotter than SAAMI) ammo fired from a 30" barrel. The published load data, and especially the data you get from knowledgeable US shooters, is damn hot. They are often 2-3 grains hotter than the full-power (IMO) loads that I use in my target rifle for 1000 yard shooting.
So even moreso than usual, truly do treat published max data (from Hodgdon and from trusted sources) as not necessarily attainable in your chamber/barrel combo, work up prudently, and be more than usually aware of lot-to-lot variations. And don't feel "badly" if your end up not being able to reach the same max load that somebody else did - if you are getting good velocity, good velocity consistency, and good accuracy, you've arrived, regardless of whether or not you did so by reaching somebody else's published max load.
When shooting Lapua 155 grain bullets, I use a Lapua case, Fed 210M (or Russian KVB-7) primers, 45.0 +- <0.1 grains (weighed charges) of recent vintage Varget, seated to 2.84". This engages the lands by .010" to .020" on my .308 Obermayer chamber. This produces about 2950fps in a 30" barrel, which is a good full power load but definitely not "really hot" by any stretch. All the "hot" and "really hot" loads I've ever used with Lapua 155s have been pretty dismal failures - mediocre accuracy at all ranges, and atrocious accuracy at long range. But this 45.0 Varget works well for me from 300m to 900m, it is my principal competition load. It is capable of delivering 15 out of 15 shots into V-bull elevation at 900m, with no excuses offered, and doing quite a bit better than that at all shorter ranges.
When shooting Sierra 155 (the traditional #2155), I use Winchester brass (quite a bit lighter than the Lapua brass, 156-ish vs. 172-ish), Fed 210M primers, 46.3 +/- 0.2 grains Varget (thrown from a Redding BR-30 measure), bullet seated to 2.810"-ish (.010"-.020" jump). This is a somewhat hotter loading than my Lapua load (pretty much 3000fps even from a 30" barrel). Unlike the Lapua bullet, the Sierra 155 is pretty forgiving, and I have found it pretty straightforward to get very good results even with very hot loads. This load I would call "fairly hot" (some Yanks push them to 3100fps - those are the 47, 48 and even 49-grain loads that you read about, and I shake my head at). This load shoots well at all distances 300m-900m, and even though it uses thrown charges (carefully thrown, but a real timesave nonetheless), it is able to shoot very well at 900m (typically 1.7MOA or less vertical, counting all 12/15/17 shots). And at 300/500/600 it will reliably shoot sub-MOA 10-shot groups, when my sling and iron sights technique is in full tune and up to the task (read: if I don't flinch, or crank a shot! ;-).
168gr Sierra or Hornady HBPT
41.5gr IMR4895
Fed 210 primer
OAL 2.800"
My M14S *loves* this loading.
My Remington 700 heavy barrel *swoons* over this loading.
And my PGW Timberwolf is quite indifferent to it.
Go figure...
41.5gr IMR4895
Fed 210 primer
OAL 2.800"
My M14S *loves* this loading.
My Remington 700 heavy barrel *swoons* over this loading.
And my PGW Timberwolf is quite indifferent to it.
Go figure...
Where do you get those?
Excellent post BTW. Every once in a while I hear some truly odd varget loads. To the point of where I am not sure hot they even get that much powder in the case.
rnbra-shooter
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- New Brunswick
I got my KVB-7 Russian primers a fair number of years ago when they first appeared on the scene, and they're no longer available as such. But I think that they are available as "Wolf brand" primers in the US. No idea of a Canadian source for them.
JDForBrkFst
CGN frequent flyer
- Location
- Roughly North Central AB
Bullet-Sierra Match King 155 gr HPBT
Case-Win brass
Powder-IMR-4895 42 grains
Primer-Win lrg rifle
OAL-2.80"
Case-Win brass
Powder-IMR-4895 42 grains
Primer-Win lrg rifle
OAL-2.80"
Silly question 
, but since someone on CGN was kind enough to give me a recipe for a very reduced-power .303 BR load (as something of a novelty 
), I was wondering if there are any (tested) suggestions for the 7.62 mm as well?
Disclaimers :
1) I have searched to forum before asking,
2) I'm still learning on the reloading front, so..
...the odd questions for novelty recipes are still intriguing to me....
3) It's for a bolt-gun, not a semi!
, but since someone on CGN was kind enough to give me a recipe for a very reduced-power .303 BR load (as something of a novelty ), I was wondering if there are any (tested) suggestions for the 7.62 mm as well? Disclaimers
:1) I have searched to forum before asking
,2) I'm still learning on the reloading front, so..
...the odd questions for novelty recipes are still intriguing to me....3) It's for a bolt-gun, not a semi!
rnbra-shooter
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- New Brunswick
Don't have anything that I've tried myself, but the Lyman manual is a good place to look for things like this (unusual powders, cast bullet loads, reduced velocity loads etc).
