Thread: "Feather in my hat" 308win Featherweight load development

Originally Posted by SmokeyJason

One of the boys used to carry his new bar (crowbar we called it) 308 cradled in his arms, even when if he fell the rifle never hit the dirt. I tried that and caught my elbow on a rock, chipped the bone and 50 yrs later I can feel the chips there. Hey if you ever validate let me know if the stated bc is on or off.

All the reading I've done so far suggests the advertised bc is pretty spot on but yes, when i get a chance i will let you know.

@dannyb let me know when this one’s going up for sale!!! Haha

Youll be fine at 46.5 top end Danny.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I've got one in .308, in mint condition, even after 20 years of hunting with it. I never dropped it or scraped it in the bush. I cleaned it today, and even though I probably will never shoot it again, it would take a truck load of dollars for me to part with it. Two fallow stags, 15 metres away, 5 metres apart, and dead in 2 seconds! Not bad, for a left hander, shooting a right-handed bolt action!

@dannyb well done on securing it shes lovly alright, I helped a flat mate of mine in Christchirch in 2010 pick his first center fire from ballengers it happened to be one of these it was an absolute stunner and lite weight to boot he topped it with a 3-9 vx2.

Id not long bought my sako bavarian .270 and Alex just had to have a .270 . Dear Alex was abit ambitious he was about 55 kg dripling wet I tried to talk him out of the .270 but his heart was set couple of range trips and he was sheepish of the rifle a year later my rifle was on loan so I went to visit to see if I could grab his for the weekend and hed bloody swapped it for a Xbox . Id have happily taken it of his hands for what it was worth but didnt no. The bright side is the other mate who got it still has and enjoys it . From memory tou could pick up an xbox for about $250 at the time

Running 45.5gn 2208 with 165gn NBT and 168gn AMAX in my REM700. Very accurate load & not hot.

I've run the 165gr BTSP in my 16" 308 with 2206H, ran at about 2550fps from memory? Pretty brutal projectile, absolutely thumped reds and rusa. When back to 150BT as kicked noticeably less.

Pretty sure @Flyblown runs these with 2208 in his 308 too.

Greetings @dannyb and all,
I am a long time fan of the .308. One of the things I have found is that the continental brass, with the exception of Norma, can be quite a bit heavier than the US stuff. I don't know if your Sako brass is as heavy as the Federal I have been using but heavy brass will drive both pressure and velocity up. The Hodgdon/ ADI data lists Winchester brass for their load data and my Win cases weigh 168 grains excluding primer. The heaviest case I have are GFL (Fiocchi) at 187 grains and Federal at 178 grains. I had to cut the loads of IMR4064 a full grain in the Federal cases to give the same velocity and pressure as Winchester cases delivered. Just a note of caution.
Regards Grandpamac.

Originally Posted by Hunty1

I've run the 165gr BTSP in my 16" 308 with 2206H, ran at about 2550fps from memory? Pretty brutal projectile, absolutely thumped reds and rusa. When back to 150BT as kicked noticeably less.

Pretty sure @Flyblown runs these with 2208 in his 308 too.

Yup.

Probably the best all round bullet I've ever used.

Lethal terminal performance from very close to far away.
Great ballistics.
Unfussy, easy to load for.
Consistently accurate, even when the lead tip is flattened by recoil in the magazine (looks ugly but has next to nil effect on hunting accuracy).
Great cross-rifle consistency with the same load - shoots really well in all the .308s I've used it in.

And, very importantly... Cheap, available, easy to find and buy in bulk.

Load and velocity from a 18" barrel:

44.5gr AR2208
2.850" COAL
2.220”COAL to ogive
2,539 ft/sec


It is frangible close-up and on a chest shot it will come apart and quite possibly not exit especially if it's a big bodied stag. But whatever you just shot with it will be lying in a pile of steaming deadness. But most of the deer I shoot with this load are 200-300m. That's a fairly standard kind of range in that topography with the way the spurs / gullies are set out. Even with the modest impact velocity the 165gr BTSP pretty much always exits on a big animal, with a really good open wound channel and free bleeding exit wound.

Highly recommended.

Loaded mine with 45g 2208 not overly sure of the speed 2750 ish- 22 inch barrel, they shot .7 at 100m and thought I might flick them, shot them at 200m and they grouped the same, so thats sweet by me, for a low cost projectile.

Originally Posted by flock

Loaded mine with 45g 2208 not overly sure of the speed 2750 ish- 22 inch barrel, they shot .7 at 100m and thought I might flick them, shot them at 200m and they grouped the same, so thats sweet by me, for a low cost projectile.

Attachment 228839

Greetings @flock,
IMR4064 and Varget are two different powders and you should not use the data from one for the other. I have tested the two side by side and in limited loads found IMR4064 a little faster with the 165 grain and a lot faster with the 150 grain in the .308. The 45 grain load for IMR4064 appeared in the no 9 Speer Manual (1976) with a little less velocity due to a shorter barrel. The Hodgdon data for Varget is dated from about 1990 and their data for IMR4064 is much more recent. This is the best data we have currently. Differences in case capacity and projectile hardness need to be taken into account as well.
I see that Hodgdon needs over a grain more IMR4064 to get the same velocity with the 165 grain projectile which suggests to me that the IMI case they used is on the heavy side. The federal case they used certainly is. Handloading is chock full of variables which I guess is why some find it so fascinating.
Regards Grandpamac.

Well an interesting but not overly productive day at the range, got some decent velocity data but none of the loads were what I would call acceptable.

My 2 most consistent loads were my lowest charge weight and my highest, I'll give all the data below. My lowest charge weight shot just over 1" for a 3 shot group at 100y and my highest was anout 3+" at 100y.
I'm now in 2 minds about what direction to go, 1 thing is for sure the hottest load was quite brutal on the shoulder, I'm a big guy and recoil doesn't really bother me too much but I found the hottest load a bit hard on the shoulder much more than the 30 06.
So I may try the lowest charge weight and do a seating depth ladder as that was ok on the shoulder but the accuracy would definitely need to be better than current saami seating depth.
The other option is to look at a light bonded or copper pill. I'm not totally against this as this isn't intended to be a long range rifle with the little 2-8 nikon scope so a light pill will shoot flatter and reduce recoil significantly.
Open to suggestions on that, normally I would just get some 125gn accubonds but they are unobtainable currently so may have to settle for Barnes ttsx 130gn or 125gn nbt's.
Below is my charge weight ladder data and targets.



44.5 (this group is 1.1" for reference)


45


45.5


46


46.5

Faux pas by me, just pulled one apart, 2208 / 45g length , OAL 71.54 thought at the time primers were flattening but no worries bolt lift. Thought Wow when you was talking 46.5 I did run it threw Gordens Reloading tool when I made it up. Removed ogive length wrong

Originally Posted by flock

Fouxpas by me, just pulled one apart, 2208 / 45g lenght \ to ogive is 51mm, OAL 71.54 thought at the time primers were flatterning but no worries bolt lift. Thought Wow when you was talking 46.5

I got no heavy bolt even at 46.5 but no doubt it's up there, I won't be investigating a load at that charge weight anyway as in this rifle it was quite unpleasant to shoot unsuppressed and un braked, and no I won't be threading this rifle I want to keep it as is.
At this stage I will persevere with the 45.5gn load and do a seating depth ladder or start agsij with a lighter pill, I'm inclined to try a seating depth ladder at 45.5gn as I already have the pills for that.

OAL was 55.31mm