Thread: Load to replicate Hornady 308 factory 150gn SST ammo

Originally Posted by Jhon

Well I guess my chrono could be suspect but I don't think so. It has never given results that have caused me to doubt it before. And no, its not a typo, and no, its not an 18in barrel its a factory 16in. I'd be happy to test my chrono alongside someone else's but I don't know anyone with one handy.

And if it is crook, it will also read crook for any handloads. So it won't really matter because it will be a comparison of relativity which really is what we are after. If the real world number is a couple of hundred less I'm not sure the deer will notice.

Greetings @Jhon,
Your chrono coukd be right if your friends ammo is the Superformance type which claims 3,000 fps in a 24 inch barrel. Otherwise bright sunlight can cause reading errors, often high. In any case as the rifle has a 16 inch barrel the best data to use is that umder the pistol section on the Hodgdon Load Data website. This is for a 15 inch barrel. H4895 is AR2206H, Varget is AR2208 and Benchmark 8208 is IMR8208XBR. I'm assuming you will be using Hornady cases which have a weight and hence capacity close to the Winchester cases that Hodgdon used in the data. Usung the data you should be able to work up to about 2,700 fps in your barrel. Hornady cases weigh around 165 grains or a little more without primer. Heavier cases will give a both more velocity and pressure. If you are chronographing try for an overcast day which should give more reliable readings.
Regards Grandpamac.

Jhon just realized the figure that i posted above was for 165g super performance not 150s so your crono will be right the powder that hornady use in making them is not available to the public so you wont be able to match it my theory though is that if you only use one shot per deer it doesn't matter what it cost to buy the ammo still cheap meat

Originally Posted by grandpamac

Greetings @Jhon,
Your chrono coukd be right if your friends ammo is the Superformance type which claims 3,000 fps in a 24 inch barrel. Otherwise bright sunlight can cause reading errors, often high. In any case as the rifle has a 16 inch barrel the best data to use is that umder the pistol section on the Hodgdon Load Data website. This is for a 15 inch barrel. H4895 is AR2206H, Varget is AR2208 and Benchmark 8208 is IMR8208XBR. I'm assuming you will be using Hornady cases which have a weight and hence capacity close to the Winchester cases that Hodgdon used in the data. Usung the data you should be able to work up to about 2,700 fps in your barrel. Hornady cases weigh around 165 grains or a little more without primer. Heavier cases will give a both more velocity and pressure. If you are chronographing try for an overcast day which should give more reliable readings.
Regards Grandpamac.

They were chronographed late arvo near 5pm in light cloud on a dullish day. If the light gets too low my device returns errors when it sees the bullet with one of the sensors but not the other. In bright sunlight I use the supplied opaque white hoods for the sensors and only get declared errors if I shoot too high which I try to avoid as the bullet passes a tad too close to the hoods.

And I checked- the factory ammo is the Hornady Superperformance 150gn SST. I will be reloading his Hornady cases

Thanks for the other info, very useful!

that is the HOT stuff...use with caution on a warm day...

ADI also publish data for 15" barrel 308 Win in their Pistol section

Further, Hornady SuperPerformance is in fact offered by Hogdon. Not that that necessarily means it is available. Or that I'd want to use it.

https://hodgdon.com/superformance/

correct but its different to whats in the loads sold ...... plenty of folks have pulled loads and done the try to reverse engineer thing..... from memory the superpreformance powder is somewhat like 2213 but its not the same....where its good its awesome but it has narrow band of usefullness...really good in dirty06 with heavies etc but not so good with lighter loads...some guys had great results in .270win...others just as pedantic reloaders got erratic results....


bottom line your mate wants load something close to what he is buying....if you seat the same projectile the same depth and use a top end powder charge of whatever powder you have on hand....you arent going to be a million miles away from achieving goal..... dont believe you need to over think this...its a .308 and GENERALLY they arent fussy critters.

this is why I like them thats after going through two deer found just under the skin we were shooting at night took a shot at a hind siting down went over and found two dead deer

Update: so in the end I went straight to 45.5gn AR2206H behind the Hornady 150gn SST. The young feller got to take them out today. No chrono but here is the photo of his 100m (paces) group. He's pretty happy. He hasn't told me yet what variance he got on the POI with scope still zeroed for the factory Superformance. Can't imagine it is too far off tho. Don't think we will stray too far from this load for a hunting load. Be good to next see how it is out at 300m.