Thread: Low recoil 308 loads for the young fella

Hi Guys,

Looking for a bit of advice. I have a very keen 8 year old boy who's dead set on shooting his first deer. I put him behind my 16inch 308 shooting 150gr Nosler BTs and I think she was a wee bit much for the little guy, he loved it but it looked pretty unruly!

I was thinking either the 125gr Accubonds or Barnes 130 ttsx to try and reduce the recoil a little for him. Whats your thoughts on these two projectiles? I have used Barnes in other calibers in the past and understand they need a lot of speed to kill well. So I am maybe leaning towards a reduced 125gr Accubond load? Shots are only going to be up to 200 yards max.


Cheers,
James

No comment on projectiles, but is your rifle suppressed? that scrubs off a lot of noise and recoil.

Originally Posted by wabaam

Hi Guys,

Looking for a bit of advice. I have a very keen 8 year old boy who's dead set on shooting his first deer. I put him behind my 16inch 308 shooting 150gr Nosler BTs and I think she was a wee bit much for the little guy, he loved it but it looked pretty unruly!

I was thinking either the 125gr Accubonds or Barnes 130 ttsx to try and reduce the recoil a little for him. Whats your thoughts on these two projectiles? I have used Barnes in other calibers in the past and understand they need a lot of speed to kill well. So I am maybe leaning towards a reduced 125gr Accubond load? Shots are only going to be up to 200 yards max.


Cheers,
James

Hey James

In my humble opinion those two projectiles need to be stoked up to the max to work properly in a 16" 308 (2900fps+) = lots of noice and recoil. Personally I don't rate the accubonds in the 308 even doing 3K!

For the young fella id go a 120-130gr soft point driven at a modest velocity. Low cost so no drama getting some practice under the belt and will still kill real well at sensible ranges.

Good in you for getting your lad out there and doing it!

The Barnes definitely need speed to work. You could use a 30/30 projectile, like a 150gr RN or FN, and load it down to 30/30 velocities. ADI 2206H is a particularly good powder for this, as it has the unique ability to he loaded down to 60% of the book load without risk of secondary explosion. It’ll be good out to 200m still.

That’s 60% of book max load, for clarification.

Originally Posted by Max Headroom

No comment on projectiles, but is your rifle suppressed? that scrubs off a lot of noise and recoil.

+1, the suppressor makes it a different weapon to shoot.

Yep agree the accubond or ttsx need high velocity. I would try a soft 125 or 130gr loaded down. I had a good run with the 130gr Speer Hollowpoint at full velocity from my 30/06. I'm sure they would go well at start velocitys (25-2600fps) from a 308.

You could use loads using Trail Boss, would be only just supersonic and can download for subsonic loads if its suppressed.

Thanks for all the feedback and suggestions - super helpful! I had a feeling those two options may not be suitable.

Yes rifle is suppressed. I do already run subsonic loads with roberts 151hp cast lead projectiles but I have found shot placement is really key with these (maybe not too suitable for a kid) and a misplaced shot can result in pretty slow kills/lost animal (which is to be totally expected at subsonic speeds). I am not too keen on pushing these at too higher velocites as I am a little worried about lead fowling.

Ill look into some soft points and 30/30 projectiles as mentioned above! Any specific soft point projectiles to look at?

Yes. 150 gn round lead nose or speer 130gn hp. Take a look at speer manual #10 for reduced loads.

Trailboss won't get the bullets to expand properly, that's my experience. Tried it just recently.

The 30/30 advice is the way to go. Use a soft, heavy projectile that will expand at modest velocities, and do the damage.

A Speer 165gr BTSP is a very soft, fast killing bullet. You don't really want to mess around with hard bullets in a short barrel with low velocity.

In my 18" .308 with full power, at longer ranges - say 400m - its only doing 1900fps but it still opens up nicely and flattens smaller deer. So if you are shooting deer within 150m or so, loading it for a muzzle velocity of 2100fps or so will get you the same result, with a whole lot less recoil.

AR2208 (Varget) will do that for you with the short barrel, 38gr or so, well within the safe load range for that powder in .308.

That generates about the same recoil as a .243 with a full speed 100gr bullet, or a 6.5 Grendel with a 120gr bullet.

You nipper will be well proud of himself if he gets to nail a deer with that.

If he wants to reduce recoil he needs to stay away from heavy projectiles. Stick to varmint 125 or 130 at low velocities. Way less recoil.

Originally Posted by Flyblown

Trailboss won't get the bullets to expand properly, that's my experience. Tried it just recently.

The 30/30 advice is the way to go. Use a soft, heavy projectile that will expand at modest velocities, and do the damage.

A Speer 165gr BTSP is a very soft, fast killing bullet. You don't really want to mess around with hard bullets in a short barrel with low velocity.

In my 18" .308 with full power, at longer ranges - say 400m - its only doing 1900fps but it still opens up nicely and flattens smaller deer. So if you are shooting deer within 150m or so, loading it for a muzzle velocity of 2100fps or so will get you the same result, with a whole lot less recoil.

AR2208 (Varget) will do that for you with the short barrel, 38gr or so, well within the safe load range for that powder in .308.

That generates about the same recoil as a .243 with a full speed 100gr bullet, or a 6.5 Grendel with a 120gr bullet.

You nipper will be well proud of himself if he gets to nail a deer with that.

Thanks mate, never thought of slowing down a heavier projectile. Just to throw a spanner in the works - I do have a half box of Hornady 168gr ELDMs floating around that I could potentally give a go? Being a target designed round they should be a fair bit softer and stay together at a reduced load (slower velocity). Whats your thoughts on this?

I will have the same issue coming up. I'm going download my .308 as suggested by @Hunty1 above. I'll use 130gr Speer HP or 125gr SST at moderate velocities. The lightweight SST should be good for that, as it is designed for use in the .300 Blackout.

Low weight bullet + moderate velocity + Suppressor = very nice shooting for a kid!

Mind you, i intend to buy a .243, so I'll probably not f@#k around and just use that.

130grn speer hps OR 125grn ballistic tips loaded down to about 23-2400fps will work just fine and dandy...what we used in the 7.62x39mm and they kill deer well
the recoil will be sweet stuff all in .308 with suppressor,it has been in mine. use those awesome 151s for young fella to finish off animals (saves the ears and doesnt disturb other animals) you could push them a bit faster..think Rob says they good till above 1800fps
I wouldnt go any slower with the 125-130 grn loads,they will be good at that or even faster,find load that rifle groups with and go from there. dont rush the young fella,putting them off or developing a flinch will take AGES to work it back out again.