Thread: Starting load development and would love help

Greetings @Jukes,
You picked an easy cartridge to load for. Hodgdon's and ADI provide load data for the .308 with a 15 inch barrel in their pistol section. For AR2208 (Varget) and the 168 grain Sierra HPTBT they give a start load of 42 grains for 2.386 fps and a max compressed load of 46 grains for 2,580 fps. I would not waste too many of those projectiles working up a load perhaps loading two each at 42 grains and 44 grains and chronograph them to validate the data for your components. Next you can decide how much further you want to go. You should get around 30 fps more for that extra inch of barrel. I recently shot and chronographed a series of loads in my suppressed .308 with a 20 inch barrel and the 125 grain loads and 165 grain loads shot reasonably close together but your rifle may differ. 43 grains of AR2208 behind the 165 grain Interlock chronographed 2,524 fps. For bush work you may wish to try the 170 grain flat nose intended for the .30-30 which are currently available provided they feed from the mag OK. 10 rounds of testing should easily get you a good working load for the roar. I tried 9 different loads in my chronograph series with 3 different projectiles and 5 different powders and all shot better than 1 MoA. As I said at the start the .308 is an easy cartridge to load for.
Regards Grandpamac.