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The question came up on the other side about the reloading length and charges increases for the 308w so I figure I will post this here too so maybe one day someone will find
this useful..
Hi,
Brass can be trimmed shorter even 10 thousands is fine. The key is to keep it consistent so even if you keep it a 2.0 even, accuracy potential is still there as
soon as the brass is segregated by brand/year and sized and trim in a consistent fashion. The seating depth is far more important to make sure there is plenty of the bullet in the free-bore to engage well centered w/o ramming into the lands.
How short or how long to trim will depend on what you start with (average of your existing brass) and what you do after. If you have cases that are shorter than you set length and start trimming but some don't trim they you will have differences so it is not good. When you first fire after FL Sizing the shell might shrink a bit OAL after shoulder expanding so if you neck size after then the brass will not grow but if you FL resize the brass will grow unless you use a special die to stop that squeezing effect. So if you make it a bit shorter lets say 2.0 and you are planning on FL re-size it will take more cycles until you have to trim again.
Regarding the powder increases it depends on the powder and density and not grains alone. Increases in 1% should be safe for popular short action calibers. For a 308w this means half a grain increases of the average powder after the staring load. If this was a 9mm shell then 1/2 grain increase might result in huge problems but not in the 308 so it is better to look at this on a % basis rather than grains. In supermagnums .5 grains more or less sometimes have little to none effect.
As loads get hotter you might want to do 0.2 0.3 grains increases and look for accuracy. Only change one thing at the time. In the 308 will see minimum effect as one gets to the desired load. One will see far more effect of exterior temperatures in powders that are temperature sensitive than that 1/2 grain difference so take notes about the weather. When changing COAL might want to go back down 2-5% and start again.
H4895, varget, R16, R17 and a few others are popular powders for the 308. 180gr bullets can be very large specially if they are match/VLD bullets so keep
and eye on the COAL.
I have accuracy loads with both R15 and Varget for the 175gr SGK at 2.810 COAL that duplicate the Federal Gold Match performance pretty reliably.
It would be nice to know what brass, primer, bullet and powder so one perhaps could give you more precise ideas.
Here you can find some great loads including some match winning ones...
http://www.sniper.cz/Sierra308Win.pdf
Here some other great match winning loads...
http://www.6mmbr.com/308Win.html
this useful..
Hi,
Brass can be trimmed shorter even 10 thousands is fine. The key is to keep it consistent so even if you keep it a 2.0 even, accuracy potential is still there as
soon as the brass is segregated by brand/year and sized and trim in a consistent fashion. The seating depth is far more important to make sure there is plenty of the bullet in the free-bore to engage well centered w/o ramming into the lands.
How short or how long to trim will depend on what you start with (average of your existing brass) and what you do after. If you have cases that are shorter than you set length and start trimming but some don't trim they you will have differences so it is not good. When you first fire after FL Sizing the shell might shrink a bit OAL after shoulder expanding so if you neck size after then the brass will not grow but if you FL resize the brass will grow unless you use a special die to stop that squeezing effect. So if you make it a bit shorter lets say 2.0 and you are planning on FL re-size it will take more cycles until you have to trim again.
Regarding the powder increases it depends on the powder and density and not grains alone. Increases in 1% should be safe for popular short action calibers. For a 308w this means half a grain increases of the average powder after the staring load. If this was a 9mm shell then 1/2 grain increase might result in huge problems but not in the 308 so it is better to look at this on a % basis rather than grains. In supermagnums .5 grains more or less sometimes have little to none effect.
As loads get hotter you might want to do 0.2 0.3 grains increases and look for accuracy. Only change one thing at the time. In the 308 will see minimum effect as one gets to the desired load. One will see far more effect of exterior temperatures in powders that are temperature sensitive than that 1/2 grain difference so take notes about the weather. When changing COAL might want to go back down 2-5% and start again.
H4895, varget, R16, R17 and a few others are popular powders for the 308. 180gr bullets can be very large specially if they are match/VLD bullets so keep
and eye on the COAL.
I have accuracy loads with both R15 and Varget for the 175gr SGK at 2.810 COAL that duplicate the Federal Gold Match performance pretty reliably.
It would be nice to know what brass, primer, bullet and powder so one perhaps could give you more precise ideas.
Here you can find some great loads including some match winning ones...
http://www.sniper.cz/Sierra308Win.pdf
Here some other great match winning loads...
http://www.6mmbr.com/308Win.html
| .308 Winchester Load Map |
| Powder | Grains | Primer | Bullet | Brass | Velocity | Comments |
| Hodgdon Varget | 47.5 | F210m | Sierra 110 Varmint | Win | 3200 fps | Very Accurate Varmint Load, 2.650" COAL |
| Reloader 15 | 47.0 | F210m | Hornady 110 V-Max | Win | 3200 fps | Accurate, hard-hitting Varmint Load. Try .010" into lands. |
| Hodgdon H335 | 47.0 | F210m | Sierra 125 SP | Fed | 3100 fps | Sierra's Hunting Load, 26" bbl, 2.700" COAL |
| IMR 4064 | 45.2 | F210m | Nosler 150 B-Tip | Win | 2843 fps | Hunting Load, 26" bbl, 2.850" COAL |
| Alliant Reloader 15 | 46.2 | CCI BR2 | Lapua 155 | Lapua | 2920 fps | Very Accurate in 25" 5R bbl, .3 MOA at 300m, 2.800" COAL |
| Hodgdon Varget | 45.2 | F210m | Lapua 155 | Lapua | 2830 fps | Z. Smith Tactical Match Load in 24" Accuracy Int'l, 2.850" COAL |
| Hodgdon Benchmark | 44.0 | F210m | Lapua 155 | Lapua | 2895 fps | Jason Baney 100-400m Load |
| Hodgdon Varget | 45.5+ | CCI BR2 | 155 SMK | Lapua or Win |
2950+ fps | Jerry Tierney Palma Load (Charge varies with lot) |
| Hodgdon Varget | 47.0 | CCI BR2 | Berger 155 | Lapua | 2900+ fps | John Whidden Palma Load |
| Alliant Reloader 15 | 44.0 | CCI BR2 | Hornady 168 A-Max | Lapua | 2700 fps | Very Accurate, 1/4 moa to 400 yards. 2.875" COAL. |
| Alliant Reloader 15 | 42.0 | F210m | 168 SMK | Fed | 2600 fps | Sierra's Accuracy Load Savage 12VSS |
| IMR 4064 | 43.5 | F210m | 168 SMK | Win | 2600+ fps | Very Accurate in 24" bbl, 2.800" COAL. |
| Vihtavuori N150 | 43.5 | F210m | 168 SMK | Win | 2640 fps | J. Gottfredson's Short-Range Match Load |
| Alliant Reloader 15 | 45.0 | F210m | 175 SMK | Win | 2750 fps | Very Accurate from 24" 5R bbl. |
| IMR 4895 | 43.0 | Win | 175 SMK | IMI Match | 2753 fps | Very Accurate, No Pressure Signs, 2.787" COAL, .018" jump |
| Hodgdon Varget | 43.0 | Russian | 175 SMK | Lapua | 2610 fps | Brad Sauve F-TR Match Load, .018" Jump |
| Hodgdon Varget | 43.0 | CCI BR2 | 175 SMK | IMI Match | 2685 fps | Very Accurate, under 1/2-MOA, 2.787" COAL, .018" jump, 26" bbl |
| Hodgdon Varget | 44.6 | F210m | 175 SMK | LC | na | AR10 load for magazine, 2.807" COAL |
| Ramshot TAC | 42.0 | CCI BR2 | 175 SMK | IMI Match | 2705 fps | Very Consistant under 1/2-MOA, 2.800" COAL, .005" jump |
| Vihtavuori N540 | 41.0 | F210m | 175 SMK | Fed | 2400 fps | Sierra's Accuracy Load Savage 12VSS |
| Alliant Reloader 15 | 46.0 | F210m | Hornady 178 A-Max | Horn Match | na | Note: Hornady brass has more capacity than Lapua. 2.845" OAL |
| IMR 4064 | 40.5 | F210m | 190 SMK | Fed | 2500 fps | Sierra's Accuracy Load Savage 12VSS |
| WARNING: With all loads, ALWAYS START 10% LOW and work up incrementally. |
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