First home loads .308

glogin

Well-Known Member
Hi all,

I was reading about reloading on this forum and have been thinking about giving it a go myself. I must say Muir's post about reloading with Lee's Classic Loader made me go for it and I ordered the kit with a few bits and pieces such as case trimmer, pocket cleaner and deburring tool. I also bought Lee dippers to play with powder weight -or better say volume.. I also bought Lee's reloading manual and enjoyed reading it.

My local shop had limited choice of bullets/powder and I eventually bought CCI200 primers, Vit N140 powder and Hornady SST 150gr. I think I will go for Lapua Mega bullets eventually if I can find them... but for the moment SST's should do.

I loaded 20 loads starting with recommended (Vit reloading data) starting load around 40gr up to 47gr. As Lee dippers give limited options to vary powder weight and one can only vary powder by 0.1cc, which is about 1.3gr as I remember correctly, I simply loaded 5 loads from min to max, to the nearest 0.1cc.

The results below. I started off with 2.855" CAOL which is about 0.010-15 off the lands.

2.9cc (39.5gr)
DSCN1618.JPG


3.1cc (42.9gr)
DSCN1617.JPG


3.2cc (43.6gr)
DSCN1616.JPG


3.3cc (45.0gr)
DSCN1615.JPG


3.4cc (46.4gr) CAOL 2.855"
DSCN1614.JPG



The load which I think was best was the 3.4cc and my max load. I think 3.5cc would be a bit too much and a compressed load, so I decided to play with this one varying CAOL. Again I loaded 20 rounds with 5 different lengths, changing at roughtly 0.01". (I dont have bullet puller so if I loaded a bit dipper than wanted, I simply loaded the rest to the same length...)


CAOL 2.840"
DSCN1621.JPG


CAOL 2.830"
DSCN1622.JPG


CAOL 2.820"
DSCN1623.JPG


CAOL 2.810"
DSCN1624.JPG


CAOL 2.800"
DSCN1625.JPG



I think the 2.820" is quite good and I dont think I can shoot any better than this... :rolleyes:


I would like to thank Muir for replying to all my PMs and all his help and great post about Lee Loader. I never shot better group than with this home loads...
I also think CSL's post http://www.thestalkingdirectory.co....ading-Process-From-Spent-Case-to-Loaded-Round gives a good overview and although it is not about Lee Loader it shows all the steps.


Cheers,
Greg
 
Very well done there are no flies on that load.

One thing iI noticed is that as I have often found the best load in your case is with a fair amount of bullet jump and in every rifle except the .280AI I was playing with have found this to be the case :confused: yet we are constantly being told that almost touching the lands is the way to accuracy and precision :confused: Huh? yet here again is proof that a bullet jump of over 1 mm provides the best precision :D Hmmmmmm!


One other thing..................................... I would try some ordinary 150 grain Hornady Spire Points you might just find the perform rather well on deer and possibly better than the vaunted SST's ;).
 
...I would try some ordinary 150 grain Hornady Spire Points you might just find the perform rather well on deer and possibly better than the vaunted SST's.

Greg

Agree with this comment. I have used both SSTs and SPs in my 260 and have now settled on the SPs. I suggest getting some of the following:

http://www.hornady.com/store/30-Cal-.308-150-gr-SP/

If your man doesn't have them, Midway UK do and you can get them delivered to your man.

Regards JCS
 
good results there :D just an aside, my data gives a max OAL of 2.81 yet I see yours working best at longer than that. did you chose the starting length for a particular reason ? it obviously works so no arguments there I am just interested in the process.
 
Thanks for all comments.

Brit, JCS - I wanted any ordinary SP bullets but there was nothing to choose from at 150gr, hence the SSTs... I have not tried them on deer yet though.

Kenny - I found my rifle's max OAL to be ~2.870" and reading all about the bullet "almost touching lands" decided to start from the max and work inwards... Even at 2.870 it was still fitting magazine no problems.

Greg
 
Thanks for all comments.

Brit, JCS - I wanted any ordinary SP bullets but there was nothing to choose from at 150gr, hence the SSTs... I have not tried them on deer yet though.

Kenny - I found my rifle's max OAL to be ~2.870" and reading all about the bullet "almost touching lands" decided to start from the max and work inwards... Even at 2.870 it was still fitting magazine no problems.

Greg
thanks for the reply as I said the results look very good :D I'm still only dipping a toe into reloading at the moment and eager to learn :D
 
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