Forty Plus Years With the .308 Winchester: Part 2. Recent Loads

In Part 1, I talked about my early struggles with loading a single rifle for multi purposes and concluded with two .308 rifles, one used for hunting and the other for local Deerstalkers target shoots. The story continues.

HANDLOADING EQUIPMENT

At the time that my handloading for the .308 started I was using a Lyman C type Spartan press with Ohaus scales and a Bair case trimmer. Lyman .308 Winchester dies were added and a few years later a RCBS .308 Win neck die joined them.

Later a friend who was going overseas left his RCBS Junior press with me and I gave it a try. I liked it better than the Spartan, so I started using it and gave my old press to a new handloader starting out. When my friend returned, I bought myself a new Redding Boss Press.

Mac's Son's loading bench. Mac notes that this bench is much tidier than his!

These are like the junior with 7/8 x 14 threads cut directly into the press and a solid stop to the ram upstroke. To me both add to the precision of the press.

Currently I am starting to use a Lee Collet die for neck sizing and anneal cases using the candle method after each third firing.

Two .308 Winchester chambered rifles; one for hunting and the other for FTR competition shooting.

TARGET LOADS

Target shooting continued in our club competitions, mostly using the loads mentioned in Part 1. In 1998 the Roy’s Hill Rifle Range was closed and over the next decade only interbranch shoots continued. Lacking a range for testing and zeroing I used the Taupo Deerstalkers range and shot in a lot of their competitions.

The .223 was used a lot more especially after a new Remington VSSF elbowed its way into the rifle cupboard. In 2009 our club shoots started again on a new range and for reasons I can no longer recall the .308 got dusted off again.

I had read somewhere that, in the US, a load of 38 to 40 grains behind the 150gr M2 projectile in the .30-06 was popular for midrange target shooting so these were tried.

MAC’S SON’S LOAD DEVELOPMENT

My son also developed an interest in hunting, target shooting and handloading. Now there is a surprise. He has two .308 rifles, one used for hunting and the other FTR shooting.

The hunting rifle started out as a Remington 700 Tactical in .308 but only the action remains. The barrel is a Kaimai multipurpose barrel 18" long and with a 1:7" twist.

The stock is a laminated Remington factory stock from another rifle. A DPT suppressor is fitted and a Leupold VX5 HD 2-10x42 scope with a firefly reticule. There are three loads for this rifle, full power and subsonic hunting loads and a reduced light game load all as below.

Mac’s Son’s Loads Target

His primary target rifle is a .308 shooting in the FTR class. The rifle is a Barnard Model 07 with a 28 inch one in ten twist barrel. The scope is a Vortex Golden Eagle 15-60x52.

There is a short and long range load. He uses a full length bushing die for sizing together with Redding Competition shell holders to set head space. Case necks are annealed after each firing as is common with target shooters.

POWDERS AND LOADS TODAY

As promised in Part 1, I have done some testing with some old and new powders and three projectile weights. Rather than trying to develop max loads for each powder I elected to use a standard charge for each projectile weight to determine the powders relative speeds and how closely they compared with their manufacturers load data.

METHOD AND EQUIPMENT

For each projectile weight, a single load was selected that fell between the start and maximum loads for all powders. Velocities were then interpolated for the selected load with each powder.

Most powders give a steady increase in velocity for each grain of powder added so the velocities for intermediate loads are easy to calculate.

Homemade case annealer - kiwi ingenuity at it's finest!

My .308 barrel is now 510 mm (see below) so 80 feet per second was subtracted from the interpolated velocities. This was an allowance of 20 FPS per inch.

The rifle was my old Remington .308 now with the barrel shortened to 510 mm (to remove threads from the old fore sight) and fitted with a DPT suppressor.

The loads were fired at 60 metres over an Oehler 35P chronograph with the mid screen 3 metres from the muzzle. ADI AR2206H, AR2208 and BM8208 were all recent manufacture. ADI AR2206 was salvaged from my handloads put together in 2005. The powder was a recent manufacture at the time.

Dupont IMR4604 was from my dwindling stock manufactured in the early 1980’s. Load data for AR2206H and AR2208 has pressure expressed in CUP (Copper Units of Pressure) so was likely developed in the early 1990’s.

Data for AR2206 and IMR4064 was expressed in PSI and was likely developed in the late 1990’s for AR2206 and mid 2000’s for IMR4064.

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: 165gr Hornady Interlock results (See table above).

AN INTERESTING RESULT

BM 8208, AR2206 and AR2206H all produced velocities close to that calculated from the Hodgdon (ADI) data. IMR4064 was close with the 150gr but lagged with the 165gr.

AR2208 was much slower with both. This may be a slow batch of AR2208, only further testing would tell. I had been wondering what powder to use once my supply of Dupont IMR4064 runs out and think I have decided on AR2206H. The 165gr projectiles were very accurate despite the well-used CAC cases and projectiles pulled from earlier loads.

“...it also amuses me to note, that with a cupboard full of rifles I am still trying to develop loads for different purposes for this rifle.”

WHAT’S NEXT

There are still those sub sonic loads to test. The .308 has a 10x scope with turrets so it could be zeroed for a hunting load and adjustments dialled for whatever other load I might want to use.

If I am being brutally honest it is probably 4th in line to be going what passes for hunting for me these days. I am sure I can think of a use for it. Would I sell it? Never.

Finally, it also amuses me to note, that with a cupboard full of rifles I am still trying to develop loads for different purposes for this rifle. This started in the late 1970’s and seems to have some way to go yet. We should all be so lucky!

Grandpa Mac