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Post by wilmsmeyer on Jan 19, 2015 18:27:30 GMT -5
Guys,
I will be helping a friend reload for his .308. He's been using the Hornady factory 168 gr Amax and he says they shoot very well in his bolt gun. I know what I would do if it were my rifle and I was going for best accuracy but he has some other parameters. Over several years he's only shot about 5 boxes and probably will shoot at that pace as far as I can tell
1) A cartridge that can be fired in any .308....so I will full length resize and seat to std COL. 2) A load that basically duplicates factory ballistics of that round.
I have H4895, H4350, Re22, SCC7828, W748. I have std and mag primers. Once we find an adequate load, I would say MOA, he will go buy the powder and primers that we settled on.
What do you suggest as a starting point? I plan on loading 5 rounds and seeing how it does. I will repeat this until he has something he is happy with and then run a large batch. Like I said, he doesn't shoot very much but wants enough ammo for a long time to hunt deer and occasionally shoot woodchucks.
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Post by 7mmfreak on Jan 19, 2015 19:16:12 GMT -5
My gun has a Palma 95 chamber so the throat is pretty short. Factory ammo is usually kissing the lands or jammed. Hornady 155gn OTM is just kissing and Federal Gold Medal is jammed .010" so if I am shooting a match that requires factory ammo I just re-seat the Federal to be .020" off the rifling. Due to throat length on my gun nearly anything I load that is tangent will be close to the lands and under SAAMI length. When shooting secant bullets like the A-MAX I will break SAAMI length. My magazines allow for a loaded length of 3.055" so it works in my gun. I only mention it because of seating depth sensitivity with VLD type bullets. Both shoot well but I have found the tangent Sierra to require less work from me to get a good load.
If it won't shoot a 168gn or 175gn Sierra over RL15, Varget, or H4895 it is sick and needs to see the doctor. Mine will shoot 155gn Palma, 168gn SMK, 175gn SMK, or 190gn SMK really well. My gun shoots the 155-175gn bullets between .3 and .6MOA but the 190gn is my bullet of choice. After charge ladder work I did my seating depth test as posted above. This bullet shows little seating depth sensitivity in my gun. The 175gn SMK is also very depth tolerant in my rifle.
In my experience the A-MAX will shoot as well as the Sierra but usually requires a little more tuning in regards to seating depth. After doing my charge ladders I did my seating depth test at 300yds in .030" bands. Starting at .010" off the lands I got .904MOA. When I jumped to .040" groups dropped to .254MOA at 300yds.When I jumped to .070" groups opened back up to .784MOA for 5-shots.
The long and short of it is, for me, that if I have to shoot a generic headspace and COAL I will do it with Sierra (or the Nosler cloned CC line) because I have see in work in a LOT of rifles over the years.
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Post by wilmsmeyer on Jan 19, 2015 19:32:41 GMT -5
This guy would be happy with hunting accuracy. Not a big tinkerer.
My idea of practicing and tinkering is 100 shots on paper and one at a deer. His is get on paper and kill 100 deer. Not "wasting" ammo.
2 different birds of a feather. Nothing wrong with it, just different.
Just went thru the same thing with 500 .357 shells he's built up over 10 years.
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Post by esshup on Jan 25, 2015 18:05:08 GMT -5
I second the RL-15 powder.
7mmfreak, I have just the opposite of your gun. Cartridge base to the lands is 2.275" and the magazine is only 2.853" inside dimension. Controlled round feed, so everything HAS to fit the magazine.....
It's been a struggle getting the correct neck bushings to load for the rifle - nobody had them in stock and it took a while to figure that Wilson neck bushings would work in Redding dies. If UPS is correct, the bushings will arrive tomorrow.
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Post by 7mmfreak on Jan 25, 2015 19:39:28 GMT -5
Mine is only 2.188", base to ogive, when seated .010" off the rifling with a 190gn SMK. It fits easily but the 208gn A-MAX will push me out a bit further in the mag. Mine is also a push-feed action with a center-feed magazine. And yes, you can interchange the Wilson and Redding bushings. The only difference is finish.
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Post by esshup on Jan 26, 2015 14:50:56 GMT -5
I measured the factory Federal Gold Medal Match loaded ammo w/168g SMK's and they are jumping 0.141" in this rifle. Got the bushings, now just have to get some time to load and shoot.
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