i have a good load for my .308 with 45 grs of RL-15 with 150s. I am looking for a reduced load for a 10 year old. Is it better to drop the load of the powder i use. or go to a slower burn powder and drop the load for better powder density, say 414 or 4350..which will still be about 85 to 90%

How low do you want to go? Hodgdon/IMR now has Trail Boss data for the .308 Win using jacketed bullets. They are publishing loads around 1100-1400fps with a 150 grain bullet.

They also have a section called Youth Loads. I think for the .308 Win they are using H4895

Hodgdon has some reduced loads on their website. You might look at that.

LWD

quote:

Originally posted by vines:
i have a good load for my .308 with 45 grs of RL-15 with 150s. I am looking for a reduced load for a 10 year old. Is it better to drop the load of the powder i use. or go to a slower burn powder and drop the load for better powder density, say 414 or 4350..which will still be about 85 to 90%

My Nephew's girlfriend, who weighs 110 pound, soaking wet, shot my .308 where I used 44.0 grs. of IMR-4064 & 150 grain Hornady Spire point bullet. She seemed to have no injuries from shooting my .308 browning A-Bolt. I might add she has NEVER shot a Rifle or pistol and hit the plastic milk carton out around 200 yards DEAD ON! My Nephew missed the jug!!!!

Try 150gr Nosler BTs with 29 to 30 grains of IMR-4198.

Hodgdun H4895 can be cut down to 60% of a posted max. H4895 is 1for1 on load to speed. If you cut a charge 10% you will get 10% drop in velocity. A 20% cut in charge will give a 20% cut in speed. And so on and so on. Its a general rule of thumb that the pressure doubles the change of the load. If you increas a charg 5% the pressure goes up 10%. If you drop a charge 10% the speed goes down 10% but the pressure goes down 20%. Try it out. If you can find some factory load data that shows the speed and pressure for a start load and max load uses a calulater to find the % difference between the to loads. Devided the start load by the max and get a %. Then mult. this % by the max speed and should be real close to the start speed. Pressure difference will be double the charge difference. If the speed change is 17% between the start and max then the pressure change should be about 34%.

quote:

Originally posted by vines:
i have a good load for my .308 with 45 grs of RL-15 with 150s. I am looking for a reduced load for a 10 year old. Is it better to drop the load of the powder i use. or go to a slower burn powder and drop the load for better powder density, say 414 or 4350..which will still be about 85 to 90%

I am loading 42grs of H4895 with Barnes 130gr TTSX for my soon to be 8yr old grandson. He has been shooting them since he was almost 4 but I had them down to the minimum load then. So far he has two hogs and a coyote under his belt. They are very sweet shooting and the latest load of 42grs from a 16.5" barrel runs just at 2600fps.

I would suggest if you do use a 150gr bullet that you go with the ones designed for the 30-30 instead of standards as they will expand more readily at the lower velocity. Or you could use the Speer 130gr instead of the Barnes for a cheaper substitute. I went with the Barnes simply due to the size of some of the hogs we might encounter. I wanted all the penetration we could get. WE started out with the Nosler 125gr BT's but after hitting the coyote at a slightly quartering angle and not getting an exit I switched to the Barnes.

Good luck with the boy, and do look into the Hodgdon loads they are very good for recoil sensitive shooters and will build confidence quickly.

Since you are going to reduce the velocity if you maintain the 150 gr. bullet give it a double wahmy and reduce the velocity some and use a 125gr. to 130 gr. bullet. Many here can help you select the right hunting bullet and load perhaps with 4759 powder which I think would be the ticket. The lighter bullets at perhaps 2300 fps. should greatly reduce recoil (less that a 30-30) and should be a reasonable deer slayer out to 125yds. and beyond IMHO. roger

I get boring on this but I really don't think it's fair to get a 10year old to shoot a reduced load 308 unless they've reached that tolerance in a graded fashion.

I've shot 125gr sierra pro hunters from my 308 at 2,300fps with 25gr IMR SR4759. It works well and recoils a lot less than full house loads but it's still noticable to me and would I think be too much for a 10year old.

Don't reduce powder charges below published minima - risk of pressure spikes and damage. H4895, trailboss and IMR SR4759 have published data that will fit the bill.

I put together some loads for a friends boy several years back. It was a 150 grain lead at 1700 fps with a small load of handgun powder from an old lyman manual. Literally zero felt recoil. I think it is easy done for young or recoil sensitive shooters if you work at it.

as said wisely above...

20 to 25 grains of SR 4759

25 to 30 grains of IMR or Hodgdon 4198, or RL 7...

anyone of those will miss the sporatic accuracy of those Hodgdon H 4895 loads...

they will also have a lot less muzzle blast than reduced H 4895 loads have...

If you still have to use reduced loads using 4895, then use IMR's instead and you won't get all of those sporatic accuracy glitches that H 4895 will give you...

Less powder, less recoil...

quote:

Originally posted by 1894mk2:
I've shot 125gr sierra pro hunters from my 308 at 2,300fps with 25gr IMR SR4759. It works well and recoils a lot less than full house loads but it's still noticable to me and would I think be too much for a 10year old.

This statement surprises me a little. A 125 gr. bullet at 2300 fps has a slightly lower performance level than a factory loaded 30-30 or 7.62x39. This in equally weighted rifles should deliver less recoil than either. roger

I've always cautioned folks about using powder charges more than 10% less than maximum in rimless bottleneck cases, even for reduced loads. The reason is the case shoulder gets set back and the case ends up with excessive headspace as there's not enough pressure to push the back end all the way back to the bolt face. Reloading one of these "squib" loaded cases without ensuring sized case headspace is no less than.004" shorter than chamber headspace leads to incipient head separation.

Hey Vines, I've been in on hundreds of Hunts with youngsters in the Lowcountry. Some were afraid of the rifles for sure, but it always seemed they were finally mentally and physically prepared to Hunt when they were able to use a 30-30 "equivalent" Load. When they could not handle that Power Level without being scared of easing the trigger back, it generally ended in a Tracking fiasco.

Plenty of Starting Loads are shown in the Manuals for the 308Win(an excellent choice) that will be at 30-30 levels. Plus, the 30-30 Standard Grade Bullets are designed to work perfectly at these Impact Velocities out to a bit beyond 125yds.

Good Hunting and clean 1-shot Kills.