Just got a set of .308 dies, and was wondering what you fellow's found to be the best hunting load's. I allready have the bullet's.(165gr. Nosler partition's)I will be shooting them out of my Savage 99-C. I personally was thiking of useing RL.-15. Any suggestion's would be appreciated. Thank's: Rick.

You're 4 for 4, so far: Great rifle. Great cartridge. Great bullet. Great powder.

Do you have a Nosler manual??? If not, they show a max. load of 44.0 grains of RL-15 at 2,820 fps. Of course, that's out of a 24" barrel. I'll eat my cigar if you can get that velocity out of your 99.

Hodgdon's BL-C(2) is another great powder for the .308 and, like RL-15, has a military pedigree/association. Nosler shows a max. load of 46.5 grains at 2,698 fps.

Of course, the standard caveat applies: start 10% below max. and work up from there to find your load.

RSY

I get 2730fps with 43.5grs of WC-846

Rl-15 is a good 308/165 powder but there are two others that I slightly prefer. For a temperature stable hunting load I think that Varget is hard to beat. I killed some very nice deer with a 165gr partition and 46.0grs of varget in my short barreled Steyr Scout. Shoot that with your prefered 165gr bullet and I think that you'll have good success.
My other favorite powder in 308 is WW-748. This powder gives top velocities, excellent accuracy and pours out of a powder measure like water. I use 45-47grs in most of my match loads in this caliber. I'm currently on my 3rd or 4th 8lb keg in the last few years shooting this load in 308's. It has shot sub 1/2 minute groups in at least a dozen 308's of mine and freinds. I haven't chrono'd it in really cold weather so I can't say how well it would hold up temp wise against Varget. I think Varget would be best in nast cold stuff.
BL-(C2), in about every gun I've tried it in has given me the highest velocity and worst accuracy. IMR-4895 is very popular with a lot of Match shooters giving excellent accuracy and good velocity but more importantly they bought it surplus and cheap. IMR-4895 is a good choice to try if the other 3 don't work well. All in all 308 is a pretty forgiving round to load for AA2230,2520 and several others probably work fine too but I think the best three to start with are Varget,RL-15 and WW-748..........DJ