My soon to be 10 year old wants to start shooting his big brother's youth model .308. So I picked up some 100gr SJ Hornady's today.

Can anyone provide a nice easy recoiling load for this little pill? An RL15 load would be great as I've got several pounds of it. Also, what OAL do you seat these to?

Thanks for your help.

RL15 is a bit too slow for the lighter bullets in the 308. A light load can be worked up with 4895 using the "60% rule" that Hodgdon details on their load data website. As far as seating goes, I like to go at least a caliber deep, sometimes you'll be able to get by with less, but it's a good place to start.

And for the bigger boys at home, that bullet is a dandy varmint bullet when driven fast.

I have become a little reluctant to recommend mild loads with fast powders like Vihta N110 even though they are here very commonly and frequently used by ordenance rifle shooters. I shoot them a lot with the .222 and the 30/06 with 130 grain SP bullets at the "running boar".

The risk you take is a double load which might blow up your rifle and hurt your son.

The safe way to go would be using Trailboss because it's fluffy and a double load is no longer possible. Follow the loading instructions on their website.

i haven't ever used rl-15.
but i have loaded the 100 gr s/j in the 308 with 30 grs of 4895.
it zips along at about 2,000 fps depending on your bbl length.

quote:

Originally posted by Lamar:
i haven't ever used rl-15.
but i have loaded the 100 gr s/j in the 308 with 30 grs of 4895.
it zips along at about 2,000 fps depending on your bbl length.

Perfect, I've got plenty of H4895 and was thinking 40gr would be a safe load as I've shot a bit more than that in heavier bullets.

I see you're from Soda Springs, I used to live in Pocatello. I killed my Shiras moose, just up the road a bit from you up a hill just a bit from McCoy Creek if you know where that is.

Thanks Lamar and for everyone else's replies too.

I tried them for my grandson in my Ruger Compact, and found that the 130gr Barnes worked MUCH better. The shorter little 100 and 110gr bullets simply didn't group or maintain any sort of consistency with velocity as the slightly longer bullets did. That said I also loaded the 125gr Noslers as well and they did a good job on paper but lacked quite a bit on game in the field IMO. We used them on both hogs and deer, and after finding they didn't exit on a young coyote at 150yds I dropped them and moved on to the Barnes.

I also used the Hodgdon data and it is great as you can work up to full powder loads all the way from the reduced stuff as your child get more accustomed to the recoil.

Wishin you all the best with your endeavor, I know I had a ball with my oldest grandson and have two more to work with in the near future.

What other powders do you have including pistol/shotgun powders?

I loaded mine exclusively with H-4895 reduced at first then worked up as the grandson could tolerate it.

He is 11 now and shoot full power 308 150gr loads form the 6.5# Ruger with no issues. There really isn't much I have he will back away from nowadays ranging from the .243 up through the 30-06 with 150gr loads.

It simply took him learning that the loads and rifles wouldn't really hurt him and neither would the noise, unless he didn't have his ear plugs in good.

I did some load development with 110gr bullets in a 308 for small game loads.

Start with 16 gr of Dupont SR 4759, for around 1530fps. 19gr is a max load for 1923fps.

My rifles shoot good with 17gr.

My 10 year old nephew loved shooting these loads.

43gr of H4895 should give @ 2650fps, max loads with 47gr [compressed] give @3000fps.

It would be worth getting a can or two of SR4759.
Those loads are very plesant to shoot, and fairly quiet.

I loaded up a few of these little pills with 40gr of H4895 while working up some loads for my .300 WM. I didn't have time to take the boy as we were leaving the next day for a little vacation.

Anyway I touched off a couple and there's very little recoil. The only accuracy req't here is that they hit the hillside we shoot into. This will be perfect for a little while in getting him used to the recoil. He has shot enough .22's at the range with me that the bang of guns is something he's more/less already used to. After running through this box, I'll step him up a bit in bullet weight. I suspect by this time next year he'll be handling 150's fine.

While in Vegas this past week we went to a range where you can rent full auto's. The guy there talked me into letting him touch off an AR-15 with fully loaded .223's. The boy thought that was the greatest thing in the world.