Has anyone used IMR 4350 with a 168 grain Nosler competition bullets? I am loading 45 grain Mussle vel. about 2450 fps is this to slow for a medium size whitetail? Will be used for 100 to 150 yards. Thanks for any comments

The two best powders for that .308 load will be Varget (as Doc says) or RL-15. Try 45.5 grains of Varget and an OAL of 2.815". That will fit easily in the magazine box and give very good accuracy. I use Fed 210M primers, but WLR primers would work well also. Both of those powders are temperature stable. You'll get about the same pressure and velocity from zero degrees up to 120 degrees+. If you have some 4064 laying around it would make for a good accuracy load, but your come-ups will change with temperature changes.

In the 30-06 about 57-58.5 grains of 4350 would be the hot ticket for that bullet.
JCN

AAdam,

The 308Win is my main deer stalking caliber and I would be another that would not choose that bullet and powder combo..

I don't really think you need a premuim bullet for most deer hunting situations and I've had great success with plain jane Speer 150grn Spitzer Softpoints loaded over
BLC-(2) powder...

Regards,

Pete

Please don't use that bullet. Spend $12 or so on a box of Win Power Points. Work up to 46-47gns of varget. it'll get you 2700-2800 and devestating on deer and pigs to 200yds or so. my $.02, capt david

IMR 4350 is not a normal powder for that bullet. Competitors usually use 4895,4064, etc. While the muzzle velocity is adequate for whitetail deer at the ranges you specify, like a .30-30, the bullet is not correct for game. The bullet will perform poorly on game, as it is designed to do well on paper--which it does quite well, I think.

Get the plastic-tipped 165 grain Nosler and use a little 4895, 4064, H414, WW760, WW748, etc., etc. Most of those will give you a slight boost in velocity and the bullet is almost as accurate and performs well on deer.

wouldn't 3031 and Varget be good choices also?