I am fairly new to reloading. I have been loading 4064 and 4895 behind 168 smk's in a 308win. I would like to try some Vn140/150 or Vn540/550. It appears the _50 powders would be best for the 168's. The 550 powder looks appealing due to it's higher energy but I don't want to sacrifice accuracy. I want to develop a very accurate load on the SMK's and then try it with a 168 Barnes txp. Any help, comments or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Finding a load that works with both of those bullets is going to be a little difficult because the Barnes bullet is so much longer which takes up powder space. VV 540 would be my choice of those two powders. I am doing the same thing with my .308, trying to find a good fast and accurate load with long bullets like TSX and Nosler BT, and I am going to try AA2520. I have already used it with Hornady 165 BTSPs and got 2750fps with it, so I am going to reduce the charge to see how well it shoots because it is already really fast. A ball powder might be the answer.

It depends on the barrel twist you are useing.If you have a 1-12 twist you get best accuracy with 168 grain bullets.Varget and Vit 540 work best here.Vit is a touch more accurate and cleaner burning.If you have a faster twist barrel like a 1-13 or 1-14 you will get better accuracy with the 155 grain bullet and 140 will work better than both Varget and Vit 540.This is from my experience in owning and shooting three barrels with both twist rates and testing the powders.The 168 grain Vit 540 is a 5 shot 200yd one hole load.

You will be happy with almost any combination of N-540 and either the 168 or 175 grain Sierra, so long as you seat them about .010" from the lands. What will be tough is making the Barnes fly true with that exact combination, because, well, everything is different except the weight.

In the FWIW department, Barnes's recommendation of seating bullets .050" off the lands should be followed from the get-go. If you're not happy with the initial results, then and only then make changes. The silver lining in this cloud is that it has been my experience Barnes bullets like to be driven fast. Remember tho that the TSX is a softer bullet, so the maximum charges respectively will be different.

VV N140 is by far the most popular powder for the .308 in the target circles. Usually around 42grains under a 168gnSMK or 167gn Lapua Scenar.

I had to go as far as 43.3gn in mine for optimal accuracy (.3MOA) But many people found the opposite - around 41 got them the best results.

Id,

The VV Loading Manual lists VV N140, 150, 540 & 550 with 150 & 165 grain bullets in .308 Win., all will work just fine.

I agree with EXPRESS on the VV N140 reco; I load this powder (sorry, don't have the exact load specs - it's on another computer) with 150 gr. Remington Bronze Points, 150 gr. Nosler BT's and 165 gr. Sierra HPBT's and the accuracy with all three bullets is excellent. Also, I found the the best accuracy results to be 1-2 grains under the maximum's recommended.

My petload is 168 Sierra MK/ N 140 / 41.5 and it's good for <.25 MOA in my Lothar Walther rebarreled Ruger 77 VT.

Great informatin guys. Thanks. My barrel twist measures 1-11.5 but it might be 1-12. I will try to decide soon between the _40 and _50 powders and post some results. Keep the info coming.

I use 45grs N150 with the Sierra 168 MK, Lapua brass and Federal 210 primers. This load is very accurate in my rifle, I use the same load with the 168grs Barnes TSX - this load is near max with the TSX, but it is a good and very accurate hunting load.

Same load & same results as André. N 140 is an excellent choice for .308. Wonderful accuacy with 8x57 IS as well. Curreltly I'm working up a LR load w/ 178 A-MAX. Very promising results.

I have excellent results with Varget in my Rem 700 HB.
Peter.

I purchased about ten pounds of N140 and tested it out in a 308 Match Rifle. This rifle has a 24" 1:10 Douglas barrel. I was trying to determine if N140 would make an acceptable bolt gun load, and to develop a load close to my standard target load of 168 Sierra Match with IMR 4895. Based on my testing N140 produces target grade accuracy, and I would have used 42.5 grains of N140 as a target load. As you can see that powder charge gives me an average velocity close to my reference load of 41.5 grain AA2495. (Accurate Arms 2495 is a 4895 clone, gave me the exact same velocities for charge weights as 4895, and is in my opinion, an excellent powder).

I try to keep my 168 Match loads between 2550 and 2625 fps. This is my own standard, but I have found that when I keep my loads within these boundaries, I have excellent accuracy without any pressure problems, even when match day temperatures are at 100 F. Unreliability will cost more points than what you might gain with a little more velocity.

I did not find N140 superior to 4895, as when you are getting ten shot groups under one MOA it is hard to prove one group is better than the other, when differences could be due to statistical variance, or just shooter fatique.

I am using N140 in my .223. With 80 grain Sierra’s with 23.5 grains it is quite capable of staying in the X ring at 600 yards. I shot a 195-9X last weekend with this load, and since that was the second highest score at 600 yards in that match, I am convinced N140 is a good powder.

Pre-64 M70 24 " Douglas Barrel 1:10 twist

168 gr Sierra Match 41.5 grs AA2495 thrown, LC72 WLR
30 Dec 1999 T = 58 ° F
Ave Vel =2570
Std Dev =21
ES=66
Low=2552
High=2618
N=7

168 gr Sierra Match 42.0 grs N140 wtd, Fed cases, Fed210s OAL 2.800"
30 Dec 1999 T = 58 °F

Ave Vel =2532
Std Dev =13
ES=48
Low=2511
High=2559
N=10

168 gr Sierra Match 42.5 grs N140 wtd, Fed cases, Fed210s OAL 2.800"
30 Dec 1999 T = 58 ° F

Ave Vel =2598
Std Dev =21
ES=78
Low=2563
High=2641
N=10

168 gr Sierra Match 43.0 grs N140 wtd, Fed cases, Fed210s OAL 2.800"
30 Dec 1999 T = 58 °F
Ave Vel =2593
Std Dev =9
ES=32
Low=2577
High=2609
N=9

168 gr Sierra Match 43.5 grs N140 wtd, Fed cases, Fed210s OAL 2.800"
30 Dec 1999 T = 58 °F
Ave Vel =2641
Std Dev =13
ES=46
Low=2616
High=2662
N=9
Close to a Max Load