I'm on a tight budget and can't afford to buy a bunch of different powders. I want to work up a good, accurate hunting load for my .308 using 150 gr. ballistic tips. What is the most common powder for a hunting load of this type? I know there isn't one powder for every gun/load/set-up, but surely there must be a general consensus on a "best bet" powder. What do ya think?

Thanks,

I'd have to second Bigdaddytacp's recommendation of 4895, both flavors (IMR and H) should work well with 150s. Hodgdon's Varget may be another good choice.

Regards, Bill

4895 is a little easier to meter than 4064 due to the size and shape of its granules, but either of these powders should work well. I believe 4895 was developed for the .308 (7.62 Nato).

The premier powder for the .308, however, is probably WC 846 (in civilian nomenclature, both BL-C2 and WW 748 are canister-grade clones). Its pressure-velocity ratio is tailored to the .308.

I'd buy any of these three powders that was available the cheapest.

Accurate Arms's 4064 is usually on sale at Natchez, and, its smaller grains definitely meter better than the IMR version. It works great in my 308's (along with 4895, W748 and R15 and a bunch of others).

Much venison has entered the R-WEST digestive tract as a result of 44 - 46 of either version of 4064 and a decent 150 grain bullet.

R-WEST

#1... RL15

#2... Varget

Thanks guys. Keep'em comin!!!

Re-15...............

AA2520 is a very good powder for the .308 and a number of people shooting for accuracy with the 168 grain have found that it works well!

Re-15 is best in all my 308s.

W-748 From 39.5 grains to 50.0 grains
Remington 9-1/2 Primer

Win 748 or Varget are tops in mine.

An added bonus is that Varget is very versatile if you load other calibers.

I use wc844 and wc 846 I find that my 846 is very hot and have to use loads a good 20 percent under the reconmended amounts. I use them in my 224's and most every thing else of smaller case size. I use 852 in the bigger stuff.

I like W-748 and IMR-4895. FWIW. 4895 was developed prior to WW-2 for use in the M-1 Garand, and not the .308. After the war, you could buy it from the NRA. Each lot was radically different ansd load you worked up with one lot would either be too hot or too slow. Burning rate with it ranged from equal to 4198 to as slow as 4320. Finally, I believe Hodgden bought up most of what was left and blended it into what it is standard for today. Current versions by IMR are a bit faster burning than what Du Pont was making.
Either of the above powders will give you a good load.
Paul B.

I worked up a very nice from-the-book hunting load using Sierra's data for AA2520 with their 165-grain Game Kings.

I've "beaten" (barely) Federal Match ammo (GM308M) at 200 yards, repeated five-shot, half-inch groups (from my Savage 110FP) with N140 and 168-grain Match Kings. The only load closer than that has been with Varget.

IMR4064 has only shot well out of my .416 Remington Magnum. It's been totally worthless in every other bolt-gun I've tried, as well as in my M1 Garand in .308 Winchester (IMR4895 shoots well in the latter).

I'm currently working with N550 loads using the "old" 168-grain ("original" ogive) Hornady A-Max bullets. Initial results look promising.

Russ

[ 07-19-2002, 03:26: Message edited by: Russell E. Taylor ]

BL-C2 is all I ever use in my .308s M1A and BLR with 150 Ballistic tips or Hornady SSTs and 168 gr. Speer Gold Match bullets (M1A load 1" @100 yds.) It meters better than 4895 and the velocity and accuracy I get is comparable to what I can get with 4895. I also use magnum primers with BL-C2.

Sawblade,

The real problem here is that the .308 shoots very well with a lot of powders and exceptionally well with some. You will most likely get 100+ opinions making choice somewhat difficult. I've been using H-Varget for a short time now and like it quite a lot. Velocity is good to better than average, burns clean, and accurate. I think my second choice would and maybe will be BL-C2 just to see how they compare. One of the best starting powders for this cartridge is W748 so you can't go too wrong.

[ 07-20-2002, 14:14: Message edited by: Dave In LB ]

I second Ricciardelli. Winchester 748, 40 to 50 gr.

Guys, in the six or so 308's I've shot and loaded for, RL15 was always at least as accurate as WW748 and always gave considerably more velocity than WW748... if you've never tried it, give RL15 a test... I'm confident it'll become your "go to" powder for the 308.

Brad

I'm with Brad on the Rel 15 bandwagon, try it you'll like it.

#1. Varget
#2 4064

[ 07-22-2002, 08:14: Message edited by: kromer ]

#1 IMR4064. #2 N140. #3 RL15. Not much difference in the three for me.

45gr's of N-202

I've got a SSG that just loves H380 and 165's........
Joe

I've only seen one guy on here mention H-380, I own two 8 pound kegs of the stuff, my Rem. 788's in .243 and .308 love the stuff with whatever bullet weight I use in it. Generally, my .308 likes max loads, it shoots them most accurately. Try it, you can load it fast cause it meters so nice.
Yardbird

My votes - RL15, W748, AA2520 in that order.

John Barsness says that recently manufactured RL15 is alomost as temp stable as the Hodgdon Extreme powders.

He also indicates that I4895, as good as it is, varies about 2fps for each degree F of temp change. H4895 should not be as temp sensitive.

[ 12-06-2002, 00:42: Message edited by: BigIron ]

Reloader 15 does better in my Remington 308 both for accuracy and velocity. 45 grains starting load and 47 grains max load. Meters better and is cleaner than Varget.
Your results may vary. The fun is in the testing to make sure.

H380 has beat 4895 and 4064 in my 22 inch shilen/70win. It's worth a try.

I just started with H380, of course I'm new at handloading so can't offer a lot of experience. I do like the way it meters so smoothly though.

Tried tallying up the positive mentions, disregarding informational or negative comments. This is what I came up with so far.
Votes /Positive mentions
RL15 8
Varget 6
4064 3
4895 3
AA2250 3
WC846, BL-C2 4
WW748 6
N550 1
N202 1
H380 4

When it's time to get more powder I'll have to give RL-15 a try.

[ 12-06-2002, 04:40: Message edited by: Atlatl ]

44.5 grs of Varget behind a 165 gr sierra gameking will produce 5 shot groups of .65" with a average velocity of 2731, standard deviation of 10 and an extreme spread of 26.

For you guys that like RL-15: Is a near max load of RL15 behind a 150 gr. bullet a full case or a compacted load? I like to fill'r up if the manual allows.

i'LL ADD A NEW ONE--RL12. It's hard to find but my blr didn't seem impressed with anything. Tried lots of bullets and used re 15, win 748, and varget. That little blr only has a 1-3x scope on it. 45.5 re 12 under a good ole plain jane hornady 150 spire point did a 5 shot 1.2" group. That's as good as I feel I can shoot 5 shots with such a low power scope. ALSO-was very very clean burning.

I settled on WW748 because I got the highest velocity and it shoots well in my Savage Mod 99Fs...All of them..It shot well in a couple of BLR's and all the bolt guns I have had....

Sawblade, If your budget concious you might try AA 2230-C. Natchez has this stuff on sale for $59.95 for an 8 Lb. jug. It has a burn rate slightly slower than AA 2230, and 2230 data can be safely used when working up loads. There are a ton of loads avaliable for the .308 using AA 2230. Bill T.

REL-15 powder shows superior results in many 308 rifles. Check your reloading book for starting load, mine shoots great with 45.0 grains of REL-15 and the 150 grain bullet.

I just picked up 16lbs of WC-846, I'm going to give it a try.

WW 748 always gives me the most uniform velocities with no signs of pressure even using a slightly compressed load. Accuracy runs around 1.25 MOA which is plenty good for deer hunting here. H380 was the most accurate powder I tried in my Ruger, consistently grouping 5 shots around 0.5 MOA.

I'm thinking of giving RL15 a try in my .308. The Alliant Reloader's Guide recommends using a Fed 210 primer. For the guys here using RL15, what primer do you use? TIA