Im slowly putting together a Rem SPSS in 308, Burris picatinny bases and TRS 1" rings on order from Midway, Burris 6-24 Sig. is sitting in the closet awaiting the mount, Jewell trigger when they come in stock, H-S Precision PSV096 is what Ill be using for the stock. Will be starting with 168Amax bullets, RE15, WLR primers & Win. brass, hope to obtain some 178AMAXs and or 175MKs after trying the 168s. Now I need some load suggestions with this combo or if you have another powder that might work better, I do have some Varget as well, have no access to VV powders, so lets not go there. What do you think?

Well Jay you have had no response so let me suggest something. They shoot Palma matches at up to 1000 yards, and they use the 308. Thay also use the 155 gr. bullet. Sierra calls the Palma Match. You can go online and find loads used for this round. If not let me know I have a good load for the 155 and Varget (I believe). I have never gone above the 168 gr. SMK myself.
Peter.

Thanks for being the only one to reply, had one reply on medium rifles within a half day or so, whatever, LOL! I do have some 155 AMAXs and would like to see how they fly as well, the range I shoot is only good for 600 yds, they have 600 yd shoots every once in awhile during the summer months, who knows, maybe the 155s will shoot just as good as the 168s. I recall a test in G&A a few years ago where they had an article on Jarret rifles and they used the 155 Amax for the test bullets, they loaded 47grs RE15 for the 308, think Ill work may way up to that load and see what comes of it, but please give me your suggestions as well.

Jay,

I have no experience with the AMax but have shot a few Sierra bullets. Although he 168 is a great mid-range bullet it is not good for 1000 yards. The 155's are good for 1000 yards but you will need 2970 to 3000 FPS MV to remain supersonic at a 1000 yards. My Palma rifle sports a 30" barrel to help with the velocity. Some guys I know are shooting 32" barrels.

The 175 SMK is probably a better choice for 1000 yards (or one of the similar weight Bergers) for the .308.

I like Lapua Brass, Varget powder, Sierra bullets. I do not like posting powder charges but here is a link for the Varget Powder.

http://data.hodgdon.com/cartridge_load.asp

My charge is actually slightly lower than the max but with the 30" barrel the MV is right at 3000.

This is another link for some good info on the 308.

http://www.6mmbr.com/308Win.html

I don't recall your barrel length, but Palma is generally a high velocity round from a longer barrel. For something like a 20-22 inch barrel I'd go with 175 gr Sierra and work up a load in the 43 grain range with RE-15. If you are shooting 1000 yard matches the 175 will stay sonic to the target. 168's (Sierra, not sure about AMAX) drop off before and tumble when they drop below sonic. I know guys that shoot the 168's for Service Rifle 200 to 600 yards, I know others that shoot 200 to 1000 and shoot the 175's across the course. Only have to worry about one load then. I shoot Varget in my 5.56 loads and I've heard good results on 7.62 but haven't tried it yet.

Please not that Sierra list's their max load at 41.3 grains for their 175/180 grain bullets. That's why I said work up to.

jay
Just found the thread.
For my AR10T I use Federal brass, Win primers, 168 grain Nosler Competion, and 43.5 grains of IMR 4064.
I use plastic yogurt lids at 500 yards as targets. I wish I could say that I hit the lid every shot out of a 10 round mag but I don't miss by much.

Jim

Thanks for the help fellas, the Jewell trigger was installed yesterday, it has the bottom safety, anyone else have that model, Im assuming its new never saw it before last week, clamped the 6-24 Signature on as well, just need the H-S stock, when I tightened the action screws where i thought it would be good and tight the action must be bending as the bolt was binding in spots, hopefully it wont do that when I get the H S stock, the trigger is a dream compared to the new mark X Pro nightmare.

Sounds like it's going to be a nice rig.

I couldn't type yesterday. That should be "note" not "not". Sierra loads always seem a little light. Alliant doesn't have the 175 Sierra load on their web site since the 2000LR powder came out, but they have 45 grains max listed for 168 annd 180 Speer.

Most of the guys shooting the .308 at the SRM are shooting the 155 grain Lapua Scenar over about 46 grains of Varget.

The BC is awesome combined with the 2900 fps velocity. This load blows away the heavier bullets and has won the .308 class and the entire match many times.

Rem. 700 PSS barrel is 26". Mine is at any rate, .308 Winchester. I set up a Jewell "varmint" trigger, with the safety. Adjusts to 1 1/2 oz. If you need to go below 1 1/2 oz. Jewell will machine a spring for you.

Leupold Mark 4, 50 mm scope/bases. 6x to 22x 50mm, mil dot.

Lapua brass is the preferred. Bullets for this barrel are recommended 168 gr. to 172 gr. for the rifling. I've been using Hornady, but I'm not shooting competition, just long distance targets (600 yds). Powder is Hodgdon 4895, and I started in the middle of the load data off the Hodgdon web site. Federal large rifle primers. I prep the primer pocket, square the seat, deburr the flash-hole. Square the mouth and trim to uniform length. We're not shaving the necks, yet.

We're comfortably sub MOA, could tweak the loads, but we're fine where we are. A lot of the accuracy is about reading wind flags and ambient temperature.

With 168 to 178 I use Varget and it works very well. Starting around 42 grains and up. I like the 175 SMK and Federal 210 primer.

I tried 42grs Varget vs 42grs RE15 with 168MKs with my other classic stocked stainless barrel/blued receiver 308 and the RE15 shot much better, Will do the same test with this new SPSS but will use the AMAX bullets.

Dear Jay

I have a rem 40x with a 1-4 twist 28inch long barrel.

Lapua cases
Fed 210 primer
43 grains of AR2206
Serria 155g palma match bullets.

You will just need to sort out seating depth.

This projectile shoots best on 2x 308 and 2x 300wm I use.

Regards
Mark

I am working with a load of 44.1 8208XBR with the Sierra 155 Palma. I'm using Federal 210 match primers. This load is what I hope to shoot in F Class 300 yard matches. I have a Mauser M03 with a 308 Match barrel.

The reason Palma shooters shoot the 155gr Sierra bullet is because they cannot shoot a heavier bullet because of the rules.
As a result most of them shoot 30 to 32 inch barrels and load "HOT".

For normal 308 rifles, ie 22 to 26 inch barrels, to shoot to 1000 yards you should shoot the 175gr Sierra [especially gas guns, and 1 in 12 " twist bolt rifles] or in a bolt rifle with a 1 in 10 twist, a Sierra 190 or a Berger 185 VLD.

The "old" Sierra 180gr MK with the long boat tail was a great 1000 yard bullet, however when they changed to the short boattail on the 180, it will not stay supersonic in a 308 ALL the time to 1000. The 175 MK can be loaded to stay supersonic to 1000. Those loads are fairly hard on a M1 Garand and an M1-A.

Ive been working on 47grs RL15 and the 155 A-Max, shot a pretty nice group at 200yds today, wind mightve got a hold of a couple of them, or maybe I wasnt holding tight enough, Im working on that part of my shooting.
With the 168 A-Max and 44grs RL15 Im trying different seating depths which I really dont think matters in a factory rifle, or in mine anyways.

NE 450 No.2,
Your posting can only come from experience, "dead nuts on..." as they say. As for Palma loads being "hot" I did see some pressure numbers several years ago in some Palma loads and it was well beyond whatever normal is. I shot the Sierra 175's in M1A/M14NM and it was about the only way you could get that gun/load combo to work for the 1000yd line, but as you mentioned, worked the gun pretty hard. Question you could probably answer, what was the purpose of drilling a small hole in the gas plug in the 14's?? Seems to me that would bleed off excess gas, but would that not lessen the performance of the round??

MFD

I am not familar with drilling a hole in the gas plug.

I do know that guys that had a M14/M1-A specifically for 1000 yard matches had a groove or two cut in the piston to lessen the gas pressure imparted to their op rod because of the hotter loads they shot.



They also shortened their front sight so their rear sight did not have to be raised up very high, making for a better cheek position on the stock, as well as keeping the apperature from being very high out of the rear sight assembly, which could cause movement of the rear app, side to side effecting windage adjustment.

Some guys even used a smaller "gas" hole in the barrel to lessen the impact on the working parts of the gun.

Also I know one guy that put a spacer inside the oprod to make the recoil spring stiffer, slowing down the rear movement of the "working parts", again to lessen the effect of the hotter 1000 yard loads battering the rifle.

For those of you that might not know, when you shoot 1000 yard NRA matches, it is all single load, so there is no requirement for the rifle to be able to feed round No2 out of the magazine.

And again, a dedicated 1000 yard M14 would have a longer throated barrel as the rounds were seated out long to gain more powder capacity.

Any loss in velocity some of these modifications might cause with "normal" 308 ammo are more that offset in the benefit they give to the life of the gun with the hotter loads.

These modifications would not be suitable for a General Purpose M14/M1-A, that you would expect to function with normal ammo from the magazine.

Or for a rifle to be used in Normal Service Rifle Matches that are shot at 200, 300 and 600 yards.