I just inherited a new '81 BLR with a 20" barrel and a bunch of reloading equipment. The bullets include about 500 165gr Speer SPBT. I have IMR 4064, 4895, and H335; I also received about 10 different manuals dating back to the 60's. I am relatively new to reloading, but I am an avid hunter: deer, black bear, elk, sheep, etc. I am looking for a great round for all of the above. Does anyone have a suggestion for good loads using my existing equipment? If not, could you suggest a favorite load for the same gun? Thanks for the help.

You;ve already got some great components for that rig. I'd startwith three different loads:

40.0 grs. of 4895 and the 165 gt. bullets., 40.5 grs of the same powder with the same bullets, and 41.0 grains same powder and same bullets.

All of those should shoot MOA in any good .308, and one of them will doubtless be a little more accurate than the others. As all rifles are a rule unto themselves as to which they prefer, the most accurate of the three could be any one of them.

Once you have found the most accurate of the three, if you want to you could experiment by seating the bullets deeper or less deeply into the case, in .005 incrments, but that is a refinement which is pretty much un-needed for hunting ammo.

Unless your's is the very rare bad exception, you have inherited a really fine hunting rig.

Have fun with it.

AC

quote:

Originally posted by gsrider:
I just inherited a new '81 BLR with a 20" barrel and a bunch of reloading equipment. The bullets include about 500 165gr Speer SPBT. I have IMR 4064, 4895, and H335; I also received about 10 different manuals dating back to the 60's. I am relatively new to reloading, but I am an avid hunter: deer, black bear, elk, sheep, etc. I am looking for a great round for all of the above. Does anyone have a suggestion for good loads using my existing equipment? If not, could you suggest a favorite load for the same gun? Thanks for the help.

I think of the three propellents you list IMR 4064 is a slightly better choice for the 165gr bullet, but IMR4895 also works.

Speers own loading information shows.
45gr (MAX) of IMR4064 @ 2727fps
43gr(MAX and a Compressed charge) of IMR4895 @ 2673fps

H335 is a good propellant for the 308Win with 150gr bullets, but is outside the normal range for the 308Win with 165gr bullets.

AllanD

In Speer's rifle, 4064 may have worked the best, but at Camp Perry with 168 grain bullets, 4895 is probably more used. Either one will work fine, but both the government and high power match shooters seem to prefer 4895, probably for a reason.

There is only 3 grains less weight in the 165 grain bullets you have on hand, so if it was MY rifle, I'd start with the 4895. If that didn't proove satisfactory, then I'd increase the charges a couple of grains and try the 4064.

I definitely WOULD NOT go up to 43 grains of 4895. The goal here is not maximum velocity (and max pressures), but a good long-term hunting load with max accuracy that will both be easy to shoot and easy on the rifle. Many thousands of competitive high power shooters using the .308 have long found that type of accuracy qnd adequate (but maybe not max) velocity with 40-to-41 grains of 4895, either IMR or Hodgdon brands.

Thanks for the great suggestions. I spent about four hours at the range yesterday with both powders and loads. The IRM 4064 did not work well in my gun the groups were well over 2" at 100 from min load to max according to the Speer #13. I then tried the 4895 I went from 40gr up to 44gr in 1/2gr increments (the Lyman lists a max of 45gr). My gun loved 43gr the groups dropped from 2-3" to less than an inch for a 5 shot group and then opened up again. Your suggestions have been great, and I have learned a lot thanks again.

Compressed charges always seem so consistant it's hard to resist using them....

AllanD

quote:

Originally posted by gsrider:
My gun loved 43gr the groups dropped from 2-3" to less than an inch for a 5 shot group and then opened up again. Your suggestions have been great, and I have learned a lot thanks again.

The only reason I said I would NOT use 43 grains was neither gun strength nor accuracy...it is because I am "frugal"(cheap?).

Using 43 grains (as I have in the past) seems to be the point at which brass life is significantly reduced in my guns. But, hopefully, your rifle may do better at that level than all of mine have.

Also, a few guns seem to blow primers at that level...one of my my Musgrave RSA's and one of my Sportco's, for instance. Should be okay if you don't switch your heavy loads around into other guns without first "working up" the load for them. But don't just assume that because it is safe in that BLR it will be safe in all .308's.