Funshooter45
Member
I normally shoot 150-168 gr bullets in my .308 like most folks do and I have recently achieved some very nice 0.5" groups with those. But the other day I felt like doing something completely different. About 8 months ago I picked up a box of 110 gr Sierra HP bullets on sale at the local store. He only wanted $8 for them so on a whim I got them thinking about developing a very light recoil load. I made one half-hearted attempt to load some of them with some real light charges of RL-7, down around 38-40 gr, thinking that if I kept the velocity down the accuracy might be OK. It wasn't terrible, the 5 shot groups running around 1.5-2.0", but it wasn't exactly great either so I put those bullets aside for awhile.
But the other day I decided to give them another try and I'm glad I did. This time I figured to try a bit hotter load range, so I used some TAC powder coupled with some Wolf LR Mag primers (I wasn't going to sacrifice more expensive powder or primers on such a foolish attempt). I couldn't find published data for that powder with a 110 gr bullet, so I went by the guidelines for the 125 gr bullets.
I loaded up 5 sets of 5 cartridges with the powder varying from 45.5 gr up to 49.5 gr, with a 1.0 gr interval. That's a much coarser interval than I usually try. Typically I vary the powder weight by 0.4 gr, but I was just curious to see what a broad spectrum did. The first time I loaded those bullets I tried to seat them as long as possible, but that ain't very long with such a stubby little bullet. This time I just sat them so that the base of the bullet was even with the base of the neck of the case, which ended up being 2.520" OAL.
So I shot those 25 rounds at 100 yds and was very pleasantly surprised. The most accurate load was the 48.5 gr, but surprisingly, they were all fairly decent. The 48.5 gr load was a nice 0.9" group of 5 but the 46.5 and 47.5 gr loads were fairly close to it in accuracy, just a bit over an inch at 1.1". The POI changed a bit between those loads, but the accuracy was surprisingly constant.
This was from a 25 yr old Win Mod 70, nothing special about it, with a Nitrex 3-10X scope. I'm really liking that scope a lot. I just bought it a couple months ago. It didn't cost nearly as much as my Leupold VX3 or Nikons or even my Weaver, but it is becoming my favorite af the bunch.
I doubt these loads would be all that great past 300 yds, maybe not even past 200 yds but they sure were pleasant to shoot. I don't have a chronograph, so I don't know what the velocity might be, but I'm guessing it is over 3100. I'm sure the results would be explosive on critters.
Something to think about the next time you want to experiment with the old 308.
But the other day I decided to give them another try and I'm glad I did. This time I figured to try a bit hotter load range, so I used some TAC powder coupled with some Wolf LR Mag primers (I wasn't going to sacrifice more expensive powder or primers on such a foolish attempt). I couldn't find published data for that powder with a 110 gr bullet, so I went by the guidelines for the 125 gr bullets.
I loaded up 5 sets of 5 cartridges with the powder varying from 45.5 gr up to 49.5 gr, with a 1.0 gr interval. That's a much coarser interval than I usually try. Typically I vary the powder weight by 0.4 gr, but I was just curious to see what a broad spectrum did. The first time I loaded those bullets I tried to seat them as long as possible, but that ain't very long with such a stubby little bullet. This time I just sat them so that the base of the bullet was even with the base of the neck of the case, which ended up being 2.520" OAL.
So I shot those 25 rounds at 100 yds and was very pleasantly surprised. The most accurate load was the 48.5 gr, but surprisingly, they were all fairly decent. The 48.5 gr load was a nice 0.9" group of 5 but the 46.5 and 47.5 gr loads were fairly close to it in accuracy, just a bit over an inch at 1.1". The POI changed a bit between those loads, but the accuracy was surprisingly constant.
This was from a 25 yr old Win Mod 70, nothing special about it, with a Nitrex 3-10X scope. I'm really liking that scope a lot. I just bought it a couple months ago. It didn't cost nearly as much as my Leupold VX3 or Nikons or even my Weaver, but it is becoming my favorite af the bunch.
I doubt these loads would be all that great past 300 yds, maybe not even past 200 yds but they sure were pleasant to shoot. I don't have a chronograph, so I don't know what the velocity might be, but I'm guessing it is over 3100. I'm sure the results would be explosive on critters.
Something to think about the next time you want to experiment with the old 308.
