Powder for light .308 bullets

vahunter

vahunter

Active member
I bought my grandson a TC Compass in .308 hoping to get him away from the "cool" factor of using my AR in 6x45 for deer hunting. I bought some Sierra 125 grain Game Changers to load just to keep the recoil down for him. He's 15 years old and could probably handle the 150 grainers I use in my but don't want the recoil to bother him. I use 3031 in my loads with very good results but don't see much info on powders to use for the 125 grain pills. Any help would be appreciated.
 
Another vote for the Sierra app, its great to look for different powders, and the slider on FPS is very clever.
I think they charge $5 a year to keep the updates coming - well worth it.
 
It will take a compressed load of 3031 to reach the top end. I usually stay in the 95% range when loading. Varget,blc2,benchmark all will work in the 308 with 125's.
 
I use 46 gr H4895/ 125 gr. NBT in 18" Scout @ 2910 fps.
Also use 47.9 H4895/110 grn Nos Varmigeddon in another .308. Vel. should be a bit over 3100 on this load but my chrongraph bit the dust so that's from the book. Both are great coyote loads if you don't save fur.

NOSLER 308 Loads

Regards,
hm
 
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Do you have a muzzle energy in mind that will still kill a deer and "but don't want the recoil to bother him" ?

The Sierra app has their 125 gn SP going from 1890 ft lbs to 2448 ft lbs with 3031 (24" barrel). That low end gives 2610 fps.
 
if you can get them to shoot well - a 125gr hornady XTP is a great killer as low as 2100 FPS MV on deer out to about 125 yds with a heart/lung. i've made deer kills with this bullet at those speeds with my blackout, and even on something as squishy as a racoon it left an exit wound you could drop a quarter into at 50 yds
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it expands down to at least 1800 fps impact velocity so if you can get that running at 2200 fps that'll give you an effective functional expansion range out to about 150 yds, or 200 at 2400 fps mv. also at 2400 fps with a 100 yd zero... at 150 its only 2" low... so point and squeeze anywhere from 0-150 yds.


hornady shows a load with H4895 at 2600 with 42.0 grains (min charge) however with the 60% of max reduced load info, you could load it down as far as 29 grains. (47.8gr * 0.6 = 28.68gr)

here's the howto straight from IMR.
https://imrpowder.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/h4895-reduced-rifle-loads.pdf

HTH!
 
I found this load data for youths

Primer Used

Other FED 210
Bullet Used

Nosler125
Powder Used H4198
Powder Charge
28.5
Barrel Used 22
Comments: GREAT-LIGHT LOAD FOR YOUTH HUNTING. THE BALLLISTIC TIP WILL NOT EXIT THE BODY OF THE DEER. BE SURE THAT YOUR YOUTH TAKES TIME FOR A GOOD BOARD SIDE SHOT.
From:
www.centerfirecentral.com
 
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I have good luck with H4895 and H4198 and Speers 130 fn hot cor bullet for my grandkids.

Around 28-30 grs of H 4198, another load is around 37 grs of H4895 same 130 HC bullet.

Light kickers in 308 and accurate. AA2015 was another one I used don't recall the amount, but it was a sweet shooter too.
 
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