Lighter 308 hunting loads?

I’m not an AR10 guy but for general 308 info you may or may not find a box ammo that your set up likes, when reloading for accuracy other guys data won’t do you much good beyond a starting point.

Ya gotta test for yourself to get the good loads.

Trying to find a reduced load, that'll still cycle an AR10 and be accurate will be a fair bit of trial and error.

You might be on the right path with the 125gr's but maybe playing with powder type, and seating depth will sort it out.

Try asking in the reloading advice sub-forum.

Might get better results loading a heavy bullet down, such as a 180 around 2400fps. A heavy bullet should keep gas pressure up better than a light one. ?

Each firearm has it's own likes.

I don't have and AR10 or a .308.

I HAVE loaded 120gr powder coated bullets in .30-06 and .30-30. Ladder tested and found very accurate, mid range loadings.
.30-06 @ 2550 fps
.30-30 @ 2300 fps

Both have light recoil and have worked very well on deer.

I have tried several loads in my PA10 .308 and so far the most accurate has been Hornady's American Whitetail 150 gr.. It doesn't like the 180 gr and 168 gr as much even though my last deer was taken with the Federal Premium with the 168 gr Berger Hunter Hybrid bullet. I was less than impressed with that bullet.

AR Comp and a 130 interlock. This was what I loaded for one of my nephews when he was a teen. He now uses 180 ground nose with 3031.
I like cup and core bullets in 30 caliber and larger. Cheap and do the job.

FWIW, my go-to powder with lightweight and cast lead bullet handloads in old service rifles is IMR 4198. About 20-25 grains seems to be the sweet spot -- I've tried it in more than a dozen different cartridges.

I've used it regularly with Berry's 123 grain plated bullets, but unfortunately the combination probably lacks the port pressure necessary to reliably cycle any gas operated .308/7.62 NATO autoloading rifle.

BTW, the Japanese and Spanish both fielded reduced-power 7.62 NATO ammunition at different times. The JDSF has/had a alternative 7.62 purple/violet-tipped load intended to make fully automatic fire from their Howa Type 64 assault rifle somewhat more controllable. https://www.forgottenweapons.com/rifles/howa-type-64/ I don't have completely trustworthy figures on the ballistics for this load, but here's a supposed photo of the bullet (center):



The Spanish originally standardized on the 7.62 CETME loading of a 113 grain bullet at around 2600 fps for their early production roller-delayed rifle. This ammunition was produced in large quantity until withdrawn in the mid-1960s in favor of NATO-standard loadings.



There is also a 130 grain load in US service (T762TNB1), but at 2900+ fps I don't think you could classify it as reduced power.

A friend of mine has excellent results in his AR-10 with the Sierra 125gr Pro Hunters. I'm not sure on the powder he uses but I have seen that bullet absolutely wreck deer at 10 yards all the way out to 120 yards. I wouldn't hesitate for a second to use that bullet.

I have decent results with my PA-10 with Speer 125 gr TNT and Ramshot TAC (around 48.0 gr). Not sure how that bullet would work on deer, but it should do an excellent job on coyotes, since I don’t save pelts.

mshootnit said:

I tried to reload some 125 gr Noslers in 308 for my AR10 one time, but they were not real accurate. What loads or brands of ammo do you like to hunt with in the 125-147 gr. range for 308? Have you found a loading to be pretty accurate and fast in this weight range?

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I find .308 favors middleweight to heavy bullets (147 grain and up) at 2400-2650 fps better than lighter bullets. When I had my bolt gun .308, it shot well with 155's, 168's and 178's. My M1A does best with 168's. I generally use 125's in smaller-case .30 cal like .300 BLK.

mshootnit said:

I tried to reload some 125 gr Noslers in 308 for my AR10 one time, but they were not real accurate. What loads or brands of ammo do you like to hunt with in the 125-147 gr. range for 308? Have you found a loading to be pretty accurate and fast i this weight range?

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Hodgdon has reduced loads for .308 factory, Hornady custom lite loads are nice too, cycling the ar10 should be the bigger challenge rather than accuracy. I love producers, also consider the .30-30 and .300 savage specific bullets at reduced speeds, just a thought.

I loaded ~1,000 125 Speer TNTs for a prairie dog hunt. I used H4895 IIRC. Very accurate and light recoiling.

If you want something really fun, try 110 Hornady VMAX’s. Recoil is between a .223 and .243. At 3,100 FPS they are like lasers. Note however that this was a 1:12 twist barrel. I tried them in a 1:10 twist 30-06 and a 1/3 of them would blow up at 50 yards in a puff of lead dust

Nature Boy said:

I loaded ~1,000 125 Speer TNTs for a prairie dog hunt. I used H4895 IIRC. Very accurate and light recoiling.

If you want something really fun, try 110 Hornady VMAX’s. Recoil is between a .223 and .243. At 3,100 FPS they are like lasers. Note however that this was a 1:12 twist barrel. I tried them in a 1:10 twist 30-06 and a 1/3 of them would blow up at 50 yards in a puff of lead dust

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I love those 110 V-Max. Load them in .30 Carbine, .30-30, .30-06. Keeping them below 2800 fps in '06 and .30-30, they are grenades on yotes.
.30C is not near that fast, but they are fun. Acting more like a typical ballistic tips bullet, mushrooming perfectly on 80# hogs.

Seedy Character said:

I love those 110 V-Max. Load them in .30 Carbine, .30-30, .30-06. Keeping them below 2800 fps in '06 and .30-30, they are grenades on yotes.
.30C is not near that fast, but they are fun. Acting more like a typical ballistic tips bullet, mushrooming perfectly on 80# hogs.

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I'm super interested in the .30 Carbine loading. Do you have any pics of the fired bullet and the wounds? Distances fired? Shot placement? How far did they run?

I have used the Barns TAC TX bullet with good success on pigs in the 300 blk around 2000 fps at impact. That would be a pretty wimpy 308 load.

Scout21 said:

I'm super interested in the .30 Carbine loading. Do you have any pics of the fired bullet and the wounds? Distances fired? Shot placement? How far did they run?

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No pics. They were on my old phone.

Distances were 10 - 50 yards. Chest shots, heart, lung, liver. 50 yard shots, ran about 20 yards. 10 yards shots, full penetration, exit about quarter size, spun around and fell.

I wouldn't use them on deer. I don't use .357 on deer, either.

CarJunkieLS1 said:

A friend of mine has excellent results in his AR-10 with the Sierra 125gr Pro Hunters. I'm not sure on the powder he uses but I have seen that bullet absolutely wreck deer at 10 yards all the way out to 120 yards. I wouldn't hesitate for a second to use that bullet.

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I have used these in 30-06 with decent results, at least on paper. They are about 1-1.25 MOA with H4895. Nice soft shooting load.

-Jeff

Many years ago I gave hunting with my AR10 a shot just because. Believe it or not 150gr BTs over Varget gave me an accurate and cycling load that was spot on. Took a couple of deer with it no issues. Relegated that heavy setup back to range duty...