Beginning .308 reloader, any special tips

[Redneck with a 40]

I've got a few hundred commercial .308 brass, winchester and remington, cci rifle primers, powder (accurate 2520 and H-4895), and about (500) 150 grain soft point bullets. Any special tips for me? I know seating depth and crimp is critical on these rounds, anything else?

 

[dagger dog]

Rnw40,

You'll no doubt like loading for the .308 Win., it responds well to many powder bullet combos.
If you are loading for semi auto the crimp may be the way to go but a bolt rifle responds better to consistant neck tension.

Cleaning and lubing the inside of the case necks(I like mica powder on a nylon brush) will make for better "bullet grip", and keep the starting pressures more even throughout the batch.

You will have to find the best bullet seating depth for your rifle.

The 150 gr class shoots well from a 1-10 twist.
I've used many different makes of primers all with sucess, the .308 is very forgiving.

I like to run my new or once fired brass through a full length sizer and trim to minimum and then if you're shooting a boltie partial full length resize or neck size only after the first firing. Make sure you pick start load that has enough oomph to blow the new cases out to the chamber walls of your gun. You will be able to tell by looking at the case necks if they are real sooty there wasn't sufficeint pressure to seal the case to the chamber wall, and on the other hand you dont wan't to over charge either.

If you want to get into neck sizing and are not shooting Hunter benchrest or other competition the Lee Collet neck dies are a good bargin and work well!

 

[Slamfire]

Buy a Wilson type cartridge headspace gage, and set up your sizing dies using this gage. I size cases to gage minimum because my cases get used in a bunch of different 308's.

I just trim to 2.00". Easy number to remember.

Bullet jump is not that accuracy critical. OK, if you are looking for one hole groups, or shooting bench rest, it makes a difference. However, once you get off that bench and shoot unsupported, bullet jump is in the noise. The human factor is, by orders of magnitude, the biggest factor in accurate shooting. Human errors are in terms of yards, miles, furlongs.

Just seat the bullet so it fits in the magazine and does not get jammed in the throat.

I seat my bullets LT 2.800", that way they will fit in my M1a's, PTR 91, FAL's, and my bolt rifles. That could be anywhere between 2.750 and 2.800.

My Ruger M77 has an unusally long magazine box, if I wanted to, I could seat them out farther. But it would not make any difference on paper.

If you are shooting a bolt gun, you can feed a bolt rifle some pretty awful ammo and it will function.

Gas guns are different.

You will find that the 308 is one of the easiest rounds to make good ammunition. The two powders you have chosen, H4895 and AA2520 will produce excellent results with little effort.

 

[Redneck with a 40]

Since I'm gonna be loading ammo for my Remington 700 SPS Tactical, I won't worry about the crimp.