I just purchased a Bergara b-14 wilderness ridge in .308 for my kiddos this hunting season. I'm looking to download my current recipe down a bit for them, even though the rifle has a factory muzzle brake on it. What are your recommended recipes? bullets? powders? Thanks in advance!! hvychev
Downloaded .308 Recipe
- Thread starter hvychev77
- Start date
theotherwaldo
Member
Jim Watson
Member
Hodgdon says you can load H4895 down to 60%. (Dupont used to say the same thing about IMR 4895 but nobody talks about that any more.)
Alaskamike
Member
- Joined
- Jun 19, 2020
- Messages
- 229
For recoil reduction, I'd look at bullets lighter than 150 grains. Maybe some 125 grain or 110 grain bullets over about 40 grains of IMR4895. It might also be worth looking into 4198 or Reloader 7 with the lighter bullets.
Charlie98
Member
That's basically what I was going to say. I would say with H4895, because Hodgdon specifically states you may download it, but IMR4198 or RL7 would work well, too... and depending on what you are hunting for, maybe bullets in the 125-135grn range.
I worked up a full-power load for my M1a... 110grn V-max over IMR3031, it feels like a 5.56mm with the M1a's muzzle brake.
denton
Member
I have a Remington 600 in 308. It's pretty light, and it has a short barrel. With normal 308 loads the recoil is pretty brutal. I ended up with a bruise on my cheek weld point. So, beyond installing a recoil pad, I needed to find a suitable load that was not so punishing.
My recipes are a Barnes 150 grain TTSX bullet pushed by 45 grains of Varget for 2660 FPS or a Hornady FMJBT pushed by 45.5 grains of Varget for 2740 FPS. Those are both well below maximum loads, but above minimum. They turned that rifle into a very pleasant shooter.
You don't mention how young your younglings are. If they are mid to late teens, one of those loads might be suitable. If not, maybe they would get along better with a 130 grain TTSX, which is still very capable load. Beyond that, TrailBoss is one very good solution, among others.
And good on you for teaching them and taking them hunting! Hope you have a great time.
My recipes are a Barnes 150 grain TTSX bullet pushed by 45 grains of Varget for 2660 FPS or a Hornady FMJBT pushed by 45.5 grains of Varget for 2740 FPS. Those are both well below maximum loads, but above minimum. They turned that rifle into a very pleasant shooter.
You don't mention how young your younglings are. If they are mid to late teens, one of those loads might be suitable. If not, maybe they would get along better with a 130 grain TTSX, which is still very capable load. Beyond that, TrailBoss is one very good solution, among others.
And good on you for teaching them and taking them hunting! Hope you have a great time.
Charlie98
Member
TrailBoss has not been in production for at least 2 years... it is serious Unobtanium right now.
The rifle looks very similar to a Howa 1500 in 308 with varmint barrel I'm loading for. If the Bergara has a bit of heft and a muzzle brake, recoil should not be that bad.
After several attempts, finally found an winner with Hornady 150 Interlock over around 46 grains of Varget. (if it matters, I can check log book to be certain), but that got me to sub MOA accuracy and cooking along at around 2900 fps.
Ironically, as I remember it, the heavy Howa has about the same level of felt recoil as a lightweight Mossberg Patriot youth gun in 243 Win.
I have never used light bullets in the 308, but would be fun to try. Being light, they will have to be seated deep enough into the neck to hold the bullet, so will then be short and will have a long jump to the lands. But the light bullets are all like that, so apparently it works. I have the same thing going on trying to load a 150 grain Speer Hot Cor. If memory serves, jump is close to 1/8 of an inch.
After several attempts, finally found an winner with Hornady 150 Interlock over around 46 grains of Varget. (if it matters, I can check log book to be certain), but that got me to sub MOA accuracy and cooking along at around 2900 fps.
Ironically, as I remember it, the heavy Howa has about the same level of felt recoil as a lightweight Mossberg Patriot youth gun in 243 Win.
I have never used light bullets in the 308, but would be fun to try. Being light, they will have to be seated deep enough into the neck to hold the bullet, so will then be short and will have a long jump to the lands. But the light bullets are all like that, so apparently it works. I have the same thing going on trying to load a 150 grain Speer Hot Cor. If memory serves, jump is close to 1/8 of an inch.
denton
Member
Ouch! It will be a happy day when reloading supplies are more abundant.
Scout21
Member
Consider a 110 or 130 grain Barnes TTSX bullet, depending on the intended game. Should help lighten up the recoil a fair bit compared to 150 grain bullets. There are plenty of threads on this forum and others praising the effectiveness of the 130 grain bullet on deer and elk sized game. You have to do some digging to find testimonials on the 110 grain bullet, but they're out there. I intend to take a whitetail this year with the 130 over a charge of Varget.
lightman
Member
When the Wife and my two boys moved up to the 308 I loaded the Speer 100 grain plinker for them. Its a half jacket bullet that turned out to be pretty accurate. It was good for targets but I wouldn't hunt with it. For reduced hunting loads I would look at some of the 125 grain loads.
41 Mag
Member
It's been a while since I have loaded them for my grandsons. When the oldest was only 3 he was determined to shoot him a hog. He yammered on about it until I finally got out some stuff for him to shoot. We started out with a 30 Carbine, and he quickly thought that was just too much fun, so I rooted around and found the data for H4895 and loaded up some .308's with 125gr Ballistic Tips. The first few down the tube teared him up a bit but he was persistent.
After about 4 months of shooting 5 or so, taking a break, then a few more, he was up to around 15-20 a session. Two week before his 4th birthday he managed to slip one in behind the shoulder of a nice sow,
It was shortly after that I started bumping the charge weights up and moved up to the Barnes TTSX. It works great you just need to make sure your velocity is in the impact area of around 1800-2000fps or above for it to expand. This is a very mild load, even for the little Ruger Compact seen above. I would wager a bet that your shooters will find it very pleasant to shoot. The only drawback is the cost of the bullets. I went with a 130gr Speer for practice and the Barnes for hunting. It made things a whole lot more economical. For that matter you could probably get by with cast or plated instead.
After about 4 months of shooting 5 or so, taking a break, then a few more, he was up to around 15-20 a session. Two week before his 4th birthday he managed to slip one in behind the shoulder of a nice sow,
It was shortly after that I started bumping the charge weights up and moved up to the Barnes TTSX. It works great you just need to make sure your velocity is in the impact area of around 1800-2000fps or above for it to expand. This is a very mild load, even for the little Ruger Compact seen above. I would wager a bet that your shooters will find it very pleasant to shoot. The only drawback is the cost of the bullets. I went with a 130gr Speer for practice and the Barnes for hunting. It made things a whole lot more economical. For that matter you could probably get by with cast or plated instead.
110vmax with 748 will give light recoil. It’s a vary close load to Hornady 110 TAP at the max loads. The 125g sierra pro hunter will hold up a little better on white tail
P Flados
Member
One obvious goal would be low recoil. For 30 cal, a number of good hunting low recoil bullets exist. I will pick 125 gr as one of the better choices.
The next step is to pick a desired velocity. I looked at 300 BO and 30-30 to get an idea what to pick for a 125 gr bullet. About 2300 fps looked petty good.
The next step for a really good load of this type is to pick a powder that will give a low muzzle pressure. For this, I plugged in the above info into Quickload, tossed out a bunch of loads that did not "feel right" and sorted by muzzle pressure with lowest on top.
Many will be surprised to see that the "best" powders for this type of thing are much faster than they would expect.
Some youngsters do not mind muzzle blast, but some do. Going low on muzzle blast will not hurt anything and might avoid unneeded issues. The percent powder burn is also much better with the top handful of choices. Note that the powders that give lower muzzle pressures also have low charge weights and this combination actually reduces recoil.
The above process is similar to what people do when they are tying to optimize quiet loads for subsonic applications.
Now there is a challenge in that there is very little load data for this type of thing and picking a powder and working for this kind of load should only be done by someone that has a petty good idea of what they are doing. Unique is a powder that is well proven for reduced loads as are a few others listed below. Looking at "cast bullet" load data might help to give you a better frame of reference for this type of loading.
The next step is to pick a desired velocity. I looked at 300 BO and 30-30 to get an idea what to pick for a 125 gr bullet. About 2300 fps looked petty good.
The next step for a really good load of this type is to pick a powder that will give a low muzzle pressure. For this, I plugged in the above info into Quickload, tossed out a bunch of loads that did not "feel right" and sorted by muzzle pressure with lowest on top.
Many will be surprised to see that the "best" powders for this type of thing are much faster than they would expect.
Some youngsters do not mind muzzle blast, but some do. Going low on muzzle blast will not hurt anything and might avoid unneeded issues. The percent powder burn is also much better with the top handful of choices. Note that the powders that give lower muzzle pressures also have low charge weights and this combination actually reduces recoil.
The above process is similar to what people do when they are tying to optimize quiet loads for subsonic applications.
Now there is a challenge in that there is very little load data for this type of thing and picking a powder and working for this kind of load should only be done by someone that has a petty good idea of what they are doing. Unique is a powder that is well proven for reduced loads as are a few others listed below. Looking at "cast bullet" load data might help to give you a better frame of reference for this type of loading.
Code:
Cartridge : .308 Win. (SAAMI)
Bullet : .308, 125, Speer HP TNT 1986
Useable Case Capaci: 51.586 grain H2O = 3.349 cm³
Cartridge O.A.L. L6: 2.700 inch = 68.58 mm
Barrel Length : 24.0 inch = 609.6 mm
C A U T I O N : any load listed can result in a powder charge that falls below minimum suggested
loads or exceeds maximum suggested loads as presented in current handloading manuals. Understand
that all of the listed powders can be unsuitable for the given combination of cartridge, bullet
and gun. Actual load order can vary, depending upon lot-to-lot powder and component variations.
USE ONLY FOR COMPARISON !
Powder type Filling/Loading Ratio Charge Charge Vel. Prop.Burnt P max P muzz B_Time
% Grains Gramm fps % psi psi ms
--------------------------------- -----------------------------------------------------------------
Alliant UNIQUE 59.2 18.2 1.18 2300 100.0 44754 3282 1.238
Hodgdon HS-6 44.5 20.9 1.36 2300 100.0 40898 3311 1.259
Shooters World Heavy Pistol 44.3 22.6 1.46 2300 100.0 29422 3888 1.385
Alliant 2400 48.1 21.7 1.41 2300 100.0 27683 4095 1.429
IMR 4227 60.4 26.3 1.70 2300 97.9 25561 4705 1.440
Hodgdon H4227 60.4 26.3 1.70 2300 98.3 24961 4744 1.450
Hodgdon H4198 65.9 29.4 1.91 2300 90.9 25588 4927 1.439
Accurate 5744 55.1 25.1 1.62 2300 96.1 24967 4934 1.472
Shooters World Buffalo Rifle 56.4 25.1 1.62 2300 96.1 24967 4934 1.472
Accurate 1680 59.3 29.4 1.91 2300 92.3 24918 5040 1.458
Hodgdon CFE BLK *C 66.9 33.8 2.19 2300 86.2 25684 5139 1.455
Last edited:
How downloaded are we talking? I tried Hodgden’s Titegroup load using a 168 grain Speer HPBT. It isn’t much good for hunting unless you’re after rabbits, but it works. I have a downloaded 30-30 load with a cast bullet using H335 that is quite pleasant. It’s not a deer load though. I bet something similar would work in 308.
wanderinwalker
Member
The question of how downloaded and for what intended target/use is a valid one. I've gone down to 32 grains of IMR-4895 with a 168 grain Nosler HPBT in my Ruger 77 in .308 Winchester with great accuracy at 50 yards. It's also so low-recoil and entertaining to shoot it had me giggling like a child. I feel perfectly safe using this load with any mixed brass, primer and similar weight and profile bullet I can put my hands on.
My next visit to this load may be bumping it to 34-36 grains and dragging the chrony out. Somewhere between .30-30 and .300 Savage ballistics should keep those 168 grain match bullets stable to 200 yards. I'm not entirely sure the 32 grain load has enough velocity to be reliable past 100 yards with those bullets.
My next visit to this load may be bumping it to 34-36 grains and dragging the chrony out. Somewhere between .30-30 and .300 Savage ballistics should keep those 168 grain match bullets stable to 200 yards. I'm not entirely sure the 32 grain load has enough velocity to be reliable past 100 yards with those bullets.
ArchAngelCD
Member.
^^^^^ That Right There ^^^^ is IMO the way to go. I was going to post the same but had no need. Those are tested and safe loads.
