Reloading for .308 'blasting' ammo - worth it?

[WoodyTX]

I reload .45 ACP 'blasting' and competition ammo for my pistol, and am considering doing the same for my .308/7.62 rifles, primarily to save money.

Is this a worthwhile endeavor? With the .45, I can cut ammo costs by a third to a half, depending on current costs, and can 'make major' without beating up my guns. Looking at rough figures, I think I can reload .308 for about half of milsurp or cheap (brass) import prices.

I already have dies and a Dillon 550, and I know there's a lot more that goes into rifle prep than pistol

Your thoughts? Were you to reload .308 blasting ammo, what brand of bullets/powder/brass would you gravitate towards? I'm just looking for FMJ bullets; most of these will go into paper or steel.

 

[Swampman]

You don't say in your post what rifle or rifle type you're shooting, or at what range you generally shoot, so it's hard to say what might work for you. M1As, for example, are usually best loaded with powders in the medium burn rate class such as 4895, 4064, RL-15 or Varget. Bolts, levers and pumps are generally less picky as far as function is concerned, but each rifle/bullet combination will usually have a powder that "stands out" as the best.
Personally, I do the majority (probably 80%), of my .308 shooting with homemade cast bullets. I shoot a lot of cast in my Remington 700, my M1A and occasionally in my Winchester Model 100.
Out to 200 yards, accuracy is actually BETTER than what I get from mil surp ammunition or even my own handloads with cheap FMJ bullets, Hornady's being the main exception. Shooting cast is far cheaper than even beat up, 3rd rate pulled bullets.
If you already have the press, loading experience and dies, I don't see how you can go wrong, price wise with reloading .308. You can start out by buying a hundred primers, a hundred bullets and a pound of powder, assuming that you already have cases, that's all you'll really need to load up some rounds and decide for yourself if rifle loading is for you.

Swampman

 

[kingmt]

Let me add that cases need to be short enough. You may need to add a trimer to the list.

 

[jmorris]

To make blasting ammo for 308 I picked up Hornady LNL's back when they gave out 1000 bullets with them. They don't resale like a Dillon but you can still get enough out lot them to make the bullets real cheap. To bad they only give 500 with them these days.

Anyhow while loading down at the farm one time I picked up a bag of brass that had not been trimmed yet, not taking a trimmer along, I machined a section of bar stock pretty much like a casegauge but around 1.5" in diameter. This way I could drop the case in and touch the end against a belt sander to, quite quickly "trim" it to length. Made a cheap trimmer that is faster than all the others I have with the exception of my Dillon mounted on a 650. The ammo was quite accurate as well engaging exploding targets with a bolt gun as well, under 2 moa at 300 yards. I was impressed.

You might try surplus pulled powder (bullets too) to save a few more bucks, I just buy in bulk.

 

[popper]

Not much extra in 308 reloading. Use case lube in sizing, check COL You could shoot cast, PSP,RN for saving $$. Depends on your rifle and what you mean by blasting ammo.

 

[gamestalker]

Lee makes a very effective and inexpensive case trimmer that can be operated from a hand drill. Buy one so you don't damage the rifle throat or have pressure issues from pinched case mouths, bullets.
GS

 

[medalguy]

I reload .308 for 18.5 cents each using GI brass, Wolf primers, pulldown WC846 powder, and pulled 147 gr FMJ bullets for shooting in my 1919A4. Hard to beat that anywhere, even cheap milsurp ammo.

 

[WoodyTX]

Thanks for the replies. I did forget about the case length, but I would like to think I would have remembered it before crimping...

I currently have two .308s. The bolt action rifle gets factory match or whatever high-end handloads I work up. It's going to be expensive, but I'm not going to burn more than a box at a time.

The other is a Kel-Tec RFB, and it's a lot of fun to shoot. I've gone through over five boxes at a time, and that can get expensive. I'm also looking at getting either a Saiga or a Vepr in .308, and possibly an AR-10 variant. In other words, what we need is more .308 (and more cowbell!). 'Blasting' in this context is going to be almost exclusively under 100m, so accuracy can suffer a bit.

Thanks again for the replies. I think I can reload with existing brass for well under $.25 a round, which is cheaper than I can buy brass cased ammo.

 

[YankeeFlyr]

What's your time worth; for "blasting" ammo? To me, the meticulous process is way too much work for just blasting at the range.

I'll pay for that. Reloading is to get the carefully assembled loads I want.

I'd just buy it for blasting!

 

[evan price]

I load blasting ammo for my FALs, I don't need MOA ammo for shooting junk on the backstop at 100 yards. Surplus ammo got expensive a few years back. My blasting load gives similar performance to South African surplus.

It is 42.5 grains of H335, a pulled M80 bullet, Wolf large rifle primers and mixed range brass trimmed to 2.005" and swaged & chamfered.

Right now that costs me roughly 10 cents for powder, 10 cents for projectile, 2 cents for primer. Back when I could get surplus for about that price it was a no brainer but brass cased surplus is pushing 40 cents each and the cheapest commercial (Federal American Eagle) is over 50 cents a shot- but at least it's Boxer primed and reloadable.

If I could get surplus for a quarter a shot or less I would buy a pallet of it but since that day came and went I am settling for reloading what I have.

I load a meticulous sub-moa load for another rifle, and it's worth spending time for that.

 

[Swampman]

I stand corrected, shoulda mentioned the trimmer since OP had only mentioned loading for straight wall pistol...
Swampman