4227 in 308

[1Shirt]

Got a jug of 4227 at a reasonable price and gave it a try in 308 with 190 & 200 grain boolits. Not so pretty good. Shotgun spread groups at 100, smallest of which was a bit over 4". Rifle shoots moa or close to it with same blts, over 2400. Has any body had any positive experience with 4227 in 308 with cast, regardless of blt wt?
1Shirt

[dh2]

this weekend I took IMR 4227 to the range for the first time as a cast boolit rifle load in my small ring mauser . I was very pleased with it pushing a 160gr. boolit in the 7mm x 57mm the 130gr. boolit I have to rework or give up on.

[longbow]

I've had very good results with 4227 in .308 under a Lyman 31141 (170 gr. FP) and also in .303 British with boolits from 130 grs. up to 200 grs.

I generally use from about 18 to 24 grs. depending on boolit weight. I am finding that 20 to 22 grs. seems to work best in my guns with boolits up to 200 grs.

What powder charge are you using?

Longbow

[303Guy]

My only experience using H4227 is with paper patched boolits in a 303 Brit. Case capacity is pretty much the same but twist rate may be faster depending on the 308. The throats would be different so it may not be a fair comparison but it works pretty well in the Brit. How deep did you seat those boolits? Gas checked or not? Any filler or positioner?

[1Shirt]

dh2, What was your load? Filler or no filler? Longbow, Started with 20 gr went up to 24 gr (5 rds each) dac fill, all shot lousy. (might be a fill factor). Will try 31141 with your recommendations. 303Guy, Seated blts (gas checked) to base of neck, with small amount of dac filler.

Believe I will start lower (18 gr) with out filler for next test. Am interested in trying it in 303, but right now all of my brass is loaded. (That's a bummer in cold weather when getting to the range is a problem, AND you want some empties to load based on recommendations.

Thanks guys for the responses.
1Shirt!

[Bjornb]

Joe Brennan over on the CBA forum has tested extensively with 4227 in the 308. In his bull barrel Savage 10 he found best accuracy (around 1-1.5 MOA) with charges as low as 14 grains. Joe would sometimes use dacron.

[dh2]

dh2, What was your load? Filler or no filler? Longbow, Started with 20 gr went up to 24 gr (5 rds each) dac fill, all shot lousy. (might be a fill factor). Will try 31141 with your recommendations. 303Guy, Seated blts (gas checked) to base of neck, with small amount of dac filler.

Believe I will start lower (18 gr) with out filler for next test. Am interested in trying it in 303, but right now all of my brass is loaded. (That's a bummer in cold weather when getting to the range is a problem, AND you want some empties to load based on recommendations.

Thanks guys for the responses.
1Shirt!

I am having a COL issue don't want to feed from the magazine and crammed in to the rifleing like I am forming cases, the 160gr boolit is a bore rider style boolit and every thing went good the 130gr is a round nose boolit even though it is set a 1/4inch shorted it is having issues. I will set them back to a shorter COL either they will work better or this small ring Mauser will spend the rest of it's life on a 160gr. diet

[JWFilips]

1Shirt,
While not a 308; I shoot my 30-30 Marlin very well with 4227 with a 165 gr boolit ( & I kind of like the smell...something from my early years) Can't imagine why it shouldn't work in a 308
Jim

[1Shirt]

Longbow, started with 20 gr, and went up one grain at a time to 24 grains.
1Shirt!

[longbow]

Maybe start lower at 17 or 18 grs. and see how that goes.

Are shooting GC of PB boolits? If PB try a gas check. I started out my "smallbore" loading with .308 and learned fast that small bore boolits like gas checks way more than .44 and .45 cal. boolits... even with relatively light/low pressure loads.

I went to 4227 in my .308 under the Lyman 31141 (170 gr. FP) with gas check and it shot very well. In fact, a friend asked me for some ammunition to use at a club shoot so I told him all I had was my cast boolit loads and he decided to use them anyway. He won the shoot with his Savage 99 and my cast boolit loads with 22 grs. of IMR4227.

I normally use 4227 in my .303's but to be fair I also use COW filler under PB boolits of which I shoot most. It works for me.

Longbow

[beefan]

I'm using IMR4227 in a Remington 700 308 with 165 gr. cast. The combo shoots quite well using data from the Lyman cast manual.

[HABCAN]

What Longbow said is almost exactly my experience in a variety of calibers, so my 'standard' first-choice CB loads are either 18.0 grs. IMR4227, or 24.0 grs. IMR4198. These have 'worked' for me in .257 Roberts, 6.5x55, 7x57, 7-08, .308, .30-06 and .303 Brit. with CBs from 115gr. to 190gr. I'm not very demanding of CB loads: all I ask is 4 MOA max, and yes, I COULD refine these loads for accuracy but have no need. Of course, most will do MUCH better than that, LOL!!