Accidental Howa purchase. What to feed it?

[PNW_Steve]

Hello Everyone,

I stopped by the lumber yard looking for a grip screw for an AR build and the owner greeted me with some excitement. He told me "your rifle finally shipped. It will be here on Monday! "........ What rifle?

Turns out that several months ago I was contemplating casting for rifle again. You all pointed out the challenges of successfully casting for .223 or .243 so I started thinking about possibly casting for .308 or .300 Blackout as my entry to casting for rifle. I poked around a bit and saw a Howa HCR for a good price and showed it to the gent at the lumber yard asking if he could get it for a similar price. He looked and told me that all of his suppliers were out of stock.

Apparently he took my request as an order.

Looks like I will be the proud owner of a Howa 308.

Now, what am I going to feed it?

I will be shooting at the range most of the time and would like to find a cast bullet and load that will shoot MOA at 100-200 yards.

I would like to hunt it this Fall with cast bullets but I don't think that I will have time for load development before deer season. I may hunt with factory ammo this year and be ready with cast next year.

Can you all recommend a mold and preferred load for .308 target?

Thanks.

[Texas by God]

I will defer to actual .308 users for loads, but for little cash outlay try the Lee C309150F and its brother C309170F moulds. I have used them in 30-30 and .300 Savage with great accuracy. Plus the flat nose will hunt.

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[richhodg66]

Lots of good ones in the .308. If looking to hunt with it, I'd look to the Ranchdog .30-30 bullet or Lyman 311041.

[Doughty]

Where's that lumber yard at? I gotta start going in there. I might have an "accident" too. I can hear it now, "I didn't mean to Hon. It was an accident."

As for molds, it of course may depend somewhat upon what you want to use it for. I have an older Lyman 311041 four cavity that cast out most often at about .312. It works pretty good for just about anything .30, especially if it's for hunting. The Lee .312-155 has also shot well in .308s, just not so much as a hunting load.

For powder there are many that work well. Unique and 2400 on the low velocity end. AA2520, H4895, IMR3031, and H4831 have all made good loads. Just look in your loading book, start at Starting Loads and work up. A caution. We have had one rifle, a Stevens that had a tight chamber that was over loaded with AA2520 at about 90% of book max. That load shot fine in all are other .308s.

Let us know how it shoots. Maybe you can accidentally find a mold for it.

[PNW_Steve]

I will defer to actual .308 users for loads, but for little cash outlay try the Lee C309150F and its brother C309170F moulds. I have used them in 30-30 and .300 Savage with great accuracy. Plus the flat nose will hunt.

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Thanks. Those look good to me. Again, my first goal is a load that makes tiny groups at 100-200yards. Later I will be hunting and finally, I am going to spend some time down at the loong range and see what 600+ yards looks like. I may have to succumb to the J word.....

[PNW_Steve]

Where's that lumber yard at? I gotta start going in there. I might have an "accident" too. I can hear it now, "I didn't mean to Hon. It was an accident."

As for molds, it of course may depend somewhat upon what you want to use it for. I have an older Lyman 311041 four cavity that cast out most often at about .312. It works pretty good for just about anything .30, especially if it's for hunting. The Lee .312-155 has also shot well in .308s, just not so much as a hunting load.

For powder there are many that work well. Unique and 2400 on the low velocity end. AA2520, H4895, IMR3031, and H4831 have all made good loads. Just look in your loading book, start at Starting Loads and work up. A caution. We have had one rifle, a Stevens that had a tight chamber that was over loaded with AA2520 at about 90% of book max. That load shot fine in all are other .308s.

Let us know how it shoots. Maybe you can accidentally find a mold for it.

You really don't want to trade places. We have a nice little local lumber yard that carries a few guns and accessories. The nearest "real" gun store is 70+ miles away and it is not that great.

Thank you for the mold & powder recommendations. I will have to check the cabinet for one of the powders that you mentioned. I think that I should have a couple of pounds of H4895.

I wonder if anyone is shooting WC844? If I can make that shoot well with a cast bullet I would be in hogg heaven.

[pworley1]

Accidents will happen.

[1hole]

Howa rifle actions are mechanical copies of older Sakos; that's a very good thing to be. Over the years Weatherby (Vangard), Colt, S&W, and others I can't now recall have marketed Howa rifles under contract. You have an excellent hunting rifle.

[charlie b]

I shoot cast in my .308 (no hunting) and it does very well. Bullets depend on a few things. First is powder coat or lubed. Powder coat adds enough to the dia to make some bullets seat deeply. Or, you have to be careful about the nose dia for bore rider types.

The Lee 180 did really well in my Savage when powder coated. The RCBS 165SIL and Lyman 311299 did really well when lubed. Right now I use the Accurate 31-210E and the 30XCB (powder coated it is seated deep). For hunting I'd pick something with a larger meplat.

My 1:10 twist does better if I keep loads under 2000fps. 600yard shooting will depends on a number of things, mainly to do with how fast you can push the bullets and their BC.

[Mk42gunner]

Don't know if it will meet your accuracy requirements or not, but my go to first boolit to try in just about any .30 or .31 cal rifle is the Lee 312-185. Mine drops a skosh over .312" and I size to .311".

Also I'm not familiar with the HCR version of your rifle, but I was never dissatisfied with any version of Howa's from the 1990's to the first decade of this century.

Robert

[PNW_Steve]

Howa rifle actions are mechanical copies of older Sakos; that's a very good thing to be. Over the years Weatherby (Vangard), Colt, S&W, and others I can't now recall have marketed Howa rifles under contract. You have an excellent hunting rifle.

I am tickled with it. I have been looking at Howa's for some time. I just had not made up my mind which one.

I think that Howa actually manufactured some actions under contract for Sako.

[PNW_Steve]

Don't know if it will meet your accuracy requirements or not, but my go to first boolit to try in just about any .30 or .31 cal rifle is the Lee 312-185. Mine drops a skosh over .312" and I size to .311".

Also I'm not familiar with the HCR version of your rifle, but I was never dissatisfied with any version of Howa's from the 1990's to the first decade of this century.

Robert

It is a 1500 action with a 20" heavy barrel mounted in an MDT chassis. Now I need to find some glass for it.

[quilbilly]

You may have to experiment with your 308. I have two with the same rate of twist but different makers and neither likes the cast loads of the other. One is a short barrel carbine (16-1/4" barrel) and likes heavy-for- caliber 180-200 gr going slow while the other with a longer barrel (22") likes lighter boolits (150-160) going 3-400 fps faster. In your situation, I would get two Lee molds(to keep the expense down), one of the 160 gr RNGC and one of the 180 gr RNGC. Your adventure begins! Have fun.

[P Flados]

I wonder if anyone is shooting WC844? If I can make that shoot well with a cast bullet I would be in hogg heaven.

I use WC 844 and cast for a number calibers including some 30 cal and get good accuracy.

I am not sure what you want for velocity. With PC, you may be able to go a little faster than with traditional lube. I doubt that you will get leading free accurate loads at typical J word 308 velocities.

WC 844 is a smidgen fast for full power J word 308s, but will probably be on the slow side for cast unless you get lucky with more velocity than I would expect. A slow burn rate powder can perform good, but you will use more powder for the same velocity (compared to more optimal powders). Best result for WC 844 in 308 cast boolits will probably come with a boolits on the heavy side. As a swag on my part, I would say that the Lee 170 would be a reasonable starting point. Heavier than 170 might be Ok but the 308 was optimized for 147 - 150 and at some point you may find that your gun does not have enough twist rate to stabilize.

[charlie b]

A 1:10 twist easily stabilizes a 210gn bullet at 1600fps. I have pushed it up to 2500fps with powder coat but the groups get bigger.

I've used Blue Dot for subsonic loads. 4198, 4895, RL15 and Varget for 'std' loads (1500-2400fps). They are all capable of producing small groups. Varget kinda surprised me as it is a slower powder that tends to like higher load densities with jacketed bullets.

[725]

I like the 311299. Also, the old stand-by 311041. Both very good. When I go looking for glass, I stop by "Optics Planet" first. Great service and pricing.

[MostlyLeverGuns]

I'd start with a gas checked .310 - somewhere between 150- 190 grains. Powder - 15-20 gr 4227, 20-25 gr Reloder 7, 16-20 gr 5744. I have 4 Savage 99 308 I shoot a lot. These combinations works well in all. Right now I am shooting Matt's 185 gr .310 gas checked over 17 gr 5744. I load them 200 at a time. Soft shooting, 3 inch groups 200 yards in a couple Savage 99's. That bullet is good in the wind. The 308 Win is usually pretty easy to find a good load. Many of the ball powders need heavier loads to perform well. My 1-12 Savage's have no trouble stabilizing the 311332, Matt's 185gr pointed, the Loverin 311407 and other 200 gr bullets over 200 yards at modest velocities - 1600fps-1800fps. Haven't gone much farther with boolits.

[popper]

31-165C, RD style (041) works but BC is poor. H4895 is good to jacketd fps. Probably 1:10 twist so harder alloy needed for top loads.

[Texas by God]

I know that Sako made rifles for Browning, Marlin, and H&R long ago but never heard of Howa making actions for Sako. Howa makes excellent guns- the Weatherby Vanguard being one example.

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[MT Chambers]

NOE's copy of Saeco #315 is most accurate in my .308 heavy barrel, it's a 180 gr. design which is in turn a copy of an Eagan design, and we all know how Eagans shoot!