.308 with heavy bullets

[Yatzee Squirrel]

I am looking for some load data for a .308 Win. using some 240g bullets. My copy of the Lyman 4th ed. Cast Bullet Handbook only goes up to 200g and I was wondering if there was any published data for the 240g stuff out there, or if anyone had any experience with this heavy of a bullet in .308. Everything I have been able to find has been for lighter bullets.

The bullets I have do not have gas checks and I am wanting to keep them fairly low velocity. I would also like to try them subsonic if possible.

If anyone has any information I would appreciate the help.

[1Shirt]

In all probability, you will find that your 308 will not stabilize a 240 grain blt due to twist of rifling consideration. Some 308's will not handle 200 grainers well. I have excellent results with 180 and 190's in mine.
1Shirt!

[Longshot]

Start with 13.0 grs of 2400 powder for your 240 gr 308 Win it should shoot accurate at 50 & 100 yrds .

longshot

[Yatzee Squirrel]

Thanks for the replies. I figured it couldn't hurt to try them and see what happened if I could just figure out where to start.

[longbow]

You might get some ideas from here:

http://leverguns.com/articles/paco/small_charges.htm

Scroll down a bit ~ he talks about 220 gr. in .308.

As mentioned though success will depend at least in part on rifling twist. If 1:10" you may do okay but if 1:12" (like mine) it may be too slow for a 240 gr. boolit. Won't hurt to try though and will be fun so why not. If nothing else you may learn where the boolit becomes unstable. That alone is good info to have.

Longbow

[Yatzee Squirrel]

You might get some ideas from here:

http://leverguns.com/articles/paco/small_charges.htm

Scroll down a bit ~ he talks about 220 gr. in .308.

As mentioned though success will depend at least in part on rifling twist. If 1:10" you may do okay but if 1:12" (like mine) it may be too slow for a 240 gr. boolit. Won't hurt to try though and will be fun so why not. If nothing else you may learn where the boolit becomes unstable. That alone is good info to have.

Longbow

Thanks for the information. I do have a 1:10" twist barrel on the gun I plan to use, so we will see what happens.

[Wayne S]

Here is something to play with, I have found that they are a bit conservative in their Est.'s http://www.jbmballistics.com/cgi-bin/jbmstab-5.1.cgi or http://kwk.us/twist.html

[Lloyd Smale]

your hamstringing yourself by wanted both heavy and slow. Its going to take a real fast twist to stabilize the bullets probably something on the order of 1 in 7 or 1 in 8

[Tackleberry41]

I have gotten good results w 200gr in a Mosin going slow, but they run 1-9.5 twist. It all depends on the rifle and the bullet, I have 2 200gr molds, one a lee is more flat nose and shorter than the lyman. The shorter one would be easier to stabilize going slow. I use 9gr of solo 1000 to launch mine. It will do decent groups now, need to work on the trigger and a more stable stock than the ATI. I like that OAL length isnt so critical in the mosin. I was running the same 200gr lees in my bolt action 30-30, but wouldn't feed out of the mag at the best OAL.

[Bill*B]

I had a 235 grain mold, and while it shot with reasonable (but not great) accuracy in my 7.62 X 51 Israeli k98, it was just too long to feed through the magazine. It fit fine, but it wouldn't feed, so I didn't persist in trying to work up a load. My notes say that 21 grains of IMR 4227 gave primers that were just starting to flatten, so I'd probably back off a couple of grains if I were trying it again. Bill

Whoops! Just noticed that your bullet is plain based. This load will likely be too hot without a gas check.

[Screwbolts]

Please Gentlemen correct me if I am wrong, but the original load for both the 30 army or 30/40 (your choice of names) and 30-03 was for a 220 gr bullet and that is why today our 06s and many 30 cals still have the fast 1x10 twist. Why do you not think that today's 1x10 twist wont stabilize a 220 bullet?

I have shot 228 gr boolitz at watch them go speed to 2200 FPS out of my 308, 1x10 twist. they all shot well.
Ken

[Yatzee Squirrel]

I figured that even if they don't stabalize then I wont be out but some powder and some time and any time spent shooting is fun to me. I just needed a starting point is all.

Just for something interesting. When putting the information for the bullets into the JBM stability claculator that Wayne S linked to up above it shows that the bullets have a stability factor of 2.119 with a 1:10 twist barrel at 1050fps and gets more stable with more velocity. I have never used the calculator before so I cant comment on it's accuracy but it seems hopeful anyway.

[MarkP]

I have shot the NOE 311-247 in a 300 SAUM (1:10") with low velocity Trailboss loads, they stabilized out to 175 yds. The same in a Rem 700 MTN 300 Wby (1:12") shot horrible from 1,500 fps to 2,400 fps. 4 to 6" groups at 75 yds and not able to hit 4' x 4' sheet of cardboard at 175 yds.

[richhodg66]

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?272011-New-to-me-mold-Lyman-3111

I'm working on something similar. First attempts didn't go well. I've since cast some harder ones and will try again with some plain based gas checks eventually.

[Yatzee Squirrel]

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?272011-New-to-me-mold-Lyman-3111

I'm working on something similar. First attempts didn't go well. I've since cast some harder ones and will try again with some plain based gas checks eventually.


Thanks for the link, I tried searching but obviously didn't have much luck with it since I didn't find your thread.

I was kinda hoping, like you, to work up a short range deer hunting load with these but we will just have to see. The boolits I have are almost the exact same length but a little different profile so I have no idea if they will shoot any different.

Is the SR4759 the only powder you have tried with them? The selection of powder in my area tends to be more miss than hit so I am kinda limited on options. There is a load listed in the Lyman book for the 190 or 200g (can't remember which) that uses IMR 4895 and I have a decent amount of that on hand, so I had thought of trying that to begin with while searching for some different powder.

[richhodg66]

So far, only that load. Wondering if a harder alloy and gas checks will help.

I think my Mosin may have a different twist as well, so I'm going to try in that as well.

[Yatzee Squirrel]

I gotcha. I havent tried anything with them yet but hopefully I will get some time to mess with them shortly and see what happens.

[Driver man]

good luck

[Moonie]

Might try H4895, it is a great cast powder for reduced loads. Hodgdon lists around 38gr for 208gr projectiles. You can download H4895 to 60% of the max load so somewhere around 20gr to start should give you a nice reduced load. btw I load 35gr H4895 in both my 30-06 and 8mm using 230-245gr boolits and get 1,850fps in 8mm (230gr) and 1,950fps in 30-06 (245gr). Both loads are accurate. This is shown for example, do NOT use 35gr H4895 with that weight boolit in a 308.

[Yatzee Squirrel]

Might try H4895, it is a great cast powder for reduced loads. Hodgdon lists around 38gr for 208gr projectiles. You can download H4895 to 60% of the max load so somewhere around 20gr to start should give you a nice reduced load. btw I load 35gr H4895 in both my 30-06 and 8mm using 230-245gr boolits and get 1,850fps in 8mm (230gr) and 1,950fps in 30-06 (245gr). Both loads are accurate. This is shown for example, do NOT use 35gr H4895 with that weight boolit in a 308.

Thanks for the info. I will look into the H4895 and see what I can come up with.

[richhodg66]

In my experience, the Ideal 311284 I have shot in a couple of .30-06 and Mosin rifles shoots well. Mine weighed about 225 grains lubed and with gas checks installed.