Need your sweet spot .308 load recipe for 168 gr bullets

Just picked up a .308 from a member and need a starting place to begin loading.
My bullet of choice is a 168 Sierra Match King.
Gun will be used for long range shooting. First mods to gun will be trigger tech trigger and bedding.

Thanks,

.005" bullet jump if you can

H-Varget

Start at 43.0 gr and work up.

There is no sweet spot, Buzz. You've got to do a load development for every rifle.

Varget. My .308 always preferred a lot of it.

Gun is a Remington 700 varmint with 26" barrel with 1:12 twist.

Buzz and I are not related.

That long of a barrel, the sweet spot for powder charge might be fairly narrow.

Bad
Better
Better
Very good
Not as good
Worser

^^Could go like that.

Jason...you forgot "bestest" and "worstest."

LOL.

You DO realize a fellow by the name of Ken Waters wrote Pet Loads in two different volumes, and sold a lot of copies because he knew what he was doing...right?

There's never a guarantee that one of these "pet loads" will perform in any given rifle and you might have to tweak it a bit to get the best out of it (I am thinking seating depth, mainly)...and probably there will be those that "just-don't-like-no-damned-pet-loads-at-all-so-screw-you," but they're often a very good place to head toward in load development. They tend to work pretty well.

I will say there are some "usuals", but not hard rules.

I've seen a terrific load in a few rifles be absolute no's in other rifles.

I treat all of them as brand new projects. I've got things I "expect" to happen, but sometimes they don't.

I know you know all that.

There are some contrary ol' SOBs out there...I think there's one living in my own gunsafe.

If it says Christensen on it, it's probably going to cause me extra work.

I don't got one o' those. And that ain't the other half.

Have a CZ 550 Tacticool with "26 barrel and shoots factory 168s Hornady and Sierra 168s lights out! Loaded some to the same factory specs with 4064 and shoots just as good. Hates anything 150gr.

44.3 grains Varget bullet with a light kiss to the riflings, match primer neck turned .002” neck tension has always worked well in every single 308 I have ever hard

Once you get that bedding and trigger done I'd try either Hornady Black 168 Amax or Stand 1 Armory 168 Amax--- had excellent results with both in several bolt guns and two different AR10s, one of which was a PSA ($800) and a Primary Arms scope ($400) that would run 1 moa to 800 all day-- kinda hard to beat that return on investment.

If you are really looking to dial in handloads I would still swear by that bullet or the ELDM--- for plinking purposes or whacking critters.

H4831

Brass completely full, and not making any bullet velocity.

I just wanted to chime to say my first real venture into reloading was 308 with hornady 168 bthp (because they were cheaper than the SMKs), Federal once fired brass, cci 200 and Varget. 44.0 was where i ended up. It was the load that blew my mind for how accurate a rifle can be jusy by relaoding for it.

308 + 168gr is a classic combo.

I generally use Varget and TAC in 308. TAC is good with lighter bullets.

OP said for long range so just be aware the Sierra 168’s are really good out to 6/700 yds but get squirrelly past that. I would agree inside 600 the 168’s are hard to beat.
Lots of good choices on powder. Varget/ XBR8208/IMR4064/ H4895 are top choices for me.

Yup.

I've spotted them to 800 yards many times. That is about their limit. The BC won't let them get past that with consistency.

Maybe OP should look at 155 TMKs. I think the BC is better and they can be pushed faster.

I’ve been using Reloder 15 under the 168 AMAX in Lapua brass for a lot of years with more than a few Remington 308 rifles. Currently have an LTR that bugholes with my load.
Load to mag length on a factory M700 chamber and work from there.
You’ll not be able to kiss lands and use it as a repeater in factory configuration.

One of my best loads were a 155 vlds but I ended up cracking case necks. Hahaha, that was a lessoned learned. The accuracy was cool. IF I were to select another weight class, then I'd prefer going to the 175-180gr bullets. I dorked out to all the ballastics tables and info i could read. This weight class bullet, 178 eldm for me, had the best compromise of bc gain vs velocity past the 500+ yard ranges. Especially if the powder is varget. Ran like a freaking champ.

Yes.

Sierra publishes a G-1 at .518

And I've proven it to be true to 1000 yards, at least.

I'd tell the O.P. the best answer for .308 Win, long range in a 26" barrel is a 178 gr ELD-M or a +175 gr Berger. Much better B.C. than the 168, and more bullet weight carrying more inertia beyond the half mile mark.

But! His 1:12 twist.

Lilja chart says the 1:12 would run a 180 gr.
Shilen chart says the 1:12 needs to stop at max of 168 gr.

The Berger ballistics calculator is worth plugging into, to get a third opinion.

Case necks cracked because of the bullet??

I was thinking not, but I was going to let it ride.

Please elaborate KR

I'm not arguing, I just want to know why because I can't imagine the answer. Old dog trying to keep on learning.


Now, a headspace issue causing a slamfire in an AR...I think that's complete BS and I'll say so. I don't think I'll get a well thought out and reasonable explanation on that little gem.

Sorry, had nothing to do with bullet weight. I was just chasing speed and went too far. Pure coincidence it was this 155 vld load. I was getting over 2900 fps and was the first load rhat was accurate at a high velocity node. At this point, all my other 308 loads didn't like really hot and fast. This one load did.

just looked but I have 2 - 178 eldm loads on 2 different brass with same charge of varget and cci 200. It runs 2625fps-ish on the same 26" Savage 308. i've been told it's mild load but I couldn't load the faster node as accurate. The 155 vld was the opposite, most consistent at the really fast charge.

What brand of brass?

How many firings were on it?

Thanks for the explanation.

I think JG is about to suggest that annealing might have made that load viable, but I'm just guessing. I do not and never have loaded .308W so I have no feel whatsoever for what's reasonable for that combo.

Maybe he will. Maybe he won't...I don't think even his hairdresser knows for sure.

Yessir.

155 gr @ 2900 fps from a 26" long .308 Win is not unheard of.

There are some brands of brass that just can't take it, either in the necks or in the primer pockets, or both.

There are some brands of brass that can take it. Especially as virgin brass, that arrives at your door pre-annealed.

Y’all will probably scoff at me for this. For Ricky Bobby .308 loads I use Winchester brass. Takes some work to go through and then some culling to get the brass right. With the greater internal capacity you can make it go fast. Annealing every cycle it will last till the primer pockets get loose…

Spot on. Probably even came on here to ask but i believe my main problem was annealing. Had a very small number of pcs have primer pockets that could no longer hold primers.

It was 200 pcs ABM brass and on its 3rd firing. Apparently this was the ammo company that Berger bought out. So i got a combo deal with 500pcs of the 155. Had such good luck with varget and tac i got 500 more bullets. I believe i once read these are Norma produced brass with ABM stamped on them.
The first firing with Tac was pretty hot too but the last 2 were with the Varget recipe getting me 2900+. I actually remember shooting the last firing in the middle of summer 2020. No regerts, learned alot.

Side story: it was also the load that showed me how bad I am at wind reading. I was just getting super comfortable shooting at 300yds, especially with this load. Had multiple groups in one day that had <1.0" vertical dispersion but had 3-6" horizontal. Also learned why most of you boys shoot heavy bullets slow.

One of the best things a .308 does is teach people to read wind.

I put 1500 rounds down one before I moved to the .260 Rem.

hahaha, I have more rds than that through mine and all it taught me is that i got lots more learning to do. I'm still trying, not good at yet. The best string I shot on my one f-class match, another very seasoned shooter was actually making the calls for me. It was so helpful. He was just talking out loud what he was observing, gave me a good ole Kentucky windage hold over and told me when to shoot. Even only at 600yds, it was humbling to know how much further i have to go. I will never stop shooting my first 308.
funny, messing with dedicate f-class savage rifle with a 26" 260 mcgowen barrel now.