135g SMK in 308?

[Glenn Powell]

I will have a 20" 14tw 308 I will be loading for here pretty quick. I have a good supply of Lake City brass, all prepared and ready to rock. Dose anyone have any experience with the 135 SMK? What powder do you use? What seating depth do you start with? Primer preferred? Components are pretty hard to come by, actually next to impossible, but I do have a smallish amount to play with.

Just so ya know, I am forcing my self to use lighter bullets, hence the 14tw. My range only goes to 400yds, and I want to learn more about reading the wind. I also plan on using this rig for pigs with the 130TSX, on my Texas trips.

Rifle specs: Stiller Predator, Kreiger #18 barrel 14tw@20", Shilen trigger, McMillan A1-3 stock, Wyatt's extended mag, ADL trigger guard, Widden full length die, Wilson seating die.

Thanks, Glenn.

 

[KMart]

Check your PM's

 

[FilippoMo]

I would be interested too
Filippo

 

[liltank]

How ya doing? I've played with the 135's, and I like'em. I have used IMR 3031 and H335. 335 produced the best groups, and the biggest fireball. Pretty impressive fireball really! I found them to be easy to tune. I generally start about .015 off the lands. Then adjust from there. May want to try some AR-Comp, H or IMR4895, and Ramshot TAC. Didn't use any of these, but never know until you try. IMR3031 should be considered also. You'll want to stay with the faster powders especially having a short barrel. Mine is only 18" barrel. Pretty awesome little rifle. I think I found Wolf primers to work well, but I'm sure any primer you choose will work good.

Tank

 

[Glenn Powell]

H335, huge fire ball, got it ;D! Might not be the powder to use when spotlighting pigs though. I think have a little bit of that left, I use it for my 223. Thanks for the input.

 

[wboggs]

I have used H4895 and the Sierra 135, 1/2" grps., very little recoil. No experience with them on game, just targets.

 

[Glenn Powell]

H4895, is that considered a fast or slow powder? Only a 20" tube, though a fireball might be kinda cool once or twice, I would rather stay away from them, even for paper. I only plan on punching paper with the SMK, and will switch to a 130TSX or something along those lines for hunting.

 

[liltank]

H4895, is that considered a fast or slow powder? Only a 20" tube, though a fireball might be kinda cool once or twice, I would rather stay away from them, even for paper. I only plan on punching paper with the SMK, and will switch to a 130TSX or something along those lines for hunting.

H4895 is a middle of the road kind of powder. Its faster than Varget. Its used pretty extensively with the .308 crowd. The H335 produced about a 12" circle of flame that extended about 18" long. It's pretty impressive. I guess that is an inherent issue with H335.

 

[ShootDots]

For very light bullets like those, try Benchmark... In Hodgdons description it makes a point of saying it is excellent for the 308 using light bullets! It is in the perfect burn range for the 308 using bullets lighter than say 150grs..

 

[Glenn Powell]

LeveRevolution? Will this work in a 308 with light bullets? If so I can snag about 4# worth. Will it also work in a 260?

 

[Laurie]

Ken Waters' 308 Win 'Update' published way back in '79 in 'Handloader' tried some lighter bullets including the 130gn Speer PSP. He got best results with H322 which was my first thought for the 135gn bullet weight alongside Benchmark, H4895 and IMR-3031.

Tank's large muzzle flash from H335 is usually a sign of too low a load and pressure with ball powders.

 

[liltank]

Tank's large muzzle flash from H335 is usually a sign of too low a load and pressure with ball powders.

Not doubting your wisdom, but seems to me, it was on the higher end for a load. A gunsmith I know said the H335 was known for a lot of muzzle flash. I don't know... first time I ever used it. Great load, just saw a big orange flash in the scope after you fired. Kinda made me giggle like a little school boy! ;D ;D ;D

 

[Laurie]

Ball powders (all double-based) and some double-based extruded types are more prone to producing a big muzzle flash than single-based types. Incidence depends partly on things like barrel length and cartridge capacity / charge weight to bore diameter, but 308 Win isn't generally susceptible to this.

I read years ago in one or two handloading manuals and books on basic handloading that if you get a big flash from a ball powder load, don't assume it's too heavy (the natural reaction), rather the reverse and increase the charge weight. That's certainly worked for me on the occasions I've suffered from it.

I think it's due to some ball powders often needing to produce full or nearly full pressures before they work at 100% efficiency. Having said that, there's never hard and fast rules in this game and I've run low or moderate pressure ball powder loads without flash on many other occasions. Even without a flash, you sometimes see very large velocity spreads with ball powder loads that reduce dramatically as you get up to maximum.

 

[Laurie]

Another thought on potentially suitable powders for 308 Win /135 - Accurate 2015. The old (Czech-manufactured) stuff was very flexible indeed. We don't see its replacement (since Western Powders bought Accurate Arms) here in the UK, so I don't know if 'new' 2015 has changed much from its older form, but it may be worth trying.