.308 Lapua Palma brass primers

[dsbur]

Found a nice short course F/TR .308 load out to 300yds but the SD on my velocities is atrocious, not to mention the extreme spread on the velocities themselves (N=25, avg vel. 2507, SD 53.2, spread from 2440 to 2552, all on a single session over a few hours). I wouldn't be so embarrassed if the groups weren't .5moa from a factory Rem 700 milspec 5R with an occasional flyer or two on my part. My goal is to try to improve the SD and velocity spread and I'm zeroing in on primers at the moment. Currently using the CCIBR4's. Have read German's articles and thinking maybe the Fed205M but want to hear from other users.

Lapua .308 Palma brass (twice fired at the moment, once fireformed, once for group), Redding S dies necksize .337
Nosler Custom Comp. 168HPBT
CCIBR4 primers
43g Varget

I do anneal (after a few firings) but don't neck turn, I'm only an intermediate shooter.

Suggestions?

Thanks in advance-

 

[BradY]

You probably want to stay with the primers with thicker cups in a factory rifle with no bushed firing pin or a large diameter pin. In those cases I use CCI450 and CCI BR4. Have tried rem 7.5 but didnt like them. Anything with thinner cup might not be a good idea with that much powder in a case. I use 155gr bullets 45.8gr varget and BR4 primers. I do have a tight bore kreiger barrel and others in my area use the same set up but 46.2gr of powder. Shoots 1/4MOA to 1/2MOA at 100m and good waterline at distance up to 900m. The rest depends on how much the shooter applies themselves at the time. I never bother with ES or SD, by testing loads at the range 300-500 meters its fairly easy to see what works and what doesnt.

 

[FroggyOne2]

Speaking of primers, I am a big faan of Tula/Wolf primers. Almost tuff as nails!

 

[dsbur]

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll try the 450's and I'm going to revisit my powder weighing regime. Definitely agree on the firing pin/bushing observation, that will get addressed when I rebarrel and blueprint. For now I'm happy with the groups from the bipod/prone but I can't help but think I can improve on the overall performance, maybe make it to the 600yd course. Wish I could find the russian primers here in the Portland OR area.

My hopes were that the palma brass would bring down the SD's but at the moment I do far better with standard Lapua brass and large 210M primers (SD's around 17) in that regard.