308 lite hunting loads.

[harro]

G'day

I'm after a starting load and powder reccomendation for a 308 that duplicates a 30/30 .I want to use a 150 gn bullet designed for the 30/30 and drive it at about 2200-2400 fps.I'm trying to find a load that a 12 year old can shoot easily for a little while before we slowly work him up to full power loads.
Has anyone done this and what powder did you use ?

Thankyou for your time.

harro

 

[fredhorace77]

I did and i used H4895 because you can reduce it safely..check Hodgdons website for youth loads in the 308. One word of caution before you invest time and money into this project...I had a terrible problem trying to get the 30-30 bullets to run thru my magazine...as a matter of fact i was never able to get them to load from the magazine at all...though i didnt spend a huge amount of time on this I dont know if i could have eventually got it to work...I was using the flat nose bullets and it was in a sako action 579. If you choose some type of round nose it may work better

 

[2506]

Another way to cut down on recoil and have a good accurate deer size game killing round out of the 308 win that functions through the magazine like butter is to use the 125 gr Nosler Ballistic Tip bullet. Keep it under 3000 fps impact velocity and it is a real deer killer and is really accurate and has much less recoil than a 150 gr load does. I use 46 grs IMR 4895 for right at 3000 fps out of my 21 1/2 inch barrel 308. You can go as low as 42.5 grs for around 2700 fps. Don't worry about the 125 ballistic tip bullet not penetrating enough to kill a deer. It is a game bullet not a varmint bullet. As long as you keep your impact velocity below 3000 fps it will do the job. I have found that it really penetrates when impact velocity is below 2800 fps. I would and have taken almost any shot except a Texas heart shot on WT deer with this bullet in a number of caliber weapons from 308 Win rifle down to 30-30AI 14" barrel Contender pistol and 99% of the time it drops them in their tracks and what don't drop does not go over 3 jumps before dropping. I have killed in excess of 50 deer with this bullet. At or below 2800 fps impact velocity the bullet exits even through both shoulders. Inside 100 yards with a muzzle velocity of 3000 fps the jacket of the bullet can be found just under the hide on the off side after going through both shoulders of a deer. Impact velocity is around 2850 fps at 100 yards. Beyond 150 yards it has always exited for me.

 

[jimbires]

I did reduced recoil loads for a young shooter last year . she has a savage axis 308 . I used a load from the speer #13 book . 26.0 grains of IMR4198 , with a 125 grain nosler balistic tip bullet . her rifle liked a lot of jump . I found the best groups to be with a COAL of 2.690 off the tip of the bullet . I didn't have the time to shoot it through my chrony to get the velocity , but I did run it through my quickload . I felt it should be fine for whitetails at 100 yards and closer . she did not get hunting last year, she got sick , so I can't give a field report . but this load is accurate in her rifle , and very low recoil . Jim
my 100 yard target

50 yards target

100 yard target . it was a little low, then I moved it a little to high

100 yard target final scope adjustment . her group opened up a little on this one . she had fired about 20 shots by this time and it was wearing on her .

100 yards . took a little rest and she put 3 good hits on this deer target

 

[Scott Harris]

My 12 year old son used a 308WIN load of 40.0gr H4895 with a Nosler 125Gr ballistic tip to take a cow elk at 100 yards. Bang flop, and the recoil was very manageable.

 

[K22]

IMR 4895 and 125 grain bullets are the way to go in my experience for reduced recoil loads in the 308. My favorite is 43.0 grains of IMR 4895 with 125 Nosler BT. This is a very adquate white tail load if shots are placed in the lung area.

If you use conventional 150 grain bullets (those designed for bolt action rifles) at reduced velocity they won't perform as well on big game, they are designed to expand at higher velocities.

 

[jimbires]

I've worked with a few young kids taming recoil , and I enjoy this stuff . I think the bang is just about as bad as the kick for youngsters . I usually have them wear ear plugs and also ear muffs . another thing is most kids get a light weight rifle , so it's easier for them to carry . also most of the stocks are to long , so the kid can grow into it . a well fitting rifle will help the shooter handle the recoil . I ran some quickload numbers for comparison . to get this info I used a 22" bbl . a 7.0 lbs total weight rifle . 125 nosler balistic tip bullet .

IMR4198
25.0 min 2039 FPS 5.92 ft lbs free recoil
26.0 2106 FPS 6.34 ft lbs free recoil ( the load I'm using )
29.0 max 2304 fps 7.68 ft lbs free recoil

H 4895
40.0 2553 FPS 10.86 ft lbs free recoil

IMR4895
43.0 2667 fps 12.09 ft lbs free recoil

remington also sells reduced recoil ammo . this factory reduced recoil ammo was still to much recoil for this young girl . Jim