handloads for 308 155.5 bergers

[therifler]

looking for some thoughts on 308 win. loads for 600yds using 155.5 gr.bergers . just powder is fine if you don't want to give grs. i understand . i will be shooting from the bench . thanks in advance , T.R.

 

[DukeDuke]

2000MR would be my choice. I started at what Alliant suggests as a max load for the 150 gr. bullets, but that's just me.

 

[Cody Richardson]

I'm shooting Varget, Lapua cases and 210M primers, I will say my load is 46.5 BUT I worked up to it. Out of a 30' barrel I'm getting 2950 GPS with a SD of 8

 

[Laurie]

Viht N140 and N150
Hodgdon H4895 and Varget
IMR-4895, 4064, and 8208-XBR
Alliant Re15

My personal favourite is N150 for shorter range shooting up to 600. It doesn't give as high MVs as N140 or 540 with 155s, but usually gives small groups at ~2,900-2,925 fps in 30-inch barrels and very small velocity spreads.

I've just tried IMR-8208 XBR with the 155.5gn and got very good results indeed at over 3,000 fps. This powder also gave as good groups as any other powder tried in a 22-inch barrel factory Howa 1500 Varmint with other makes of 155 and some startling MVs for such a short barrel. Well worth looking at. It's rather faster burning than the rest and may not be suited to heavier bullets in 308 Win.

Alliant MR2000 looks promising too although it's a bit slower burning than everything else bar Viht N150, but we don't have this powder in the UK

 

[Down South]

Viht N140 and N150
Hodgdon H4895 and Varget
IMR-4895, 4064, and 8208-XBR
Alliant Re15

My personal favourite is N150 for shorter range shooting up to 600. It doesn't give as high MVs as N140 or 540 with 155s, but usually gives small groups at ~2,900-2,925 fps in 30-inch barrels and very small velocity spreads.

I've just tried IMR-8208 XBR with the 155.5gn and got very good results indeed at over 3,000 fps. This powder also gave as good groups as any other powder tried in a 22-inch barrel factory Howa 1500 Varmint with other makes of 155 and some startling MVs for such a short barrel. Well worth looking at. It's rather faster burning than the rest and may not be suited to heavier bullets in 308 Win.

Alliant MR2000 looks promising too although it's a bit slower burning than everything else bar Viht N150, but we don't have this powder in the UK

Don't know how 2000MR works with the 155s as you mentioned it is a tad slow for that bullet but you never know till you give it a whirl. I do know that it works great with a 168gr Hybrid and long barrels as a friend of mine uses it in 600 yard matches and the gun shoots lights out. I personally use it with the 185 and 200 hybrid and it work well also. For the 155s all the guys I know are shooting Varget and 8208 and Im actually hearing better results from them with 8208. Seems to be a great powder for those bullets.

 

[Will]

I'd look at IMR 4895 & N150. At 600 yds, IMR 4895 is great and there is even a starting point on German Salazar's site. For that matter go straight to the IMR reloading site and see what they suggest.

 

[ar15topgun]

IMR 8208 XBR

 

[Steve Blair]

I agree with Laurie and ar15topgun. My tactical .308 shoots Berger 155.5 FULLBORE bullets unreasonably well with 8208 XBR. It also appears to be almost completely temperature insensitive.

 

[NateG]

My preference is 8208 with the 155s (no 155.5s yet, but 155 Hybrids and 2156 Sierras), but there's nothing wrong with the traditional Varget for the purpose.

 

[therifler]

thanks for all the great feed back on powders . i have heard that the 8208 powder was working really well in the 308 with 155.5 gr's bullets . i do have some of the other powders mentioned and will give them a try during my range work . T.R.

 

[digrazir]

I just picked up 4 pounds of the 8208 powder for my 308 using the smk 155 2156 bullet. Using Varget and the 2156 I was able to load 47.2 grains without signs of pressure. My accuracy load is 47 grains. I am thinking a good starting point for 8208 would be between 43.5 and 44 grains. Ray

 

[Steve Blair]

I just picked up 4 pounds of the 8208 powder for my 308 using the smk 155 2156 bullet. Using Varget and the 2156 I was able to load 47.2 grains without signs of pressure. My accuracy load is 47 grains. I am thinking a good starting point for 8208 would be between 43.5 and 44 grains. Ray

[br]
Just to be safe, I would start at 42.0 and increment .4 to find your rifle's limits, then work on accuracy. I actually started at 40.0 with Berger 155.5 because there was no data available.

 

[Laurie]

Steve (and others),

Thales / ADI which makes 8208 calls it Bench Mark 8208 and has now produced full load data sheets for it available on the handloading data website:

http://www.adi-powders.com.au/handloaders-guide/

with further clicks onto the main rifle handloading guide or in this case, the new supplement for 8208. (It's worth downloading the older guide too as so many ADI powders are available under Hodgdon numbers, but ADI provides data for a wider range of cartridges and bullet weights than Hodgdon in some cases. In any event it increases the lab tested data available for H4895 4350, 4831, Varget etc.)

Here's what the 8208 guide gives for 308 Win (ADI only ever shows bullet weights, not models):

155gn ....... 41.0gn (2619) to 45.3gn (2854)
168gn ....... 39.0gn (2493) to 43.2gn (2707)
175gn ....... 39.0gn (2511) to 42.5gn (2664)
180gn ....... 36.0gn (2340) to 40.0gn (2497)
190gn ....... 36.0gn (2303) to 40.0gn (2459)
200gn ....... 35.5gn (2250) to 39.5gn (2400)

The supplement provides 8208 data for a massive range of cartridges - all the WSMs i/c .325WSM, .35 Whelen, .338-06 to give half a dozen surprising (to me at any rate) applications, albeit I notice .300WSM only goesw to 155gn weight maximum.

 

[Steve Blair]

I started load development with 8208 XBR in June 2010. My search for data was fruitless and I needed to characterize the powder. So, I loaded low and came up. Had to initially make my own QuickLOAD entry using H4895 (ADI 2206H) as a baseline. It ended up fairly close to the data QL later included in updates.