308 Win - Where to start

[rlandry6]

I'm ready to break in a a new Remington 700 .308. For the break-in loads, I'm just going to load some mid range stuff using a 155gr ballistic tip with Varget.
I have not shot a lot of Varget so I'm not familiar with the pressure ranges and where it runs best, lower, mid, or high end of the load scale. The Hornady manual lists min/max - 35.9-44.9gr. Just thinking about H110 that likes to run at the higher end of the range. What about Varget? What's a good place to start for break-in and then to start the load development. Where would you start and at what increments would you increase?
I really did not keep as good a records when I loaded for 308 before, so I'm pretty much starting at the botom of the learning curve on this one.

[bangbangping]

Good rule of thumb: start 10% below max, and go up in .7% - 1% increments.

So something like 40.5, 40.9, 41.3, 41.7....

[Sig220]

I would do my barrel break in with mild range stuff. When its all done, you will most likely find 2 levels that Varget will perform the best at. One will be well below
any maximum load and the other will be right at max. Go with the books for your starting loads and OAL when you get to fine tuning your load for OAL find the OAL to the lands and then depending on your bullet type you will find a length that will perform better then the others. Seems that 43.5 of VARGET which is below the starting loads of Hodgdon's reloading site was a accurate node in my rifles and 46 was another. As always, your mileage may vary. You may have a short throat or whatever and you always need to work up loads in YOUR rifle....preferably with a chrono!

Good Luck!

[rlandry6]

Which is the best approach, to determine the best OAL first and then do the load testing with graduated charges or vice-versa. Obviously changing both at the same time is an excercise in futility.

[RWA007]

I like to START with the overall length...then vary the powder charge...then FINE TUNE the overall length at the end.

I use one of those Stoney Point (now Hornady?) OAL (Overall length) gauges and get the ogive of the bullet to be about .030" off the lands and start there. (Making sure they cycle thru the rifle ok, etc.) I then do the standard 10% reduction from max and make up a bunch of 5 shot test groups of rounds gradually incrementing them to find the ones that pattern the best. Once I find the best node within the powder I then make groups of 5 rounds each with that same powder charge with with the ogive off the lands @ .040" and .050", and .010" and .020" and see if any of those tighten up the groups any better. (watching for pressure signs of course).

With my .308 that I recently worked up, .030" off the lands ended up being the tightest within that same powder charge. The groupings spread out a little with the other lengths, both shorter and longer.

I used the 165 gr SST's, and the RL15 powder .030" off the lands. My most accurate groupings were @ the max powder charge published in the Hornady manual. I started 10% lower and worked up. I like to use the newest published data (it's all lawyered up and is usually the safest) and I never go over the published max even if I have zero pressure signs.

Hope this helps.
Randy

[rlandry6]

That sounds reasonable. I'm thinking starting .020 off the lands and go from there. I've never made to max charge on anything because so far my most accurate loads have always nee something short of max.

Thanks for the info.

[SwampDog_13]

That sounds reasonable. I'm thinking starting .020 off the lands and go from there. I've never made to max charge on anything because so far my most accurate loads have always nee something short of max.

You'll never know what is most accurate until you try it but like you said, some like max some don't.

Personally when I'm loading for the upmost accuracy I always start .020" off the lands, if that is possible depending on cartridge, chamber, bullet, mag, etc. from there I work my powder charges in .03gn increments, 5-10 rounds each for accuracy and velocity testing. Once I find the charge weight I want to persue I'll get a little tighter on the charges, most of the time inside of the .03gn increments thrown earlier. Then finally after I have the charge figured out I'll start moving the bullet around in .002" increments both in and out. This method burns a lot of components but I've yet to not find a lights out load when doing it this way.