Developing Pet Loads
Picking your favorite
After resizing and trimming, Dave makes sure every
case is trimmed to the proper length.
Two of the most popular calibers among rifle cartridge handloaders are the .30-06 Springfield and .308 Winchester.
I own at least one of each and have notched tags with both, using handloads I settled upon after trying different load recommendations in manuals from Hodgdon, Nosler, Hornady, Speer and Sierra. The process involved only a few different propellants, several different powder charges and bullet weights and types.
Two of the most popular calibers among rifle cartridge handloaders
are the .30-06 Springfield and .308 Winchester. I own at least one of
each and have notched tags with both, using handloads I settled upon
after trying different load recommendations in manuals from Hodgdon,
Nosler, Hornady, Speer and Sierra. The process involved only a few different
propellants, several different powder charges and bullet weights and types.
Dave’s Pick
In the end, I’ve settled on a 180-grain Nosler AccuBond or Ballistic Tip ahead of 56 grains of Hodgdon Hybrid 100V and a 165-grain AccuBond or Ballistic Tip over 39 grains of IMR 4895 for the .308. With the former ’06 load, I’ve shot three Snake River mule deer bucks, all at ranges exceeding 300 yards and all one-shot kills. All rounds are loaded with CCI Large Rifle primers.
In addition, I’ve notched tags with the same rifle — a Marlin MR-7 bolt action — in Wyoming and Utah.
Turning to the .308 Winchester, one of my biggest bucks — also taken in a canyon on the northeast side of the Snake River in far southeast Washington — fell to the load detailed above, fired downhill from a Savage bolt-action at more than 200 yards. A couple of years later, while hunting out in the Columbia Basin in the vast bottom of Moses Coulee, I put a bullet into a nice buck at about 175 yards with the same rifle and load.
Long story short: I found something that works and stopped fiddling around with it. Many years ago, I reached the conclusion there is no such thing as the “perfect” load, and one can waste a lifetime looking for it. I’ve settled on two combinations for two rifles that come as close to perfect as possible … and I define “perfect” to include a notched tag and a freezer full of venison.
If there’s a different criteria, I’ve never heard of it.
Of course, there is more to this than just cleaning empty brass and reloading it. Here’s where the fun begins, and it is important. Let’s begin with the .30-06.
Over the chronograph, Dave’s .308 loads come in right where
they’re supposed to, averaging just over 2,400 fps — pretty
much dead-on at 200–225 yards!
Pick Oh-Six
A little history. The ’06 is more than a century old, introduced as a military cartridge originally with a 150-grain projectile but the popular range in bullet weights goes as high as 220 grains. My choice of the 180-grainer might be called a delightful compromise. I’ve loaded the ’06 in all kinds of brass including Winchester, Federal, Remington and Nosler.
Importantly, my first step is to resize the case and then trim to 2.484″, checked with a caliper. I’ll chamfer the neck inside and out, then throw each empty into a wet tumbler for up to three hours. They come out good-as-new shiny and after they dry out, I load up. Before priming each case, I’ll make sure the primer pocket is absolutely clean so each primer seats properly.
Each powder charge is individually weighed on an electric scale so my finished cartridges are as uniform as possible. The 180-grain Nosler bullets have identical ballistic coefficients of 0.507 and sectional densities of 0.271. Clocking above 2,700 fps with my chronograph 30″ ahead of the muzzle, they hit what I aim at.
This 3-shot group fired from his Savage rifle in .308 Winchester
at roughly 100 yards shows Dave’s rounds striking 3" high.
The Classic
I bought the .308 Savage Model 114 American Classic because I wanted a rifle in that caliber for the short action, manageable recoil and proven performance of the cartridge. I tried different combinations with bullet weights of 150 to 168 grains and settled on the 165-grainers. After using loads with up to 43.0 grains of IMR 4895, I backed down to 39 grains and found it to be consistently accurate, zeroing it to shoot about 2 ½” high at 100 to be pretty much dead-on at 200–225 yards. Over my chronograph, I get just over 2,400 fps from this load combination and recoil is easy on my shoulder.
Trim length is 2.005″ and I seat bullets so the overall case length is just below the maximum SAAMI specified 2.810″. The Nosler manual says my choice of bullet weight and powder charge proved the most accurate with the combination and I have no reason to question that designation, having dined on the results.
As a testament to sighting a .308 rifle using this load to strike high at 100 yards, I was helping zero my brother’s Ruger in the same caliber. Off a sandbag rest, I spotted a clay target at the 200-yard line. With the crosshairs centered on the disk, I pressed the trigger. The clay disintegrated.
I’ve never wanted to fix what isn’t broken and because these loads have definitely served me well over the years, I’ve stuck with them. Others like to constantly experiment but for my money and time, I’d rather spend it in the field than at the loading bench. My recipes may not be perfect but they’ve definitely become my pets.
