6.5 PRC and 308 Win powders and bullets suggestions

[bluedog69]

So my 11 year old just bought a 6.5 PRC(1 in 8 twist) and my 14 year old just bought a 308 WIN.(1 in 10 twist)
Both of these are going to be new to me calibers. These will mainly be deer guns. May be used on coyotes too
in our upcoming night season.

Looking for advice on where to start with bullets and powders. Mainly 400 yds and under for now. Gotta get the barrels broke in
and develop some loads so not looking to use super expensive rounds to break them in.(still hoping to get good accuracy though while doing this if possible)

Also wondering about any suggestions on factory ammo(price and accuracy). Pros and cons of buying loaded ammo to get brass to reload?

Any good prices on dies(6.5 PRC only), ammo, bullets, brass, and powder for both 6.5 and 308.

 

[bluedog69]

Both of these are 24" barrels. Also wanting to hopefully get something to shoot decent right off the bat.
Don't want the kids disappointed if that can be avoided.

Just wondering what others had work decent in these calibers.

 

[Rosebud]

Varget and IMR 4064 , reloaded 15 for the 308. Or anything in that burn range. Slower burn for PRC H1000, H4831, Reloaded 26,25. That burn rate. Good luck.

 

[bluedog69]

Varget and IMR 4064 , reloaded 15 for the 308. Or anything in that burn range. Slower burn for PRC H1000, H4831, Reloaded 26,25. That burn rate. Good luck.

Is Lapua brass good? Never used it...seems expensive but may be all I can find.
143 gr eld-x hornady good in the 6.5 prc? are 147's more accurate?(is eld-m no go for hunting...bad expansion?)

I know these are all loaded questions.... every gun different... just looking for preferences of others. I have reloader 26(8 pounds), 1 pound of H1000, and very little retumbo left.

I know the 308 is wide open for bullets and powder. May experiment with light varmint bullets, mid range deer bullets, and maybe even subsonic down the road with it.

Thanks for the reply!!! Appreciate it.(hope it likes to eat reloader 26)

 

[xsn10s]

As for the 308 Win the above suggestions are fine. I prefer running either RL15 or TAC. My barrel is a 1-12" twist so I stick to 168 gr bullets and am shooting 168 ELDM's. But just about any 168 gr will do fine. Nice thing about TAC is it meters well being a ball powder. H4895 is also another favorite for running in 308 Win. A 1-10" twist should be good for 110 VMAX's to 215 Hybrids.

 

[Rosebud]

Is Lapua brass good? Never used it...seems expensive but may be all I can find.
143 gr eld-x hornady good in the 6.5 prc? are 147's more accurate?(is eld-m no go for hunting...bad expansion?)

I know these are all loaded questions.... every gun different... just looking for preferences of others. I have reloader 26(8 pounds), 1 pound of H1000, and very little retumbo left.

I know the 308 is wide open for bullets and powder. May experiment with light varmint bullets, mid range deer bullets, and maybe even subsonic down the road with it.

Thanks for the reply!!! Appreciate it.(hope it likes to eat reloader 26)

Can't get much better!

 

[tylsmith33]

Lapua brass has been great for me, had a few nosler premium that I had some neck issues with. But if you want to run cheaper powder ramshot magnum and 143 eldx shot good out of my prc, I was able to find a different velocity node with rl26 and have been using that since. But I have also shot retumbo h1000 with decent results also using 147 eldm an and 150 ablrs.

 

[30378wbymag]

Congratz on some new rifles, this'll get ya where ya wanna go....

6.5 PRC / .308 Load Data

 

[Justice1327]

LEVERevolution works well in my 7-08 and .308 with heavier bullets.
But you cant go wrong with IMR 4064 and IMR 4895 , either.
6.5 PRC, R26 or H1000 or H4831

 

[fabricator21]

For the 6.5 prc I've had very good performance form the berger 135 classic hunters, f210 primers and rl23