Improving the 308 Win performance

I did something completely different than trying to maximize the 308. I downloaded it with IMR 4895 with a 110 Vmax for my 12 year old son to learn to shoot his new hunting rifle. I didn't want him to develop any bad habits or flinching with standard bullets and since I don't care for muzzle brakes, downloading was the best route for us. He is working at 100yds right now and he's doing pretty darn good for just starting out with larger center fire rifles. He's been recoil shy since his uncle put him behind his 280Rem and he got scope bit.
That one really ****ed me off because he set me back all of my time spent with my son teaching him how to shoot and progressively shooting larger calibers. Needless to say my brother in-law got an earful from me.
I clearly remember my first encounter with a shot gun. It was my father's 12ga side by side. I still have it. It weighs 7.5 lbs. I was 10 y/o at the time and the gun was too long so I naturally "adjusted" and put the but of the stock under my arm. Blam!!! Hit the box I was aiming at but bruised my upper lip on the break action toggle. Loved it!! Could not wait to shoot it again. Up to then I had only shot 22LR.
 
I did something completely different than trying to maximize the 308. I downloaded it with IMR 4895 with a 110 Vmax for my 12 year old son to learn to shoot his new hunting rifle. I didn't want him to develop any bad habits or flinching with standard bullets and since I don't care for muzzle brakes, downloading was the best route for us. He is working at 100yds right now and he's doing pretty darn good for just starting out with larger center fire rifles. He's been recoil shy since his uncle put him behind his 280Rem and he got scope bit.
That one really ****ed me off because he set me back all of my time spent with my son teaching him how to shoot and progressively shooting larger calibers. Needless to say my brother in-law got an earful from me.
I see this happen alot at the range..... esp. with a young man teaching his girlfriend to shoot......
TERRIBLE BAD THING....
If your teaching a new frail shooter..... dont hand them a 7 mag. or a 44 mag pistol....!!!!
 
A big capacity cartridge such as the Win Mag on it's own does not guarantee a quick kill or accurate bullet placement. In fact a fragile bullet shot at elevated velocity will not penetrate well because it can't tolerate the stresses of a high impact velocity and fall apart. The 175 BD2 combines a high BC (G1=0.60) and with LVR powder and SRP brass can be launched at 2800-2850 fps using a 308Win case from. 24" 1:10 barrel and penetrate 30" within 500 yds. Recoil is much less than the Win Mag. Of course it can be used in the Win Mag as well.

I see this happen alot at the range..... esp. with a young man teaching his girlfriend to shoot......
TERRIBLE BAD THING....
If your teaching a new frail shooter..... dont hand them a 7 mag. or a 44 mag pistol....!!!!
A number of video's on YouTube to go with your point Bill. Some with people hurt and worse with weapons that never should've been in their hands at that point in learning. One auto in particular.
 
When starting to learn to shoot and saftey, dad said no double barrels, (his buddies were two brothers who squirrel hunted with him on occasion. One evening he didn't go and the brother who carried an old saftey button double snapped it together behind his younger brother. The gun went off. Taking off most of the younger brothers head.) or semi auto's. First a single shot 22, single shotgun and a single action 22 pistol later. He insisted on a pump shotgun until I was out of his house. Semi 22 rifle, a High Standard 22 9shot double action, 30-30 Model 94 and an over and under 22 mag - 12gauge was there before I moved out. I then went semi auto stuff. That experience of the brothers stayed with him his entire life. He said I was working in the yard when they came back out of the holler. The one brother screaming as their car went by holding the other. Someone else was with them that evening. Can't remember who but that really doesn't matter.
 
When starting to learn to shoot and saftey, dad said no double barrels, (his buddies were two brothers who squirrel hunted with him on occasion. One evening he didn't go and the brother who carried an old saftey button double snapped it together behind his younger brother. The gun went off. Taking off most of the younger brothers head.) or semi auto's. First a single shot 22, single shotgun and a single action 22 pistol later. He insisted on a pump shotgun until I was out of his house. Semi 22 rifle, a High Standard 22 9shot double action, 30-30 Model 94 and an over and under 22 mag - 12gauge was there before I moved out. I then went semi auto stuff. That experience of the brothers stayed with him his entire life. He said I was working in the yard when they came back out of the holler. The one brother screaming as their car went by holding the other. Someone else was with them that evening. Can't remember who but that really doesn't matter.
Good Lesson for us all........ I grew up with guns....
dad and brothers all hunted with rifle and shotgun....they were 6 years older than me....
my dad and brothers all taught me....
I attended Hunters Safety class with my 2 sons..... in 1979......
Does`nt hurt to refresh......
 
Good move, Warboar

Recoil maybe still too much for him. If it is a Rem 700, a 243 Win barrel will probably screw right on the action without any modifications, then you have a switch barrel.

So I shot three rounds to make sure it was on paper at 25yds. The recoil was slightly more than a 223 out of an AR, which is to say hardly none.
He put 20 rounds through it and didn't bat an eye. He really liked shooting it.
 
So I shot three rounds to make sure it was on paper at 25yds. The recoil was slightly more than a 223 out of an AR, which is to say hardly none.
He put 20 rounds through it and didn't bat an eye. He really liked shooting it.
I use the 130 Barnes out of a 18" and the recoil is next to nothing. AA2460 is the powder I use. Just a FYI and a great deer and hog hunting bullet.
 
Good Lesson for us all........ I grew up with guns....
dad and brothers all hunted with rifle and shotgun....they were 6 years older than me....
my dad and brothers all taught me....
I attended Hunters Safety class with my 2 sons..... in 1979......
Does`nt hurt to refresh......
I still have my hunters saftey card from 6th grade.
 
I've been using the 120 gr Barnes TAC-TX in my 20" .308. With 51 gr of Tac powder I get 3192 fps. It's taken a few animals over the past couple years including 2 cow elk less than 200 yards DRT. The BC is .358, which isn't too bad. If there was a 130 gr BD2 with higher BC I would try it.

BTW I just received 100 150 gr BD2s to start playing with, they are nice looking bullets. Think I will start with testing Varget, Tac, and N150. Has anyone tried superformance?
 
I've been using the 120 gr Barnes TAC-TX in my 20" .308. With 51 gr of Tac powder I get 3192 fps. It's taken a few animals over the past couple years including 2 cow elk less than 200 yards DRT. The BC is .358, which isn't too bad. If there was a 130 gr BD2 with higher BC I would try it.

BTW I just received 100 150 gr BD2s to start playing with, they are nice looking bullets. Think I will start with testing Varget, Tac, and N150. Has anyone tried superformance?
Seems folks in this thread are using Hodgdon LEVERolution with 150 BD2's. Getting good results it seems also.
 
I did something completely different than trying to maximize the 308. I downloaded it with IMR 4895 with a 110 Vmax for my 12 year old son to learn to shoot his new hunting rifle. I didn't want him to develop any bad habits or flinching with standard bullets and since I don't care for muzzle brakes, downloading was the best route for us. He is working at 100yds right now and he's doing pretty darn good for just starting out with larger center fire rifles. He's been recoil shy since his uncle put him behind his 280Rem and he got scope bit.
That one really ****ed me off because he set me back all of my time spent with my son teaching him how to shoot and progressively shooting larger calibers. Needless to say my brother in-law got an earful from me.
Recoil from the 280 Rem cannot be blamed on getting scope bit. The 280 Rem does have a bit of a recoil, but it is still moderate, that is unless it's being shot with some hopped up handload. Getting scope bit comes from either not having the eye relief set right on the rifle, which is probably not the case since your brother in law shoots it. The issue was that the rifle was not being shot from a good shooting position and not held tight enough letting the recoil push the entire rifle scope included back to bite the eye. A .308 also has a moderate recoil and if shot from a good position, held tight against the shoulder the body should recoil along with the rifle preventing any issue with the scope biting the eye. Cabelas has shirts available that have recoil pad inserts that take a lot of the recoil out of any rifle including the magnums. As far as hunting ammo for the .308 I use 40.5 gr of IMR 4895 with a 165 gr Nosler partition bullet. I also use the 168 gr Nosler HPBT match bullet for practice since it's much cheaper than the partition. These loads approximate the ballistics of military Lake City Match ammo,b oth of those loads chrono out at around 2600 fps out of a 24 inch barrel and are deadly on Whitetail Deer out to 300 yards. With my Winchester Model 70 .308 I can shoot either of those rounds interchangeably with absolutely no change in zero. When he is up for a little more recoil, and I do mean very little more than the 110 gr you are now shooting. Give it a try.
 
Top