F T/R Competition .308 208Amax

[BigtimeAub]

Anyone have much experience with the .308 208Amax? I'm going to try working up a load for this bullet. I'm going to be using it with new Winchester brass and CCI BR2 primers. What would be a good powder to use with this and what would be a good grain to start at for that powder? Would Hogdon H4198 be too hot? My rifle is a standard .308 SAAMI chamber, Kreiger 5R 30" barrel 1:10". I'll be using this load to shoot F T/R from 600 to 1000 and the same for steel plate matches out to 1000.

Thanks for any advice.

 

[Short-bus]

Re: .308 208Amax

I just switched away from 308 to .260, but I did a lot of work with 208's. RL17 and 208's loaded long in Winny cases will get you going real good in the velocity department. I played with Varget for a while, and ended up having pretty good success, but I was running on the ragged edge with them getting darn near 2550 out of a 20" barrel.

They are a good bullet, but they are evening better from a .300WM.

 

[scaxeman]

Re: .308 208Amax

I haven't played with the 208's, but in my workup of the 215's, RL-17 seemed to come to the top as far as velocity goes. I have seen a number of people use the 208 with good results in competition.

Unfortunately, RL-17 is also quite sensitive to ambient temperature variations. This is particularly the case if you work up a load in cool-cold wintertime temps, and compete with it in the hot summertime weather.

 

[BigtimeAub]

Re: .308 208Amax

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Darrell Buell</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I haven't played with the 208's, but in my workup of the 215's, RL-17 seemed to come to the top as far as velocity goes. I have seen a number of people use the 208 with good results in competition.

Unfortunately, RL-17 is also quite sensitive to ambient temperature variations. This is particularly the case if you work up a load in cool-cold wintertime temps, and compete with it in the hot summertime weather. </div></div>What powder would you recommend for someone like me with limited access to reloading equipment who would want to find a fairly temperature stable powder to work with? I'm guessing Varget, maybe? Being that I shoot pretty much exclusively in East Central Alabama and West Central Georgia, I would think that the most temp stable powder I could find would be the way to go because of schizo weather we have down here with its extreme fluctuation in temperature and humidity.

 

[joediesel81]

Re: .308 208Amax

I try both RL-17 and varget. Varget was more accurate. With my savage 10ba 40.0gr of varget gave me 2420fps and ES 10 and SD 6. at 200 .68 inch group. its slow but it works. At my first 1000 yard match I used this load I got a 235 6x out 250. Varget more pressure, RL-17 less pressure. Using Varget with hot load will wear out the Winchester brass the primer pocket.

 

[scaxeman]

Re: .308 208Amax

If I had to take a heavy load to a match where the temps would either fluctuate greatly, or would be wildly different from those I worked up the load in, I would try to stay away from the RL powders. Varget is pretty fast for the heavies. I tried it when I was testing the 215's, and it produced *much* more pressure than the same charge weight of RL-17. No surprise there, it is a much faster powder. It did provide better velocity (150 fps more) than the same load of RL-17. I was able to get 2460 out of the 215's I was testing, so you should be able to get close to that velocity with the 208's. It took another 2.5 grains of RL-17 to equal that velocity. As Joe has mentioned above, that Varget load was hard on the brass, and I wouldn't use it again.

 

[Ol' RD]

Re: .308 208Amax

Aubbie,
I'm using RL-17 and doing load delevopment with win 748. If your the Marine LTJG I met at the hardrock match in february an still have my business card give me a call or email me at the address on the card.

For everyone else reading this..... We may sit at opposited ends of the field for football but at least one rabbid Bama fan can help a brother out!

ROFL! ROLL TIDE!

 

[buffybuster]

Re: .308 208Amax

H414, RS-BigGame, W760 are the burnrate I had good results with in a .308 with 208AMAX's

 

[BigtimeAub]

Re: .308 208Amax

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Robot Doc</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Aubbie,
I'm using RL-17 and doing load delevopment with win 748. If your the Marine LTJG I met at the hardrock match in february an still have my business card give me a call or email me at the address on the card.

For everyone else reading this..... We may sit at opposited ends of the field for football but at least one rabbid Bama fan can help a brother out!

ROFL! ROLL TIDE! </div></div>

I was out there, but that wasn't me. I would guess that you are probably talking about Adam. He's a scout sniper, was at Auburn on MECEP. I am a former Marine and a student at Auburn though.

 

[LawnMM]

Re: .308 208Amax

Use Varget. Google search snipers hide and 208 amax and you will find a few of my threads. I was getting 2480fps out of a 24" barrel. You have another six inches, I'd say you could get 2550 easy and probably 2600 without any issues.

They are great bullets if you don't mind single feeding.

 

[BigtimeAub]

Re: .308 208Amax

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: LawnMM</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Use Varget. Google search snipers hide and 208 amax and you will find a few of my threads. I was getting 2480fps out of a 24" barrel. You have another six inches, I'd say you could get 2550 easy and probably 2600 without any issues.

They are great bullets if you don't mind single feeding. </div></div>

I actually had just come across that thread and have been reading it for the past half hour or so. Lots of great information in there from you and several others. I think I'm going to try the Varget. It's probably going to take me a while to get my loads worked up and tested but hopefully I'll have something worked up before the next HardRock match.

 

[Burleyboy]

Re: .308 208Amax

I'm getting ready to try some PP 2000MR with that bullet. It's worked well with 175's. So far I've ran both rl-15 and rl-17 under them. I took the rl-15 loads up to 2480 from a 20" 12 twist and the rl-17 loads up to almost 2600. The rl-15 ones shot better in my rifle.

I wonder if a guy could get enough h4350 in a 308 case to get the 208's moving?

Bb

 

[USFTR]

Re: .308 208Amax

Try and see. My guess is probably not, but it might be close. Many people try the RL series of powders and they always switch to something else. The RL 17 can get the velocity up there but at a cost.

 

[ChadTRG42]

Re: .308 208Amax

R17 works, but is not temp stable. I've played with Alliant's 2000MR with great results. You will get similar speeds, and you can get more powder in the case, since it's a ball powder, and it's temp stable. This powder was designed for heavy bullets in a 308 and 223 case to get more speed. And it works and shoots very well.

 

[Burleyboy]

Re: .308 208Amax

What kind of speed are you getting with PP2000MR and a 208 Amax? I've been running PP2000MR and 175's from my 16" Bushy ORC and it's been working well for me there. I also had decent luck with PP 2000MR in my 223 AI with 75g Amaxes. I wonder when PP3000 will be out and how similar it will be to Superformance.

Bb