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new 2 loadin...help. Load for a 700 LTR

Rade1MOA

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Dec 16, 2010
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Twiggs County Ga
I'm new to loading, but I have someone who is going to show me the ropes. I need to buy some components, but I cant buy everything on the market to try. What's your favorite load for a Remington 700 LTR?
 
I have to assume you are referring to the .308 LTR. The first thing people are going to ask you is; What is your intention for the rifle? Are you going to hunt with it or use it in comps? I have an LTR in .308, a fun gun. Mine is 1-12 twist so I stay in the 175 gr. weight range, ( 155& 168 work well also). there is all kinds of powders out there for this round (if you can find them). a lot of shooters like the Reloader brand, it gives high velocity. I like Varget because it is good all year round due to it being temperature change resistant. You may want to give a little more info on your purpose to hold down rambling, sort of like I'm doing.
 
I'm looking for an all around accurate load. I would like to shoot good groups and be able to hunt hogs and deer with the load as well. I have shot the fgmm 168's. They stay around around the .75 moa mark. Yes, I mean the .308 LTR 1:12.....
 
If you're going to hunt with Deer and Hogs with the load also, I'd recommend the Hornady 168 A MAX. Hornady does report the A MAX will expand well in thin skinned game. For a bit more money, Berger makes accurate match grade hunting bullets in their line. Sierra recommends in all of their reloading manuals not to use their Match bullets for hunting. The reason is the jackets are not made for expansion and their match bullets don't always reliably expand.

Now there will be some swinging dick that will chime in here and say they've killed 27 Whitetail, two Elk and a White Buffalo with a Sierra 175 OTM and they were all one shot kills and were all DRT, so take the advice for what it's worth.

For hunting, I use a proper bullet for the game I'm shooting.
 
You might also consider the Hornady SST in either 150, 165, or 180 grain...... if you can find them. While the A-max will work ok, you may be better off with the SST which is designed to mushroom and hold together - the A-max isn't designed to hold together.

What works well in one of our guns, may not shoot for shit in your gun...... so, you're best bet is gonna be to get some powder (Varget), some primers, brass and a box or three of whatever all around bullet you want to try. Now load up a batch to do an OCW test for each bullet weight and prove to yourself what your gun likes to shoot. Once you figure you are close to an accuracy node using OCW, you'll load up some more around your newly found charge weight and re-test verify

If you have any buddies that reload, you might be able to trade them a box of bullets in exchange for samples of several different bullet weights to try. Sad to say, but there is no magic load combination that will just shoot lights out for you without some expense, time and load development on your part.

For what it's worth, I just completed working up loads using OCW for my Savage .308 with 150 & 165 SST's, and 168 gr. A-max. All told, I probably went through close to $100 in components before I was confident in my results.