[Beladran]

Ok I have added my name to the wait list to get me a semi auto 308. Its sad but I have never owned nor ever fired a 308 that I can think of :thinking: never mind I squized off a few rounds through a M60 but other than that I am a virgin with this caliber. I would like to know of a cheap round for plinking and maybe a hunting round. Were do you get your cheap brass and bullets? What is your "hunting" ammo? Last, do you have a match grade ammo that you and your gun like? What is your gun?

 

[Rbelote]

cheap hahaha thats funny. No cheap 308. You can find some decent deals on mil surp ammo and then just reload it or find surplus lake city brass.

 

[msredneck]

cheap brass and bullets....308?!!!! :funny:

My hunting round is Winchester Supreme 150 Gr ballistic tip...extremely accurate in my Remington Model 7 Bolt action with Leupold Vari XIII 3x10x50

Surplus 308 has been extremely hard to find...it was one of the 1st rifle calibers to get "hoarded" I believe...Only one worse is 223

I'll let others wiser than I comment on the reloads...I have not "perfected mine" yet.

It's an great rifle caliber....my favorite....

 

[encoreman]

I have the .308 for you Beledran, I will bring to the M&G, not a semi, but you might like it. I won't spoil the suspense. I handload my .308 mostly deer hunting rounds. I like a 150 gr. corelokt bullet, they are not expensive and they do the job on critters. You can pay 5 times as much, but I don't believe the effects on the target is any better.

 

[massair]

Bela, time was when huge amounts of .308 military brass was for sale all over. This was even though 5.56 had been adopted, training was done in large amount using left-over M-14s.

An excellent caliber, virtually as good as .30-06 in just about all respects. FWIW, I even load .308 with 220 gr. soft-point bullets, as I have a zillion of those, and some of the manuals do not even offer loads in .30-06 for that heavy a bullet.

 

[captain-03]

Well, I actually have some in oven as I type this ... Yep - they are in the kitchen oven; bullets that is!!

Rained here all day yesterday and I decided to cast a few 308/30-06 bullets from a mould that I got sometime back. I was starting to go through all my .308 milserp ammo pretty quickly and wanted to try using cast bullets for plinking loads. I was able to cast up about 800 yesterday afternoon. They cast out at about 175 grains.

I just put a couple hundred in the oven for heat treatment. Will start working up some loads in a couple days .... if I can find a good load that will function in my M1A, I can go back to enjoying the .308 once again!!

 

[Beladran]

high velocity+lead= intersting.. Do you use a gas check? Leading?How cheaply can you cast 30 cal? Accuracy? Please post once you have some results I am hungry for good information.

 

[Rbelote]

He can run that lead atleast 2200-2300 with a gas check without bad leading. Yeah he uses gas checks.

 

[captain-03]

high velocity+lead= intersting.. Do you use a gas check? Leading?How cheaply can you cast 30 cal? Accuracy? Please post once you have some results I am hungry for good information.

Yes, these are a gas checked bullet --- I do not anticipate any leading if I do it correctly. I have sized the bullets to .309 and have heat treated them. They should be plenty hard enough to push around 1800-2000fps with a gas check. The last batch of this alloy that I heat treated can out to about 29BHN in hardness.

Since I am using "free" lead from my old stockpile, the only cost is that of the gascheck - about $29.00K.

I am currently looking at two loads to start with -- 13.0gr Red Dot should give me about 1600fps and 33gr IMR4895 at about 2000fps. I anticipated that the Red Dot load may not generate enough presssure to work the action in the M1A. I need to try to make the Red Dot work; I have a lot of it!!

I need to wait a couple days for the heat treatment to fully take effect. By the weekend I should have some loaded for the range.

This is my first attempt at casting for the .308. I have been pleased with the results I have gotten with .30 Carbine and 7.62x39. Still have not perfected the 7.62x39 with a "light" bullet. It seems to like the 155gr cast ...

 

[encoreman]

Hey Cap what kind of lubrisizer you using?

 

[captain-03]

Hey Cap what kind of lubrisizer you using?

I have an old RCBS Lub-A-Matic. However, I am beginning to like the Lee push through sizing dies more and more - Easy to set-up and use, does not require any top punches, does not deform the bullet tip, and are CHEAP!