308 reloading

[ckr]

Good evening gents.  I am wondering if anyone out there has and experience using IMR 8208xbr in conjunction with 125gr nosler ballistic tips.  I am starting to develop a load for kids running a ruger compact.  I was hopeing be be around 2500-2600fps.  Any help would be great.  I have been looking all around and I can't find any info for the 125gr bt

Thanks

[hollymaster]

I've found lighter bullets don't stabilize well. Anything under 150gr gets squirrely. 

[ckr]

Using which powders?  I have been told 4895 is very accurate with the 125bt.  The problem is that I have 2lbs of 8208 and want to use them up.  I do have a 150 load that shoots good with the 8208 going 2300fps.  I was thinking by going to a lighter bullet, the recoil would be even less even at a greater speed

[AWS]

Here's what you need.

http://www.hodgdonreloading.com/data/rifle

Just follow the prompts.

Asking for load data on the internet is not the safest thing to do, a miss key stoke or or just bad memory can cause a serious accident.  Always look for a published load, at least it gives you a starting point, not just a guess if it will work.

[Bill W]

I don't think there would be much difference in felt recoil by any more than a pound or two.

[ckr]

Thanks for the input.  I have looked at the hodgdon site and they have the starting load at 2800 and change.  I think I saw some reduced loads in the hornady book using 125s with the 8208 powder but I have missed place my book.  Does anyone have it to look up the info?

[yorketransport]

This is from Hornady #9


It's not the 125 NBT, but to get the velocity you want you're going to be sitting at the starting charge anyways.

Andrew

[300rum]

You need to know your twist rate.  Most hunting style rifles in .308 are built to stabilize a 150gr bullet and more then likely you will be better served to stick with a 150gr bullet.  Your rifle might stabilize a 125gr bullet just fine but you will need to try it out first.  The recoil difference won't be enough to bother with.   

 

[yorketransport]

You need to know your twist rate.  Most hunting style rifles in .308 are built to stabilize a 150gr bullet and more then likely you will be better served to stick with a 150gr bullet.  Your rifle might stabilize a 125gr bullet just fine but you will need to try it out first.  The recoil difference won't be enough to bother with.   

 

Any factory 308 will stabilize a 125gr bullet. The 308 isn't capable of enough velocity to over spin a 125gr bullet (or any bullet for that matter!) to the point of having significant accuracy issues. Ruger uses a pretty standard 1-10" twist on all of it's .30 caliber rifles which will stabilize any bullet up to about 200 grains in a 308.  If I were building a 308 specifically to shoot 125/130gr bullets I might go with a different twist but I doubt that you'd see any real difference.

Andrew

[ckr]

Thanks York for the picture.  It's the info I was looking for