Reloading 308 Military Brass

[bigcheese920]

I was wondering if any of you have ever reloaded military brass. I picked up about 200 shells from the range from a guy with an AR-10 that just left them. Is there any difference in your loads between the GI brass and what you're using powder wise in different brass? I'm using 43.6gr of Varget in my Winchester brass behind a 178gr Hornady HPBT. What are your loads for the military brass?

[Robinhood]

I assume you are talking about Lake City brass. Good stuff but less capacity. Drop down and work back up. Chamfer or remove the crimp on the primer pocket if it has a cross on it.

[earl39]

the cross he is talking about is a circle with a plus sign in it. capacity is about the same as Lapua brass but still best to start low and work your load back up

[darkker]

Been mixing military and commercial brass span the entire existence of the 308. Never run across any that had a capacity difference worth getting excited over.
But to be fair, I load by volume, NOT weight; and only neck size.

[eddiesindian]

You,ll be fine. That's pretty close to what I was running with LC and varget. It may push the pill just a bit faster. If it is indeed LC brass then you hit pay dirt. Imo...it's one of the best.

[bigcheese920]

Yes it is lake city but there's no "x". I dropped it down to 42 and worked up in .2 increments to 44. Hopefully I can get some good groupings tomorrow when I go to the range

[eddiesindian]

Roger that. Wish I could get a hold of some varget. You'll find your sweet spot.

[bigcheese920]

I drove 3 hours round trip to pick up the 8# Varget from a guy off armslist. Completely worth it Lol.

[eddiesindian]

I drove 3 hours round trip to pick up the 8# Varget from a guy off armslist. Completely worth it Lol.

lolol..the things we do for our additive hobbies lololo..........gezz I swear

[stomp442]

With my experiences using lake city match cases for a number of cartridges I have found that I need to back charges off by about a grain and a half to get the same performance I was getting with normal Winchester or Remington cases.

[Ron Eagle Elk]

I just picked up 4 pounds of Varget from Cabela's of all places. Got it from their web site. About $29 a pound, plus a $20 hazardous material fee. That's $20 for the whole order, not per pound. I've been getting it from them pretty regular, averaging 4 pounds a month. You have to check the web site often to make sure they have it. I've been loading up on IMR 4064 and CFE 223 as well.

Oh, and my Model 10 FCP-SR likes 43.1 Grains of Varget in Lake City Brass shooting Sierra Match King 168 Grain HPBT.

[bigcheese920]

Got out to the range today and could not get it to group up nice. I loaded 4 rounds of each weight from 42-44 in .2 increments and the best I could do was a little over 1 inch at 100 yards and that was at 43grains. I took about a shot a minute and then let the barrel cool for 5-10 minutes between each group. I don't think that heat was an issue. I had my go to load and that shot .3inches so i know it's not me having a bad day. Not sure. Possibly back it down even further? What do you guys think?

[Robinhood]

How is the neck tension on your brass?

[eddiesindian]

Clock your go to rounds. Take it from there.

[darkker]

Roger that. Wish I could get a hold of some varget. You'll find your sweet spot.

Bullets.com has 8# jugs of that stuff in stock Eddie

[eddiesindian]

Hmmm? Bullets.com?.....

[eddiesindian]

Well,that was fast. There out of varget

[missed]

Well,that was fast. There out of varget
I have given up on the stability of supply of VARGET and have gone to imr4166 and love it.

[SGT_A-RAY223]

There's a guy named Daniel Webb out of Virginia that almost always has Varget in stock, with good prices shipped. You can find him on Facebook, but sorry, can't remember the name of his company off hand. He's my go-to when my local shop is out.

[jersurf101]

I have used a lot of IMR 4064 in LC .308 cases. I have found it wise to back off at least a grain to a grain and a half with the NATO brass.