Can I load .308 Using standard primers using this powder?
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Can I load .308 Using standard primers using this powder?
Of course you can...
I have burned honestly probably 20# of 748 in my 308. I've hunted the highest mountains in Idaho, to the desert basin in Arizona; with no issues.
Back when I was first after groups at 1K, I found that the mag primers I tried opened my ES & SD; so I switched back to standard primers. Will you have the same results? Don't know, try it and see.
In my Creedmoor, a mag primer hurt groups with 760, but helped very slightly with Superformance.
Remember the truth about primers/powder, if someone tells you mag primers are required for ball powder:
Mag primers are a VERY recent invention. They came from Roy Weatherby not wanting to shoot his monsterous cartridges loaded full steam, with extruded powder by the way. So what he found was a massive case loaded VERY lightly, with very slow powders, in the VERY coldest conditions; could cause hang-fires. Not really a news flash to anyone who shoots much, or reads manuals...
The reason some will say that ball powders need a mag primer is due to design. Unlike extruded powders who have burn rate controlled by geometry, ball powders have burn rates controlled by coatings. IF you have a less than desirable burning rate powder in a specific case, or light loads, etc, etc. Then you could have an ignition issue with the older designed powders.
The sticky wicket in all of this pontificating, is who is building what. Win 748 is a rather old ball powder. It is also no longer built by Olin, who owns the Winchester name. It isn't even built by Hodgdon, they manufacture ZERO smokeless powder. At this point, and has been the case now for quite some time, the only folks who manufacture any smokeless propellant; are Defense contractors. Defense contractors don't build powder for the reloader, they feed the military industrial complex. The scraps, or toll milling are what make it to our food chain. Since Hodgdon will tell us NOTHING about the powders they sell, I.E. Nominal Burning rate, nominal VMD, etc; there is very little reason to suspect that the powder from the 50's is identical to what is being produced today.
Hodgdon got its start buying surplus WWII powders and blending to a given burning rate. Those powders will have had fast lots and slow lots, but were combined to be a certain burning rate range. All of that powder has long been gone, now we are dealing with newly manufactured product. The defense contractors aren't likely to be using the same old methods and ingredients as 60-some years ago, rather providing something that fits a burning rate. General Dynamics recently totally re-built the entire production line at the Quebec facility, so the IMR powders out of that mill may burn "the same", in the end they are made differently.
Ergo, the coatings that may have been an issue in the past, may very well no longer be. So test and enjoy!
Shot dump truck loads of 30-06 ammo through my Garands loaded with W-748 and standard primers. Load to your heart's content and blaze away. It is a non-event.
I like 748 Win Ball or Spherical Powder. I've used it successfully in .25-06 and what is good about it is two fold:
1. It burns cooler
2. It is more easily managed in a volume delivery reloading system and does not have to be weighed out (scaled on a scale) per load you set.
I never used magnum rifle primers mostly because the ordinary ones from CCI worked just fine in 6mm Rem, .243 Win, .25-06. In the heavier calibers in rifle I prefer the old standard 4350. It burns hot and long for 6mm and larger calibers of so called "over bore" size.
748 in the 25-06?! Compared to 4350..... Think you're thinking of 760.
748 is WAY fast in the 25-06. And no powder needs weighed, if loading by volume. If you want to get technical, loading ball powder by volume is less safe than loading extruded powder that way. Extruded powder has it's burn rate controlled by geometry, so a consistent volume, not weight, will produce more consistent results.