Friends,
I have been reloading my .308 for a short amount of time. I'm not an experienced reloader. Your thoughts will be greatly appreciated.
I have been reloading as follows:
SMK 168 gr
43.7 gr of IMR 4064
CCI #200
OAL 2.780"
Federal case
According to my Lyman book, the minimum load for IMR4064 is 40.0 for a velocity of 2415 fops and Maximum load of 45.0 for 2717 fps. As I stated above, I have been loading 43.7 grains of IMR4064 which, according to the book, should be in the safe side...more or less in the middle. My primers don't show pressure marks. My groups at 100 yards are consistently between .25" and .50"...depending on whether I have been shooting often or not. Today I fired groups at 500 yards in the neighborhood of 3". So, I'm pretty happy with the way things are.... However:
This week I bought a Chronograph. I know, I should have bought it a long time ago...Mia culpa.
Today I fire 10 rounds and measured their velocities. My average was 2820.... Which obviously implies that a few rounds were hotter than that.
My first thought was that I should bring my velocity down a little bit...and keep it in the 2650-2700 fps range. I have noticed a little bit of a sticky bolt from time to time. Could this be attributed to the loads being too hot or my poor reloading technique? I only neck size since I only shoot those rounds from the same rifle. 99 per cent of time, I have no problems ejecting the empties.
On the other hand, I don't see any signs of pressure, unless the sometimes sticky bolt is one, and since the load works well for me, as far as accuracy goes, I am also inclined to just leave it alone. I have fired over 500 rounds with this load out of an FN SPR rifle.
What do you think? Slow them down a bit....???? Leave them alone????
Any thoughts, suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
I have been reloading my .308 for a short amount of time. I'm not an experienced reloader. Your thoughts will be greatly appreciated.
I have been reloading as follows:
SMK 168 gr
43.7 gr of IMR 4064
CCI #200
OAL 2.780"
Federal case
According to my Lyman book, the minimum load for IMR4064 is 40.0 for a velocity of 2415 fops and Maximum load of 45.0 for 2717 fps. As I stated above, I have been loading 43.7 grains of IMR4064 which, according to the book, should be in the safe side...more or less in the middle. My primers don't show pressure marks. My groups at 100 yards are consistently between .25" and .50"...depending on whether I have been shooting often or not. Today I fired groups at 500 yards in the neighborhood of 3". So, I'm pretty happy with the way things are.... However:
This week I bought a Chronograph. I know, I should have bought it a long time ago...Mia culpa.
Today I fire 10 rounds and measured their velocities. My average was 2820.... Which obviously implies that a few rounds were hotter than that.
My first thought was that I should bring my velocity down a little bit...and keep it in the 2650-2700 fps range. I have noticed a little bit of a sticky bolt from time to time. Could this be attributed to the loads being too hot or my poor reloading technique? I only neck size since I only shoot those rounds from the same rifle. 99 per cent of time, I have no problems ejecting the empties.
On the other hand, I don't see any signs of pressure, unless the sometimes sticky bolt is one, and since the load works well for me, as far as accuracy goes, I am also inclined to just leave it alone. I have fired over 500 rounds with this load out of an FN SPR rifle.
What do you think? Slow them down a bit....???? Leave them alone????
Any thoughts, suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance.