Thread: Loading IMR 4895 in 308

Originally Posted by Jhon

I'm interested in this one brass approach as it is commonly stated. Genuine question here - How much does it really matter for hunting, especially for meat for the table?

Why I ask:
1. Anecdotally, most hunters by far are taking their shots, and kills under 200m with many, possibly the vast majority, under 100m
2. If you are killing for meat, high velocity disintegrating style projectiles are not your friend for body shots. Slower
2000-2600fps, or even down into the mid teens with cast, are going to kill effectively and give a cleaner carcass. So case capacity is hardly an issue if not chasing max velocity
3. Under 200m a 50-80fps velocity variation at the muzzle from different combustion pressures arising from different case capacity is not going to give a meaningful difference in POI, all else being equal.

So I understand the potential importance to bench rest shooters and long distance hunters, or to those wanting reliable head or neck shots where an inch variation might really matter, but for the vast majority of us, should we care?

I do sort and keep my rifle brass in bagged batches of the same headstamp. But I load them all the same if I have an established hunting load. There is more variation in my shooting ability than I will ever get from brass variation I think. The only exception I have personally found is loading 22 Hornet to max loads with frangible tipped Hornady projectiles. Some case brands simply won't seat the bullet over a full charge and allow the round to load in the mag. But that is a different issue I think.

Greetings All,
I was sorting out some loads for a friends .222 earlier in the year, The old loads were with mixed cases srtung vertically about 100mm at 60 metres where the new loads in single headstamp cases produced small groups Ke Waters had chronographed the same load in different cases, again for the .222, varying by as much as 200 fps so this was likely the problem. That said some cartridges seem to plonk most projectiles with different velocities in much the same hole. My experience is that the .308 is not one of those. Regarding the Hornady cases the batch I have are close to identical to later production Winchester. I did read that the earlier Hornady cases may have been made by another firm so current cases could vary from the earlier ones. From my own experience 2 additional grains of powder raised the PoI by around 50mm at 100 metres. It has been stated that US Army brass in the .308 is around 20 grains heavier than Winchester etc and got the same velocity with 2 grains less powder. I have done some loads to check this and will report once they are shot and chronographed. From all this it seems that a significantly heavier case has the copacity to raise the point of impact by as much as 50mm at 100 metres and a little over twice that at 200 metres in the .308. I think that is significant.
Regards Grandpamac.