Soon, soon, come to me, .308

[armoredman]

Very soon I will be able to try my first .308 handloads through the CZ 600 Alpha...if everything goes right! I have been loading for a buddy for a bit, so I have a pretty good idea what I am doing, but I am wondering if anyone here has change bullet weight in ,308 due to barrel twist? I read a lot about that for 5.56mm/.223 and still managed to get things to run right in the BREN, but .308 might be a horse of a different color. Right now I have, (all Hornaday), 110, 150, 168 grainers, and for some insane reason some 165s made for 30-30. The guy who brought those over didn't know they were for the Leverevolution, and I didn't have the heart to tell him no.

[M1A4ME]

I can say I've had everything from 110 grain to 180 grain bullets through my M1A.

The 110 grain bullets were a waste of time (accuracy wise) but that was true in every rifle I shot them in (Rem. 742, Rem 03A4, M1917, etc.)

The .308 isn't really made for the 200 and 220 grain .30 caliber bullets.  Short neck/short case and those bullets stick way far down into the case body.

My M1A has a one turn in 11" barrel (I forget who was making match barrels for SA in those days.) 

The .308 does what it was designed to do with the bullets it was designed to use.  The .223/5.56 has been through the phases of "it works just fine" to "it ain't working" and they just keep trying heavier bullets to make it do stuff it wasn't designed to do.  It really is a pretty good varmint round.  I would not bear hunt with it.  Then again, I don't groundhog hunt with the M1A either.

[AZ_CZ]

CZ says in the specs “factory tested and guaranteed sub-MOA at 100 meters (three-shot groups with match-grade factory ammunition)”. To bad they don’t say what ammo or how it’s tested.  I’ve only loaded 150 165 and 168 for hunting and long range. My hunting guns didn’t really care what they got and all shot minute of deer. My Remington PSS will shoot just about any 165 or 168 at MOA. Even comes close with nato spec 150 M80. To really shine though it wanted 168 with just the right specs and nothing else. I’d like to say that was all the effort and love I put into each round but  I could get the same results with 168 federal gold match. With my limited reloading experience I think the 308 is the easiest round to load for and get decent results. Going to test that theory out with a 16” barrel semi soon.