Saturday, September 30, 2017

Reduced .308 Winchester Loads

Last year I tried out a couple batches of "The Load," in my Ruger Gunsite Scout Rifle in .308 Winchester.  The first patch was 13 grains of Alliant Red Dot under a 170 grain cast bullet, although I forget exact which one. Accuracy of that was abysmal, on the order of 4" or more at ~50 yards. The bullets were originally sized .311 and had been purchased by my dad for use in Mosin-Nagants. I sized them down to .308 for use in the Ruger. I may have gone a little too far. Afterwards, used a chucking reamer to to open the Lee sizing die up to .309 in my lathe, but I have not yet tried it out. It's one of the many items on my round tuit list.

The second batch was again 13 grains of Red Dot, but this time I loaded the cases with 152 grain FMJ flat base .30 caliber M2 projectiles. Groups were more like ~2" from prone, with the factory irons.

Recoil of "The Load" in the GSR feels like you're shooting an M1 Carbine.

Today, I ran across this article, linked by Brownell's on their FaceBook page: Reduced 308 Winchester Loads with Trail Boss. This looks pretty interesting, any may be something to try.

Friday, September 08, 2017

RIP Jerry Pournelle

Instapundit reports that Jerry Pournelle has passed.

Ever since I was able to join the Daynotes Gang I've felt priviledged to be included in a group of writers with Jerry at the masthead. I had several great email exchanges with him.

We are diminished.