Henry LR 308 - first reloadings

[wingnut]

This is a cross post from 2 other posts of mine in other threads on the board that were copied, edited and placed here for easy access to reloaders.

I bought a 308 Long Ranger about 1 month ago for future hunting of deer & elk and mounted a 1-4x Leu’d scope on it. I did a 20 round barrel break-in with factory ammo (shoot 1, clean, repeat for 10 rounds, then shoot 2, clean, repeat for another 10 rds).

Here are some things I had to consider prior to reloading:

1. The chamber in my LR is tight. Its close to a match chamber, there is no “slop” in it at all. Brass cases fired in other rifles then resized on the usual RCBS or Redding dies would not chamber. I had to get and use a “Small Base” sizing die.

2. The chamber throat would not tolerate any case that was a hair+ longer than spec. All “used” cases had to be measured and any above spec were trimmed .005" less than spec. That said, new factory ammo worked well and if it was first shot in the your LR, it may or may not have the above problems.

Now to reload… I chose the .308 150 grain Nosler E-Tip for its high (for weight) BC, its speed out of a 20 inch barrel (high compared to a heavier cup & core bullet) and its penetration abilities (very high for weight). Then I modeled a load on QuickLoad & QuickTarget software:

Cartridge : .308 Win. (SAAMI)
Bullet : .308, 150, Nosler E-Tip 59378
Cartridge O.A.L. L6: 2.780 inch = 70.61 mm (Short because that is where it fit/chambered)
Barrel Length : 20.0 inch = 508.0 mm
Powder : Hodgdon BL-C2, 46 grains
Primer : CCI 200

My personal max range would be about 400 yards because the long-time rule-of-thumb is for a minimum of 500 foot-pounds of energy for deer and 1000 for elk at impact. Here are my “about” results (scope set at 0 for 200 yards):

0 yards distance – 2730 fps, time-of-flight 0 seconds, 2482 foot-pounds, 0 inches drop
400 yards – 2013 fps, tof 0.51 sec, 1350 fp, -23.8 inches
500 yards – 1853 fps, tof 0.66 sec, 1143 fp, -47.7 inches
YMMV

The best of 3 loadings (45g, 45.5g, 46g), was 46g and was a 5 round 1 inch group at 100 yards (1 MOA ). Hoping .75 MOA in the near future with more rounds down the barrel.

[JEBar]

first, welcome to our forum (officially) .... we've loaded for our Browning BLR 308 since 1970 .... for range work we use 150 gr Nosler Ballistic Tips, pushed by 35 gr of W748 .... for hunting we use the same powder & charge behind 150 gr Nosler E-Tips .... the Ballistic Tips purchased from Shooter's Pro Shops ===> http://www.shootersproshop.com/nosler-3 ... -50ct.html .... are considerably cheaper and shoot to the same point of aim .... please take a look at our How Many ? thread (link below) and add your Henry rifle(s) to our community's total


http://henryrifleforums.com/viewtopic.p ... 339#p79339

[wingnut]

1 other thing I'd like to add about the new LR... I bought a hammer extension from Henry that failed nearly from the start. It is the 2 sided one and is made of aluminum. Once mounted, seems the inertia from both dry firing and loaded firing is just too much for the twin "ears" and the skinny midsection. The ears bend forward so much that the unit releases. I recommend you go with 1 of the aftermarket steel single sided extensions.

Mods- I was not able to find a good place to put this. There is no "Bad Deals" forum or something similar.

[mrguvna]

you mention the base sizing die which a lot of times is much overlooked on cartridges that headspace on the neck. I don't have a Henry 308 but an M1A which is a completely different animal but.......I have a 35 rem in a Marlin that I also use a base sizing die on before I full length size them. On these 2 calibers i also use a wilson case guage to ensure that the neck is in the right place and not pushed back. I also use the wilson case guage to set my dies so as not to cause this problem in the first place.

The 308 is a great round! I have never messed with the lighter bullets as I have better accuracy using 168 gr bullets. Love to hear more about this Henry 308 as it is a very capable cartridge.

[Me78569]

My 6.5 Creedmoor lr seems to stretch my cases a good bit. I have to trim %50 of my once fired rounds.

Using the 143 eld x my coal is up to 2.9 in the lands. I can fit 2.850 in the mag so that's what I run.