My Rem700 likes the Federal Gold Metal Match 168gr 308 round. Has anyone figured out the closest powder to match the performance of the factory load?

H4895

IMR 4064

168 grain bullet, 42.8 grains
175 grain bullet, 41.8 grains

ETA: COL = ~2.800"

This.

I use this exact load with Sierra 168 and 175 Matchkings.

Also with Hornady 168 BTHPs. Which I actually prefer.

I have heard most often that 4064 comes closest to duplicating the FGMM. Varget is hard to beat though.

Oh also take a good look at CFE223.

I have had great results in .308 with it and it meters really well.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDIu6Mivi-Y[/youtube]

If you have a 24 inch barrel, suggest Varget, then 4064.

Damn it I lost my recipe with my last phone update. BTW I used 168 SMK and reloder 17. And my Rem700 AAC SD loves it.

Please someone help me with the correct charge.

The only way your are going to find out what works best in your rifle is to try different loads.

The posted IMR-4064 loads are known accuracy loads.

41.5 grain of IMR-4895 is also a known accuracy load with Federal brass and 168 grain SMK's.

You might try 41.0 grains even of H4895.

Varget, RE-15 and VihtaVuori N140 and 150 are also great performers in .308.

Hand weighing IMR-4064 is a requirement, not an option. IMR-3031 is another option which must be hand weighed.

All of the powders listed are extruded and simply hand throwing them will not get anywhere near the consistency of ball powders through a measure. They are, however, worth the extra effort.

H4895, RE-15 and VihtaVuouri N140 will throw better than the others I listed.

I edited my post above to include the COL.

Both FGMM (168gr) and Lapua (167gr) perform very well from my rifle. However, by own best IMR4064 load is 43.5gr under the 168gr SMK, and 43.5gr N-140 under the Scenars (167gr) both at longer than mag length COLs. They give slightly tighter groups on average than either of the two factory ammos.

Yes, Dan Newberry is the guy I was quoting loads from. I thought his evidence - and my own results - were pretty compelling.

I believe the actual loads are not XX.8gr, but might actually be XX.75gr. So if your 0.02gr scale flutters between XX.74 and XX.76, be happy :)

Thanks for the replies on this. I'll try loading with some H4895 and IMR 4064 and see how they fly.

Last weekend a friend let me shoot some of his German Military ammo that he said was super accurate... I was doubting my abilities with this rifle since it had probably been 10 yrs since I've shot it.... then tried 5 rds of FGMM and got a ragged hole @100. It confirmed 2 things for me... my friend is full of bs and this rifle still likes 168g FGMM.

Remember that the brass used is VERY important!
There is a false economy with using less expensive brass, as the case life is shorter and in the case of Federal significantly shorter.
Invest in Bushing style dies to decrease work hardening of your brass.
The best thing to do is chrono FGM in your rifle and work up a load using that as a reference point.
Remember that Federal uses NON CANISTER Grades of powder that are not that same as packaged for resale.

Some powders
IMR 4895/4064 powder seem to have best results with WLR  4166  and 8208 seem to like BR2 primers
Reloder 15 and 210M
Varget and BR

Curious what brass you prefer for 308... LC, Lapua?

I do need to get a chrono for that exact purpose... my last one died.

Lake City brass weighs close to 180 grains empty and unprimed. It requires a 2.0 full grain reduction in powder charges to reach maximum pressure compared to commercially manufactured in the USA ammo/brass. It is meant for use in machine guns as well as M14's/sniper rifles and is built heavy on purpose.

Lapua brass is considered the best in the industry and the price reflects their attention to detail. Norma is excellent as well.

I personally buy in bulk and use Winchester .308 and uniform the primer pockets, deburr the flash holes and separate the entire batch into .5 grain weight variances. Outliers are used for fouling shots, hunting loads, etc. and the rest are loaded and shot at long range (600 yards or more) only. This creates excellent ammo but is labor intensive.

You can just buy Lapua and load then shoot. A word of caution, Lapua brass comes from the factory with way too much neck tension. You will either need to neck size new Lapua brass or run an expander mandrel (Sinclair International) or Expandiron (K&M) to get something closer to .002" to .003" of neck tension. Bolt actions only need .001" of neck tension. Anything higher than .003" of neck tension is detrimental to accuracy.

Thanks for this information.... Winchester sounds like a good option.

+1 on the Lapua brass. I ran the K&M expand iron tool ( http://kmshooting.com/tools/case-neck-tools/case-neck-expansion/expand-iron-complete.html ) on the box I bought not long ago. All were a bit tight.

+1 on Lapua as well, if you are only loading for one bolt gun.  



Just as an experiment, I loaded some brand new out of the box Lapua brass for use in my bolt gun.  No brass prep as all.  I shot just under .5 MOA in the MOA challenge with those rounds...good out of the box, but better if prepped properly, neck tension being the biggest factor as mentioned above.  



Why try to replicate FGGM when you can improve on it.  



 

Your probably right there... just knowing FGMM does well in this rifle seemed like a good starting point.

I need to sort the brass I have and see what's collected over the years. Then weigh them out.

Ended up with Lapua cases. Now to neck size and work up a load.

Thanks for all the input here! I've got a good place to start now.

Last year I chronographed factory 168 gr FGGM and the FGGM clone listed here, in FC brass, at the same session.  Velocities were virtually identical.

Glad you used Federal brass (and Federal match primers would complete the package). Lapua brass (eg) requires an adjustment to the powder charge of course.

For clarity, the actual charge using Federal components is 42.75gr of IMR4064 :)

My LTR loves:

43.5 gr IMR 4064
2.800 coal
2.012 case
168gr SMK's

If I do my job, it's shooting clovers

I have been reloading the 175gr FGMM cases with 42.0 IMR 4064 and getting identical results with Wolf WLR primers. Winchester WLR give higher SD and higher velocity.

I believe the factory load for 175gr FGMM is actually 41.75gr of IMR4064, so 42,0gr giving "identical" results with your batch of powder makes sense.

42.0 grains of 4064 and Hornady 178 hpbt ( better bullet then the smk) makes my Armalite groups look like a bolt gun. Some of the groups shot from it are better then my custom built bolt gun.