A few weeks ago I brought up reloading and how I had finally set up my reloading station in the basement of my house. Since writing that column, I have been able to reload some rifle cartridges and test them out.

I wanted to find a good powder and bullet combination for my Mossberg Patriot .308 Winchester that I won at an NWTF banquet a few years ago. I didn’t buy ammo for it immediately and then COVID hit, so ammo was very expensive.

I finally found some inexpensive stuff but it didn’t shoot great in it. I had shot Hornady Custom ammunition in my .270 and really liked how the SST bullet performed, so I decided to go with the SST in 150 grains for the .308. And last year when I first bought the reloading equipment, an online retailer had free hazmat shipping on powder so I did some research and bought three different powders based on the different calibers of rifle that I own. Two of them were listed as options for .308 so I figured I would try one and if it wasn’t up to my liking, I would try the second.

Working up a load is the term used for determining what powder charge results in the best grouping in your rifle. Depending on published reloading data from a reliable source, like a powder or bullet manufacturer, you can choose a starting powder charge. Typically it is roughly 10% below the published maximum charge. Then you load three cartridges at that charge. Next you increase the charge slightly and load three cartridges at that powder charge.

The increase can be half a grain, a full grain, or 1% of the maxiumum charge (so if 45 grains is the maximum listed, you would go 4.5 grains). I have the Hornady reloading book, so I looked up the 150 grain SST in the .308 section, and found the maximum load for Accurate Arms 2495 powder was 43.3 grains. Accurate Arms description of this powder is that it was deigned specifically for .308 Winchester, which is why I chose to test it first. So my starting load was 39.5 grains and I increased each charge by 0.5 grains. I seated the SST bullets so that I had an overall cartridge length of 2.735 inches, as recommended in the reloading book. I did stop my maximum load at 42.0 grains of powder instead of going to 43.0. Since I am so new to reloading, I didn’t want to push too close to the maximum because that is where pressure issues can arise and cause big problems.

Then after a successful Youth Deer Hunt on the Saturday of Columbus Day weekend, I was freed up for Monday. I drove to a friend’s private range to finish the work up. I busted out my Leadsled shooting rest because it keeps the gun well supported without a lot of movement when shooting. I started with the lowest charge and shot all three rounds with a break between shots to keep the barrel from getting too hot. Walked down the target at 100 yards and swapped it with a fresh target. Back at the bench, I labelled the target with the powder charge so I wouldn’t mix them up later.

Then proceeded to do the same thing with the all of the sets of three loads of each powder charge. After every shot, I would pay attention to how easily the bolt was to work to remove the spent cartridge. A sign of overpressure is the casing expanding too much and making the bolt hard to work (or even get stuck if too much expanding happens). I would then visually inspect the casing once removed from the gun, as well, for anything out of the ordinary. My 42.0 grain loads did result in the bolt being a little tough to work so I was glad I stopped there in my charge level.

Once all the 3-shot groups were finished and labelled, I compared them and there was a clear winner. The 41.0 grain charge of powder had the tightest grouping of the different loads. When I got home, I broke out my calipers and measured the group at under .75 inches.

So throughout the week, I went through the whole reloading process on the casings from the test loads but this time loaded them all with 41.0 grains of powder so they are ready for deer season.