Prepping to load some Service Rifle rounds

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Wiley

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My son will soon have a NIB/never fired 1978 Remington 742 ADL in .308. Over the last couple of weeks I've disassembled and cleaned the rifle so there's not any 47 year old crud in it to be a burr under the saddle.

I'm getting setup to crank out a few test loads for it. Gonna load some Service Rifle rounds with 150gr Sierra HP boolits. Powder of choice is surplus WC4895 (IMR4895 load data), CCI #200 LRP in new Starline brass will build the finished product. I'm using Hornady Service Rifle data as my guide and the start loads appear to be really mild at 2300fps. I'm hoping the rifle likes these bullets since they don't Ange any kind of exposed point to get deformed during the loading cycle. And if they don't work out I have 4 varieties of Speer and Sierra 165/168gr projectiles.

Mostly looking forward to my son's smile when he sees his #40 birthday present :)
 
Last edited:
Wiley said:
My son will soon have a NIB/never fired 1978 Remington 742 ADL in .308. Over the last couple of weeks I've disassembled and cleaned the rifle so there's not any 47 year old crud in it to be a burr under the saddle.

I'm getting setup to crank out a few test loads for it. Gonna load some Service Rifle rounds with 150gr Sierra HP boolits. Powder of choice is surplus WC4895 (IMR4895 load data), CCI #200 LRP in new Starline brass will build the finished product. I'm using Hornady Service Rifle data as my guide and the start loads appear to be really mild at 2300fps. I'm hoping the rifle likes these bullets since they don't Ange any kind of exposed point to get deformed during the loading cycle. And if they don't work out I have 4 varieties of Speer and Sierra 165/168gr projectiles.

Mostly looking forward to my son's smile when he sees his #40 birthday present :)
Click to expand...
Did you squirrel that one away? What a gem!
 
Without looking at my data, from memory best as i recall for 308 with imr 4895 optimal was somewhere between 41-42 grains with 165 grain sierra's. I do remember that load produced excellent accuracy.

Congrats to your son, great gift.
 
We are using 44.5 gr Varget, Fed 210M primers, Fed match brass, Nosler 150 BT' s and A-Bonds in our bolt Venture rifle. Accuracy and repeatability are way over my standards.

Got a SCAR recently. Having some known-to-work loads handy we took Mr. FN to the range and achieved the same results.

Whatever you choose, congratulations on a great find.
 
I load either IMR-4064 or CFE-223 in the .308. The Army match load is/(was) Federal Gold Medal Match brass, Federal GMM210 primer, 41.8 grains of IMR-4064, Sierra #2275 175 grain Matchking bullet. It shoots 2625fps from my 20" Tikka with a can attached.
 
My in stock powders for this venture are the surplus 4895, Varget and IMR 3031. Of those I believe I'll choose the 4895. I have a very accurate bolt rifle load with it and want to go a little mild and not have the rifle beat itself to death prematurely since they have a fairly well known lifespan of about 600 rounds. Let the experiment begin....
 
I used the Hornady Service Rifle data for 3 loads and pulled the 4th load from the Sierra book. The bullet is the Sierra flat base 150gr Hollow Point. These are the first .308 rounds that I've put a crimp on and I got a little heavy on a couple of rounds. Definitely gonna have to watch that once I find what the 742 likes.
1) 38.8gr IMR 4895 2300 fps
2) 39.9gr IMR 4895 2400 fps
3) 41.1gr IMR 4895 2500 fps
4) 41.7gr IMR 4895 2550 fps

Sierra 150gr Test Loads.webp

Sierra 150gr HP.webp

Gonna shoot these 4 rounds out of my Rem 700 SPS Tactical to get a baseline on velocity before we shoot any of the others from the 742. The 700 is a 20" barrel and the 742 is 22". I'm curious as to what the difference will be with 2 more inches of barrel but using gas to operate the action vs the 700.
742 Test Loads.webp
 

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