BigtimerNC

I am trying to create a load for my daughter's .308. A friend has recommended H4895 and a 120 to 140 grain to get what I am looking for. Does anyone have some experience with reduced recoil loads? I'd love to hear from you!

super_hunt54

Question is, how low do you want to take it? 4895 is a perfect powder for safely creating reduced rounds. Start out at 42.5 grains with a 125 grain Nosler Ballistic tip. If that load is easily handled, start taking the powder up. 42.5 should put you around 2650-2700 and 46 grains will hit 3000. That little 125 NBT is a pretty good whitetail smacker.

My recommendation would be to take her to the gun shop and fit her up with a 7mm-08 or a .243. Both have a fairly low recoil and are perfect deer slayers. But if you can't afford that, then that load data will put you in a pretty well reduced recoil range. But the problem is, does that .308 fit her as far as LOP and all? Fit is important in felt recoil. If the rifle does't fit, a lot of times the recoil will be harsher due to improper shouldering.

bpd1982

I have used Trail Boss 14gr with 150 gr bullets for about 1400fps for a practice round for my daughter. It was very accurate. For a hunting load I used 40 gr. 3031 with 150 gr. corelokt at 2350 fps. After practicing with the Trail Boss she never noticed the change to the hunting load.

Ridge Runner

as long as you do not go below 60% of max listed book load with H4895 it is safe, you can find it on hodgdons page under "youth loads"
RR

BigtimerNC

Thanks for the replies. The gun fits her nicely. It's a Ruger American with a 22" barrel. She has shot my Browning Stalker in .308 and she said that the recoil wasn't too bad but more than her .243. I figured that the ruger bolt would kick more than the semiauto. The reason that we decided to go with the larger caliber is that deer and bear season coincide with one another in some counties here in NC. I just can't see shooting one of these bears with a .243.

super_hunt54

Yeah that would be tricky. The .243 CAN take a Bear but you will have about a 50% reduction in target area because you really wouldn't want to hit shoulder bone on a Bear with those little fellas. If Bear is in the mix then I would recommend that same starting load with the 130gr Hornady SP. Little better penetration and she wouldn't feel the difference in the recoil. Most Rugers I've seen tend to shoot the Hornady's well enough. You might want to work up some 150 grain starting out at 43gr H4895. That should be fairly light on recoil and give you right around .30-30 performance levels.

Nomercy448

I wouldn't want to hit a big bruin with a 120-140grn pill, especially in a reduced recoil load, and especially in a 30 caliber where the bullet SD would be .200 or below (120grn 30cal is .18). A heavy for caliber pill in a .243win at full power, given proper bullet construction, is a better bear killer than a .308win with a light for cal bullet and a light charge. Although you're really talking about very similar recoil when you look at similar bullet weights out of similar weighted rifles from the same cartridge case, so a lot of this line of discussion is just conjecture.

Or maybe you're planning on hauling a few rounds of full house, heavy bullet ammo, and praying for a similar POI?

BigtimerNC

Well the problem has been solved. My gunsmith cut 2" off of the stock and installed a LimbSaver "grind to fit" recoil pad. After these adjustments, she has no problem handling the recoil of the reloads that I shoot out of my Remington 700 BDL in .308! She has already put around 100 rounds through it with no complaints whatsoever Thanks for all of the advice!

8mm/06

That is the best solution! Reduced recoil might still be nice for range sessions, but full power loads won't even be noticed in the field.

BigtimerNC

That's true!