There's a startup in South Dakota called Badlands Precision that's launched itself primarily by marketing a proprietary copper bullet with an aluminum tip for long-range shooting...but if you look around outside of their website, you find that one of their secrets is using Leverevolution Powder.
Skip ahead to the comment section on this article, and see about 3 comments and responses from last year by George Fournier, one of the guys from Badlands Precision explaining their insane results loading LVR powder in a .308 and you'll see this:
The commercial offerings for the 308 Win suffer from lack of high BC bullets and velocity. Currently we are addressing these issues...I have been testing a machined 150 gr copper bullet with a BC of .475-.490 (measured myself with a Berger 185gr as a standard in the test) that can be launched at 3100 fps from a 24 in 308 Win Bartlein barrel. At 500 yds that bullet arrives with 250-500 more foot pounds of energy than any 6.5 Creedmore offering (9 inches less drop than the 143 ELDX Hornady 6.5 Creedmore load at 500 yds). We have used that bullet in Africa on plains game. The largest animal we killed was a 600 lb Blue Wildebeest at 482 yds that dropped like a truck hit it. The powder used was Leverevolution, which for the 308 Win has proven to be superior to any other powder on the market. Strange that there is no published data for this powder in the 308 Win. I have shot well over 750 shots with bullets of all types and weights (lead core jacketed, all copper with weights ranging from 150 to 196 gr) from both my 308 Win rifles in temperatures from close to 0 F up to the mid 90's F. That bullet/powder combination makes the 308 Win perform more like a 7mm Rem Mag than a typical 308 Win...No other cartridge yields as much energy/grain of powder and has as long a barrel life as the 308 Win.
https://www.huntinggearguy.com/gener...08-winchester/
Now if you Google "leverevolution powder in 308" you see several undeveloped threads that follow the same pattern:
1) The "if it's not in the manual and the company claims the powder only works well in the cartridges they offer data for, then that's all there is to it" crowd comes out in full force.
2) Someone mentions that there exists loading data and ample evidence of good performance for loading .338 Federal with LVR, suggesting there is no reason it shouldn't also work in heavier .308 Win loads.
3) If you're lucky, the thread ends with some brave soul actually loading a few rounds and posting tentative results (usually leaving their chronograph at home, because it's broken), while the rest of the posters talk in circles about contacting Hodgson and Hornady to get the answer they've already heard from them re-stated in a more interesting way that can win the debate for the "answer #1 crowd" I mentioned above.
4) If you're
really lucky, someone considers the issue with enough good faith to caution said brave soul to work up loads in the summer and the winter, since the jury's out on whether LVR is temp-sensitive.
But nobody actually spends the time to perfect a load that:
a) consistently produces great groups
b) doesn't exhibit signs of excessive pressure
c) outperforms velocities using other powders
In light of the fact an entire business is actually selling .308 loads (if not others, as well) that launch 155-grain pills anywhere between 2900-3100 fps without signs of excessive pressure across a wide range of shooting temperatures, I wonder if any seasoned reloaders on here feel provoked to do the interwebs a service, pull out a decent guinea pig .308 bolt rifle with a 1:10 twist and see if they can approach Fournier's performance with normal-to-heavy bullets that are more readily available (e.g. 150 and 165 gr Spire Points, 165 gr Nosler Accubond)? Maybe even other .308 family cartridges like the .260, 7mm-08?
I've never reloaded in my life, but if LVR really can turn a .308 into a different beast, I'd have a hard time not putting my used brass to work. But I don't want to discover handloading for the first time with this sort of manual-less experimentation.
And until my dad and I go back to Nebraska to hunt mulies in the open range (have talked about it for the first time in forever for this coming year, but don't know if it'll go anywhere), I frankly have no reason to ditch my soft points from Wal-Mart to figure out a load with a heavier premium bullet this summer. So I am selfishly throwing this into other people's court---but even if nobody wants to try this, it'd still be interesting to hear y'all's thoughts about it.
But I hope this thread ends up bringing more to the table than the same sequence, confirming or denying that Badlands Precision's path is for the Everyman, not just people who buy custom ammo. But who am I kidding? It'll probably either get no responses or just a couple incredulous ones.