308 loads for a Rem. pump rifle.
 

I was tasked with loading for one of my club brothers his fathers pump 308 remington rifle. It hasnt been shot in 30yrs and he wants to use it for hogs and deer. Im wondering if I could load it like a bolt gun or are there pressure differences because of the action difference. Im kinda leaning towards the Horn. A-Max for I have a bunch of them, 155grn. It is box magazine fed. What do you guys have in mind?

It's not exactly the same reloading for the 7600 as it is for a bolt gun. The rotating bolt pump gun doesn't have the leverage advantage of the camming action of a bolt gun, so you have to be more persnickety about sizing on the feed in, and more tentative about pressure on the extraction out. Too little sizing and it just won't close, too much pressure and it'll be a bear to open. It's not complicated, if you follow proper load work up for a bolt gun, you'd do the same steps for a pump gun. Just that a guy can't get away with just bumping the shoulder or neck sizing only, and can't over drive the power factor

My brother uses the same 165gr Sierra game king (2140) loading in his Remington 760 carbine the same as mine I use in the Remington 700. Speed is between 2700 and 2800 FPS.


I think as long as you follow the book and work the loads up your going to be fine.




:D Al

yep, work the load for that rifle, I'm assuming its a 760 with the 9 lugs on the bolt, they don't fare well with hot loads, my bro-n-law swiped a handful of my handloads that I worked up for my rem. 660, they were 1/2 gr over max loaded with IMR 4350, he shot 1, and couldn't extract it, least he never stole any of my ammo again.
RR

Another thing about loading for a pump. Like NoMercy said they don't have the caming force a bolt does. I had a 760 in .308 that had a very tight chamber. I had to purchase a small base sizing die so the action would close.

I think Bonko hit the nail on the head. I could have sworn I read somewhere where they recommend small base resizing dies for pumps and semi-auto rifles as well as working up your loads slowly so they don't get stuck in the chamber.

Good information here. use Small base dies, avoid maximum loads, clean your chamber regularly and meticulously, lubricate the bolt regularly. For semiautos, keep to medium rate powders, in the 3031 to Varget/RL15 range. Slower powders can cause problems with extraction and occasionally damage older operating systems.

why use small base dies? all your doing if you don't absolutely have to have them is shortening case life
RR

Problem is RR, with a whole hell of a lot of Pumpers, especially the Rems, you DO absolutely need them. My old Rem 760 .30-06 had absolutely the tightest chamber of any factory barreled rifle I have ever had. Add to that the weak cam and you have a recipe for stuck cases. I think that is the only rifle I have ever owned, with necked cases, that I didn't fire form and neck size only for. I'd rather deal with a couple less loads on the cases than having to break out the cleaning rod and mallet to dink the case out.

yours was not the norm, the 742's/760's used to be very popular have messed with a couple dozen of them, never had 1 that needed small base dies. my personal 760 in 270 hasn't fired a factory load in 40 years, regular dies, have never trimmed a case for it.
RR