Not sure where to go from here

[JW7]

Try to find IMR 3031. It’s not earth shattering, not new, not sexy, but was the original .308 match powder because it’s consistent. I usually get my best groups with it when using any .308 parented cartridge

 

[HiMtnHntr]

Do any factory round shoot tighter than your handloads?

 

[Lelder]

308 case sized rounds seem to respond very well to varget and 4350 as mentioned above. I think H1000 is WAY to slow burning for that case size

 

[Adam Gibbs]

Thanks for all the help. I'm going to get another scale to check against my current scale and see if that is where the problem may lie. I'll also try a few different factory rounds just to get a baseline to see if the gun shoots any better with that. As of now I had only shot a group of older Remington factory loaded Nosler 140 partitions. It did not shoot all that great.

 

[Vern400]

sorry I am so late with this reply. But I know something useful.
Remington 700s have a lot of freebore - sometimes up to 0.120 inch. That's bad for accuracy.

I reloaded for a YEAR and never found anything better than Remington 150 core lokt (308).
So I was frustrated. I got kinda miffed, and just pulled the bullets (kinetic puller) about halfway and reseated them at 0.010 to ZERO off the lands and shot them.

I shot 3 consecutive groups 0.68/0.78/0.62/0.80 with that stuff. Freebore was killing me.
Even today that barrel is nearly shot out, but I load at 2.830 which is the most that will fit.

SO WHAT THEN???

 

[Vern400]

I bought a 700VS, 26 inch heavy barrel. It shot real good with overall length 2.85.

So I took the barrel, cut 2 threads off the barrel, rethreaded and chamber reamed to get the rifling back to where I can load lengths 2.80 or less with most bullets and be right at the lands. There was some machine time, but no new barrel cost. That gun consistently shoots under 0.75. A lot of people say "oh yeah, so what?". But I mean on any given day I can pull that rifle cold and hit a skoal can at 300 yards. I did exactly that every morning for 6 weeks. Fog, drizzle, clear, any weather. For a $600 rifle and $150 in machine work. Im not talking that once I shot a 1/2 inch group. I have about 90% confidence that any one shot is going to hit the can. The 10% is on windy days. I am not good at shooting around gusts. Good thing I live in the southeast where the wind doesn't blow.

It's not the end of the world to have ONE cartridge that's single load, and the others in the mag whatever fits.
If the first shot doesn't land right, the others might not help as much.

 

[JJJ]

I don’t mess with seating depth at all until I’ve found a load that shoots tight groups(sub moa for a hunting rifle) at my starting seating depth. In my experiences if your gun doesn’t like the powder/bullet combination, seating depth won’t matter much. I’d switch powder and bullet combo and see what you get. Good luck.

I was trying to figure this out in my mind while loading 117gr 270win rds with staball 6.5. Not seeing COL data much at all.
good to know