Disected Factory Remington .308 ammo. Acuracy OCW?

[swampratt]

Many times at the ranges I visit there are people trying to adjust their scopes for the hunt.
I help out if they look like they want some help.
Lots of them shoot Remington box ammo that they picked up at Wally world.

Now I have had No luck with this ammo except in a 336 30-30.

Most groups I see from the 308's are in the all are fliers range MOA of slice of bread if you are lucky.
I have given these guys some of my handloaded 308 ammo to try and groups shrink to 1"-1.5" or really close to that.

So one guy headed for a hunt in 3 days was not happy and I gave him 4 rounds of my accurate hunting ammo we just tested in his gun to take hunting.
Yes I lost 4 Lapua cases.

But I got in trade 4 cases of factory loaded Remington 150gr ammo.
I finally took it apart today and measured things to see why this ammo was not accurate.

Long story short I feel it is just not a good charge weight.

Details.
Powder looks just like BL-C(2) but not as shiny (it is more dull grey).
Powder comes to the base of the shoulder(not compressed)
Charge weights were: 46.4gr., 46.3gr., 46.3gr., 46.25gr.

Bullet weights. 150.9gr., 151.4., 151.4., 151.3.
Neck OD after pulling bullets with inertia puller all the same .335"
Neck ID 3 at .308" 1 at .3075"
Measurement to shoulder datum within .002" of each other.
Case base sizes all exactly the same.

Case weight with primers. 170.7gr., 171.2gr., and 2 at 171.7gr.
Trim length 2.05-2.07

The bullet after being pulled had scratches on the bearing surface it is a flat base spitzer with cannelure.

I did not test how much pressure it took to pull the bullet from the case as this would make powder fall onto the floor and i need to drill a hole through the bullet to do so.

So looks like the stuff is pretty well on as far as tolerances go.
When i worked up loads for my .308 with Ball C2 powder and 150gr flat base bullets
I used Winchester brass and charge weight that worked was 45gr.

So maybe it is just not an optimum charge weight for the guns I have seen it shoot out of.

I was thinking the factory loads in that Rem yellow and green box were just not in good tolerances.. I was mistaken.

 

[Eagle Eye]

Thanks for doing this!

Makes me wonder if we had 10 rifles from each of 4 or 5 of the most popular 308 rifles. See how many rifles (out of 10) with the same make and model perform well with this yellow n green and how many have marginal results. Same shooter, same day, etc etc.

 

[swampratt]

Part 2 conclusion.

Well I refurbished this dissected Remington ammo.
I pulled the bullets reduced powder charge to 45gr from Remingtons 46.3 ish gr.

I cleaned up the crimped neck with a VLD chamfer tool and neck sized the Never fired cases with a lee collet neck sizer die to reduce neck ID to .307"
As when the rounds were taken apart the neck ID was .308" to .3075"

I then brushed the necks with a bore brush on a drill.
Loaded the Remington 150gr flat base right back into the cases with the Remington powder that looks like BL-C2.

I shot them yesterday at 100 yards from my .308 that I had been shooting that day at 300 yards with a variety of loads.

Notice the flier.. I do not think that was me I think that could have been the 1 case that had .3075" ID after the bullet was removed.
Or it could have been me or the wind or gun very windy yesterday, and no rest between rounds, just fired as quick as I could get back on target. You decide.

Here you go refurbished Rem .308 ammo.

 

[SPDguns]

Excellent research, thanks. Overall ammo consistency and quality has improved vastly over the years and that's why I don't reload. I will play with factory loads until I get one my gun likes.

 

[Free Trapper]

Swamp

Verrry interesting research....tnx for your time and effort.

In all my years of shooting, Remington always seems to come out on bottom.

Federal seems to most always be the most accurate, with Hornady a close second.

 

[SDarkRage]

Wow, nice research Swamp! That's some interesting info to know. My Savage Model 10 .308 HATED the Remington 150gr. yellow/green box ammo. I think my 12 gauge had a tighter pattern at 100 yards sadly enough. I swapped over to the Federal blue box and my groups shrank down to 1.25 - 1.5 moa at 100 yards. Much more reliable and dependable from what I noticed. My reloads with Norma brass, 168 gr MatchKings, BenchRest primers, and Varget powder was shooting 0.8" consistently (as long as I did my part anyway). So, for me, the Federals were a rather suitable cheap alternative when I needed ammo on the go. I try to avoid Remington ammo like the plague after my experiences. But to be fair, in hindsight my barrel was a supposed 1 in 10 twist but it repeatedly checked out at 1 in 9. It never liked any bullet lighter than a 168gr.