Help with 308 load

[Oklahunter3]

I am in need of guidance from the experts! I have been trying to work up a load for my 308 and am not having any luck. I have tried 165 gr nosler partitions, 180 gr accubonds and 150 gr hornady sst. I have tried IMR-4064 and varget with loads from 43 gr to 45 gr of powders. I have varied the bullet length from 2.85"(which is max due to magazine length) to 2.735". I basically get the same type of group from every load I've tried. Also, changed scopes to make sure that wasn't the problem. The group I get every time is 2 shots close to gather and 1 shot 1.5"-2.5" away from the other 2. The odd shot is never the same one. I have tried 3 different factory loads and this doesn't happen with them. I haven't gotten good groups with them either. Best is a 1.5" group with Hornady Whitetail 150 gr. Any suggestions would be helpful and appreciated!!
It is a Mossberg Patriot rifle. I’ve checked the torque on the screws and to be sure barrel is free floated.

 

[TedKennedy]

I am in need of guidance from the experts! I have been trying to work up a load for my 308 and am not having any luck. I have tried 165 gr nosler partitions, 180 gr accubonds and 150 gr hornady sst. I have tried IMR-4064 and varget with loads from 43 gr to 45 gr of powders. I have varied the bullet length from 2.85"(which is max due to magazine length) to 2.735". I basically get the same type of group from every load I've tried. Also, changed scopes to make sure that wasn't the problem. The group I get every time is 2 shots close to gather and 1 shot 1.5"-2.5" away from the other 2. The odd shot is never the same one. I have tried 3 different factory loads and this doesn't happen with them. I haven't gotten good groups with them either. Best is a 1.5" group with Hornady Whitetail 150 gr. Any suggestions would be helpful and appreciated!!
It is a Mossberg Patriot rifle. I’ve checked the torque on the screws and to be sure barrel is free floated.

Make friends with someone that has a different .308, a proven performer.
4064 and SSTs should do better than that in any reasonable configuration.

 

[fatcpa]

It’s been several years since I reloaded for my .308. Can’t give you much info, but I can tell you that my rifle was pretty sensitive to the distance from the bullet setting in the chamber and the lands of the barrel (bullet jump).

 

[kwaynem]

Chronograph would help a lot

 

[mr ed]

Did you take off scope mount base and clean the oil off and remount it?
Most people shooting ruger americans find this to be a problem for them.
My buddy that went shooting his mossberg this week had no problems after I told him to do this

 

[scott024]

Maybe it isn't the gun?

 

[swampratt]

My shooting buddy has the same rifle and his groups looked about the same.
He tried many loads without much change.
I noticed his scope was moving in the rings.
Make a mark on the scope tube with a fingernail next to the rings and see if yours moves.

Another issue he had was his hold was not great.
Front was bagged keep thumb off the barrel.
Rear was bagged but he was mostly holding the butt of the gun up off the bag and I seen movement in his hold.

I told him squeeze the rear bag up against the butt with his left hand and he is shooting right handed.
That made the gun rock solid and he asked me why I never told him.

He was also not reading the scale correctly---- new to reloading.

Mixed cases are a deal breaker sometimes.
Pay close attention to bullet seating pressures when seating the bullets.

Seat them slow and if one seats even a little different it will ruin the group.
I anneal my cases every time to get the most consistent seating forces.

Digital scale or beam scale?
Can you weight the charge remove it from the scale and place it back on 3 times and get the same reading from the scale??

Slowly pull the trigger like really slow 10 seconds from start to finish on the pull and stay on target.
Should be a surprise every time it goes off.

Keep the same pressure of your cheek and your shoulder on the rifle stock.

Lead sleds I do not like them as when I have used them and then used just a bag the round will impact the target somewhere else on the paper, they do not duplicate shooting for deer in the woods.
Great for adjusting a scope though.

One buddy shot well at close range but took a sub moa rifle and shot 7" groups at 200 yards.
He was pulling the trigger too fast not sneaking up on it slowly and that caused him to jerk the rifle off target.
I have shot and hunted with him for 35 years and just mentioned this to him last year that he may have a problem.
Yep that was the issue.

 

[Cdubya]

Nobody has mentioned it so make sure you know your barrel twist rate so you can decide which bullet grain is a better fit for your rifle. X2 on the chrono, you need to know velocities to really build up a load. Then it's on to shoulder sizing your fire formed brass.

 

[swampratt]

One other thing my buddy was doing was making all his loaded rounds the same length.
But in order to do this he changed the seating die to make the base to nose the same.

The noses get dinked up in shipping and the OAL of the loaded round will many times be a little mixed.
You know not to change the seating die.

Another thing is some dies the seating stem will contact the very tip of the bullet and push there.
That is not good you need to drill the seating stem deeper to keep those pointy bullet tips from bottoming out.

Speaking of shoulders on brass.

If your noticing some cases are harder to size than others or harder to extract from the sizing die then you will have variance in where the shoulder is at and that will hurt groups.

Lube in the case neck will hurt groups also.
I Qtip it out and brush necks with nylon brush before and after sizing.

I have tested so many things in the reloading area it is not even funny.

I have made many awesome loads without a chrony.
Some say you need it.
But I have seen where 3 consecutive rounds had the same exact velocity but shot a 3" group.
Just not in a good node.

 

[Zachrankin]

send the rifle back to mossberg. Have them check it out. I’ve had 2 patriots that sucked…