308 T/C Compass 168g Hornady Match with IMR4895 and Reloder 15

Continuing on with the T/C Compass series, today’s post combines my last two shooting outings, which were about a week apart.  Since my last post I had to take the range down due to farming season.  We still have been plagued by a ton of rainfall in the past couple weeks.  However it has been very windy this week and has dried out things considerably.

Last Monday (5-13) I took out my test loads of IMR4895.  Still using the same C.O.L. of 2.820″, I loaded up the following charges; 41.7g, 42.1g, 42.5g, 42.9g, and 43.3g.  These 20 rounds completed the 3rd firing of my Starline Brass.

These groups were decent but really nothing spectacular.  Conditions were great and all shots felt good.  The last shot on my 42.9g group was definitely a flyer.  I documented the order of each shot for this target and I allowed a few minutes between each group.  Here is a photo of the fired brass.

This completed the 3rd firing of my brass so I decided to anneal it.  I wet tumbled all the brass, then annealed it using a trimming adapter chucked in my drill and my propane torch.  I used Johnny’s Reloading Bench‘s trick of using a 10 beats per minute video on YouTube to time each round.  This worked very well.  After annealing I sized each round and tumbled again for a short time to remove the lube.  Lately I have been sun drying my brass.  About an hour or so in the direct sunlight has the brass completely dry.  The brass is still with in trim length averaging about 2.010″.

After searching locally for some Reloder 15 for the past month or so, I jumped on MidWay USA’s free Haz-Mat deal this week.  I picked up 5000 primers, along with some Accurate 2230, Reloder 15, and some Varget.  All these powders can be used in 308.  Accurate 2230 is a favorite of mine for the 68g Hornady Match in 223, and meters absolutely perfect.  Also CCI is running a 20% rebate on a $100 minimum purchase of primers.  So this will make one of my boxes free.

Reloder 15 has a similar burn rate as Varget, so I’m expecting some great results.  I loaded up the following charges for my test loads;  42.9g, 43.3g, 43.7g, 44.1g, and 44.5g.  These groups were shot late in the evening on 5-18.  I was struggling with the sun in my eyes for the last group, other than that all shots felt great.

The cold bore shot in group #1 was the high shot.  I was really pleased with the second group and plan on loading up some more with that charge.  When I do, I’ll also get some velocity numbers.

Now the brass on these rounds were showing a little swipe mark from the extractor.  This is the first time seeing this with this rifle.  Generally it leaves a little half moon crescent shape on about every round fired along with a little cratering.  The brass from the first 2 groups looked normal, but the rest were showing a little swipe mark, and the cratering got a little heaver with each charge.  The edges are still round on all pieces, so I am not really concerned about over pressure with them.  Just something to keep an eye on.

It’s hard to photo the brass closely, but on the top left and right you can see the swipe marks.  The bottom left and center you can see the extractor “Moon” shaped marks.

I also took out the 243 with me today.  I shot it between groups giving the Compass some time to cool down.

As you can see the 243 still shoots like a dream.  I’ve got the Compass trigger feeling pretty good, but after shooting the 243, it’s really not.  That is going to conclude this post.  I’ll still be sticking with the 308 for a couple more posts.  I want to revisit the 43.3g charge of RL-15, and try the Accurate 2230 for some test loads.  Thanks for reading and have a great day.

243 Outdoors

My name is Josh and I love Firearms and Freedom.  I started 243 Outdoors as a YouTube Channel back in 2015 and have branched out to other media sites.