I remember reloading my first round. I emailed him and told him I was a little worried about chambering the round and trying it the first time. He told me, "send me the round and I'll fire it for you, I have full confidence!"
It took me a week, but I fired it...........no problems!
This is his load data: (and his words)
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Hogden H380 powder 50 grains
Sierra .311 DIA. 303 cal 150 GR. Spitzer
"I gave you was a very conservative load, and you could almost certainly go up to 50 grains and throw 25 grains twice. That is still a conservative load with .308 bullets in a bigger bore diameter, bumping the bullet size up to .311 will raise pressures a little bit but not so as you have to worry. You should see a velocity of around 2550 fps, which is a good velocity for accuracy. anything around 2600 fps tends to be pretty good"
"The maximum load for 150 gr. Sierras in .308 is 54.3 gr.,and a generally recommended rule of thumb is to start about 10% below that and work up"
"I've had good luck with slightly heavier charges and .311 Sierra or .312 bullets."
"If you wanted to shoot at an excellent velocity for accuracy as a rule you could load your .311 Sierras with 50.5 gr. for an honest 2600 FPS. This load is right on the money for target shooting, and I think you would get good results.Of course every rifle is different."
Hornady is the ONLY loading manual that distinguishes between .308 and .312 bullets and loads.
Kari Prager