A true 308 test round?

I have been playing around with a load for my CETME/HK 308. This thing is somewhat brutal to shoot and is even harder on brass...So I have been looking into make a "powderpuff" round for it. I also have a pound of Reloader-19 left over from the 30-06 I used to reload for I wanted to use.

according to all manuals, computer programs and other people.....R-19 is a crappy choice, and is not recommended for use in a 308. But I just had to find out for myself.

running multiple loads and such through QuickLoad pointed out that I needed to fill the case to like 110-120% capacity for r-19 to work....not happy with those results, I turned to the loadings of the 30-06 for r-19. I found the difference in case capacity between the 30-06 and 308...did a little math and applied the same percentage difference to the powder charge. I'm not going to state the charge I used here because these are sample test rounds. But I will say the charge is far below the recommended charge spit out by QL, but is about the max the case will hold and leave enough room for a bullet to be seated.

The Bullet:
I am using 125gr psp bullets with a cannelure I bought in bulk...I think they are remingtons. I loaded 10 test rounds and headed to my brothers for a quick back yard test.

I love these things! I wish I made up more....Low recoil,clean burning and spot on target without any scope adjustments. It also cycled the action with out fail...which I figured would be the downfall, since the locking roller design of the HK takes quite a bit of effort to cycle.

I need to replace my Chrony so I can get some fps readings...but other than that these will make great plinking or short range rounds....plus I'll get to use up that old Reloader 19 powder I didn't think I had a use for.

A little addition to the above:

I've been working on a lower pressure load for my 7.62 CETME/HK hybrid and so far, all seems well. Even though according to Qload and my "paper" manuals, it really shouldn't work all that well.

This process started when I needed to find a use for the surplus of RL-19 I have, but no longer have the 30-06 or the 7mm RemMag I reloaded for with it. RL-19 is usually in no way, shape or form suitable for the 308/7.62. Using a near case capacity powder charge with a light 125gr bullet, I have produced a lower pressure, lighter recoiling round that isn't so bad at shorter ranges.( I haven't really tested it past 100 yards). Mainly a just for fun, get some trigger time in type of round.

The side story: My little brother's house is where I go for a quick ammo test trip...out in the middle of nowhere and alot closer than the range I belong to. He and I shoot on his property all the time...and he has a nice little range set up for plinking. His neighbor didn't mind as he was a shooter too....until I brought out the rifle and ammo I mentioned above. Until he knew for sure what we were shooting he swore up and down we had a much larger caliber weapon and thought we were idiots for shooting it in the back yard and gave my brother all kinds of shit about it.......he later apologized for his incorrect assumption.

Now...I do have a 2 port comp on the CETME that creates some very awesome shock waves....he never complained about it before when we shot standard NATO rounds through it....could the RL-19 be amplifying the shockwave/report? Or was his neighbor just being a jerk that day?
In my brothers bolt action 308, they don't sound too different than anything else...except for a lighter recoil.

Except for the neighbor incident, everything worked well...burns pretty clean, lower recoil, lower pressure and abuse on the CETME action and fairly accurate . Other than a ever so often FTF due to the shorter psp bullets, they make a fun plinking round and a place to use up that old RL-19.

Oh yeah....we finished the session off by blowing up a 1/2 of tannerite in a tree hollow....saved some chainsaw gas that way,LOL.

Pic of rifle: