Very slow powders in .308

Back when 4831 was dirt cheap we tried it in everything. A case full in 30.06 or 308 worked pretty well, but the 30-30 was a bust. I had problems with the 30.06 when the weather got cold, the 180 grain cast load did not have the resistance to get combustion pressures up. I had very high velocity variations. Col. Harrison at the NRA recommended 2 grains of fast powder next to the primer. I used Unique and the problems vanished. (Yes, a dangerous duplex load) I had to dial back a bit on the 4831 for the cast loads, and Dacron filler was used to keep the powder in place. (Horrors, filler in bottle neck cases). Later I went to Grex shot shell buffer for filler, accuracy was even better. The reloading set-up was a dipper for the Unique and two powder measures first 4831 and then Grex. This load would shoot just over an inch all day long, even in rapid fire. Several other shooters tried my reloads with good accuracy. I competed against jacketed bullets with a lower velocity cast load. The local range was limited to 100 yards for most matches and 200 was big time. This saved me from embarrassing myself at long range where the cast load was only competitive in zero wind. When surplus 4831 ran out, I tried other slow powders, 5010 and H870 and others. I never had any problems as long as the case was full of something. However the results were  variable. None of the slow ball powers worked well. The new (and expensive) 4831 worked, but a cast load with 4895 NOT A FULL CASE, and no fillers gave good accuracy and cost less, so the era of cheap shooting was over. Cheap 4831 and cast bullets let me shoot center fire rifle matches on a college student budget.  It was fun Steve Hurst