>>619752
I had a glorious long big block post about advice to first time reloaders on this here board, too lazy to type a new one. Other poster was right, the smartest reloaders are dumber than the reloading books. Make sure you read a basic primer on reloading, not just have a loadbook. Check your powder loads, always throw on the safe side, if you use a powder dumper do spot checks to make sure its throwing the same, never changing. Make sure you have a reliable MANUAL scale to go with any digital scales. Get a powder trickler to finish off higher end loads, they are a great tool. MAXIMUM LOADS ARE NOT SUGGESTIONS, THEY ARE MAXIMUMS. When using slow burning rifle powders NEVER go below minimum loads, there are phenomena where underloaded cases will have massive catastrophic pressure spikes. Take your time, be careful. There's always time to make sure the loads are safe, never enough time to pick up the pieces of a broken gun, especially if its in your jaw.
Not all bullets of the same weight will use similar loads, this is one that slips by a lot of people. 168 grain what? There are many, many 168 grain jacketed bullets for 308, with enough bearing surface and shapes and designs that loading data and results will be different for each. If you can't find data for the exact bullet you have in your current literature, FIND IT. There are little books for many calibers that have specific data for the caliber, http://www.loadbooks.com/ will give you most loads from most manufacturers. Keep in mind different cases might have different case capacities, military brass can be thick enough to limit the total interior capacity and require smaller powder charges. Look a the reloading data and the primer being used, modern primers are generally consistent, but keep in mind changes in cases and especially primers from the book data can cause enough pressure changes at maximum and hotter loads it can make the difference. Remember that even powders that are similarily named and one may even be based on the older similar name powder, they are NOT interchangable. IMR 4350 and H4350 are not the same gunpowder.
Work up loads, start at the suggested minimum and work your way up. Every gun is different and will like a different bullet or load than other guns. Try different powders, try different loads throughout the spectrum, load 5 or 10 rounds at a certain powder charge and shoot them and compare them to other 5-10 round lots you load and check performance. If primers get flattened or blown out, or you see other high pressure signs at hotter loads, quit and go back to downloading. If you have a chronograph use it while testing, compare suggested velocity for the load to what you are shooting, then consider other factors like barrel length. If velocity is extremely different, might be sign something is wrong. Shoot from a lead slead or sand bags and shoot paper to check your groups when possible.
In your personal case, start with 308, rifle is the best way to learn. It teaches you patience and quality. Also 9mm Luger is one of the worst to reload, even old handloaders don't like it because of headspacing and crimping issues with its taper case. It sucks for old hands, its not what you should be learning the ropes with. Dial your dies in carefully and respect the listed OAL.