Brad1974
Lil-Rokslider
- Joined
- Jul 22, 2024
- Messages
- 110
In your experience does getting 100% powder burn really matter?
A little history about why I ask the question. I have an old Rem 721 30-06 that I have spent years trying to get it to shoot tight groups. I stuck with mainly H4350 powder because it was supposed to be the gold standard for that cartridge in the bullet weight class I was using. I tried several bullets, fine tuned the loads and the seating depth, and just when I thought I finally had a good recipe that gave me some tight groups, I would get quite a bit of inconsistency and groups would open up. I watched several youtube videos that had mentioned using Gordons Reloading software, and one of the primary goals seemed to be to find powders that would burn 100%. I did my analysis on my rifle/rounds, and discovered I was getting somewhere around 90% powder burn. I read elsewhere that having incomplete powder burn could lead to inconsistency... I thought, well maybe that was my problem. I had been hoping to rebarrel my Rem 721 rifle into a 280 AI, and just ordered my barrel, so I won't get to try other powders in my 30-06. Now I will have all of the components I will need for my 280 AI except the powder... so, doing research in forums and in the GRT I have found a handful of options that appear to be good, and some that others are saying are good, but according to GRT are not getting 100% burn... so, back to my question. Does that even matter? Does incomplete powder burn cause inconsistency? I just want to find a powder that gets decent velocity (not looking for the fastest), shoots good groups, and gets reasonably good SD/ES. Can powders that don't burn 100% do that consistently? Or is it unimportant?
A little history about why I ask the question. I have an old Rem 721 30-06 that I have spent years trying to get it to shoot tight groups. I stuck with mainly H4350 powder because it was supposed to be the gold standard for that cartridge in the bullet weight class I was using. I tried several bullets, fine tuned the loads and the seating depth, and just when I thought I finally had a good recipe that gave me some tight groups, I would get quite a bit of inconsistency and groups would open up. I watched several youtube videos that had mentioned using Gordons Reloading software, and one of the primary goals seemed to be to find powders that would burn 100%. I did my analysis on my rifle/rounds, and discovered I was getting somewhere around 90% powder burn. I read elsewhere that having incomplete powder burn could lead to inconsistency... I thought, well maybe that was my problem. I had been hoping to rebarrel my Rem 721 rifle into a 280 AI, and just ordered my barrel, so I won't get to try other powders in my 30-06. Now I will have all of the components I will need for my 280 AI except the powder... so, doing research in forums and in the GRT I have found a handful of options that appear to be good, and some that others are saying are good, but according to GRT are not getting 100% burn... so, back to my question. Does that even matter? Does incomplete powder burn cause inconsistency? I just want to find a powder that gets decent velocity (not looking for the fastest), shoots good groups, and gets reasonably good SD/ES. Can powders that don't burn 100% do that consistently? Or is it unimportant?
