H4350 - am I doing it wrong?

[Mike 338]

I've not had winning experiences with H 4350 either. I've been very pleased with IMR 4350 and a 168ish gr bullet in 30.06. I've had great results with some Alliant Powders but other than burning up what I already have, because of they're no longer available, I ignore that brand for anything new that I'm doing. Few good things happen when one company buys another. In this case, Vista Outdoors acquiring Alliant.

 

[NorthIdahoDude]

I've not had winning experiences with H 4350 either. I've been very pleased with IMR 4350 and a 168ish gr bullet in 30.06. I've had great results with some Alliant Powders but other than burning up what I already have, because of they're no longer available, I ignore that brand for anything new that I'm doing. Few good things happen when one company buys another. In this case, Vista Outdoors acquiring Alliant.

Agreed - I've had some great luck with Alliant powders over the years R15 and AR-Comp in 308 and 5.56, R16 in 30-06, etc. But at this point, I really doubt I'll ever see them in stock again in my lifetime, or if I do, they'll be $80+ a pound.

I have recently just started playing with Ramshot hunter on a lark (it was least expensive stuff in the store I could use for plinking loads in my 7x57 so as not to burn all my good powder playing around). Lo and behold - some shockingly good accuracy resulted. So I'm going to do some more serious experiments with it to see if it a) can get even better accuracy in 7x57 if I tune a little, and b) if it works good in 7x57, it's worth a try in 30-06 and probably 6.5 CM.

Otherwise, V N555 looks like a vaugely acceptable R16 replacement, and is in stock fairly often (how weird is it when a V powder is suddenly a 'budget' choice next to Alliant? crazy times).

 

[SDHNTR]

Maybe it’s the bullet?

 

[SDHNTR]

Mixing lots of powder? Oof, that's NEVER the right answer.

Meh. I do it all the time. If I end up with 2-3 lbs of one lot and 2-3 lbs of another. I’ll mix it all up into one big Frankenlot, then work up my load.

 

[NorthIdahoDude]

Maybe it’s the bullet?

Across 3 separate bullet diameters, nearly a dozen rifles, and half a dozen cartridges? To be fair, I was probably shooting AccuBond's of some kind in all of them....

 

[wilsoN_]

Across 3 separate bullet diameters, nearly a dozen rifles, and half a dozen cartridges? To be fair, I was probably shooting AccuBond's of some kind in all of them....

Could it be primer issues? H4350 is almost like easy button for accuracy in 3 different 6.5CM I've developed loads for, all were good groups with 1/3 being superb.

 

[KY_coop]

My howa 6.5 never liked h4350 all that much. It was a slow barrel in general, I couldn't get 140's to 2700fps without pressuring out. It also wasn't as accurate as staball 6.5 with all else being equal.

 

[TexasTB]

H4350 has been great for me just in the 6XC cartridge which the cartridge was developed around that powder. It has been accurate for me in other cartridges but slow. My more “all around, versatile powder is Varget.

 

[Dark timber]

H4350 is one of the powders I buy in 8lb kegs. It’s excellent in my 6.5cm with 140 eldm and long thoated 300wsm with 180gr ABs. One ragged hole groups from both

 

[S-3 ranch]

Works perfect in two .270 win & a .375 ruger for me , but I did have to mess around with a ladder load and setting depth to get sub MOA

 

[2KHEARTSHOT]

H4350 is my goto in my 22creeds, 300saum and 375 Ruger. In all those rifles I get the best accuracy at max load or a little more. I’ve seen loads go from 1.5moa to one ragged hole by adding a grain or two.

 

[Okie_Poke]

I’ve used it in 6.5 Creedmoor and 30-06 without trouble. It’s definitely my standard powder in the Creedmoor. It doesn’t always give me the velocity I want from the ‘06, but I can’t say I’ve ever had it just suck on the accuracy front. IMR 4451? Yeah, I had a barrel hate that stuff, though other rifles liked it just fine. No idea.

As someone else said, life’s too short to mess with it. If it doesn’t work and other powders do, use the other powders.

 

[Mike D Texas]

Meh. I do it all the time. If I end up with 2-3 lbs of one lot and 2-3 lbs of another. I’ll mix it all up into one big Frankenlot, then work up my load.

Same here. I had a bunch of singles that I was tired of cluttering up my powder storage cabinet. Bought some jugs from US Plastic and blended them all together.

No ill effects at all.

 

[jimh406]

What primers are you using and are they small or large rifle primers for the rounds you are loading?

 

[Mike D Texas]

I use H4350 successfully in several cartridges.

• 6.5x47 Lapua
• 6.5 CM
• 260AI
• 300 SAUM
• 300 WSM

 

[Mtndawger]

@NorthIdahoDude. Are you playing with other variables? Do you resize with mandrel or bushings? Your brass prep might be giving uneven results. Might want to try out more neck tension. Up to .004 or even more.

 

[Wrench]

I have 20lbs of h4350 for a reason.....


It simply works great for me.

260ai, 243, 6xc, 300wsm......all of these guns shoot better than the internet will have you believe.

 

[SDHNTR]

It’s not that this powder or any other is good or bad. Same with the bullet. It’s just that for whatever reason that will always be impossible to determine, some barrels just show a preference for a certain powder or bullet.

It always cracks me up when someone thinks powder ABC sucks and/or bullet XYZ blows because it didn’t shoot well for them. It literally has nothing to do with the powder or bullet.

 

[NorthIdahoDude]

@NorthIdahoDude. Are you playing with other variables? Do you resize with mandrel or bushings? Your brass prep might be giving uneven results. Might want to try out more neck tension. Up to .004 or even more.

As I noted, this is across the number of different guns over a long period of time, so I don't really think so.

As an example, one of my Remington 700 30-06's will drill 30 rounds into a 1 inch hole when fed with Varget and 150 Accubonds seated at 3.340. I've tried 150, 165, and 180 Accubonds over H4350 in the same rifle, and yes I played with the seating depth, and it's never shot a five round group under 3 in with any of those experiments.

That example is pretty extreme, most of my rifles are not that dramatically worse with H4350, but other than my 7x57, that is the kind of results I usually get.

 

[NorthIdahoDude]

What primers are you using and are they small or large rifle primers for the rounds you are loading?

I have never had a small primer rifle for which H350 would seem suitable. Have used CCI large rifle, large rifle magnum, and large rifle bench rest at different times and in different cartridges, usually (but not always) magnums in long cartridges that burn north of 55 ish grains of powder (eg 30-06), and the plain large rifle or large rifle benchrest in cartridges that burns smaller amounts of powder in a shorter column (eg 7x57, 6.5 Creedmoor).

I did an experiment some years ago with a 30-06 and H4350 and 180 Ballistic Tips (56 grain charge if memory serves), 15 rounds with Magnum primer, and 15 rounds with standard primers. The group with the magnum primers came out about 30% better, so I've been using magnums pretty much exclusively in the 30-06 ever since. I tried the same experiment with Varget in a 308, and the standard primers shot about 35% better in that, so have you standard primers in smaller cases exclusively ever since from that test as well.