Painless load development (mine)

[DadWil]

Yes. I’m not sure if 67 is completely compressed. I can still hear powder when shaking it.

That's not compressed
I got nothing then...
other than you're blowing more unburned powder out of the barrel with 67 grains than with 66 grains

 

[OXN939]

 

[huntnful]

View attachment 930017

At first I was like “at least I’m not old”, then I realized I kind of am. So this meme is literally about me

 

[WhoGarrDen]

View attachment 930017

They're using 5-shot groups now instead of 3?? Progress!

 

[jjohnsonElknewbie]

They're using 5-shot groups now instead of 3?? Progress!

Better yet, 10 shot groups, or two 5 shot groups on the same target to avoid over heating.

 

[Helislacker]

First 10 round group out of my 6.5 Tikka in its new Rokstok. I used this method with once fired Hornady brass. 140gr ELD’s loaded to factory length with 42.0gr h4350.

 

[Q_Sertorius]

First 10 round group out of my 6.5 Tikka in its new Rokstok. I used this method with once fired Hornady brass. 140gr ELD’s loaded to factory length with 42.0gr h4350.

Looks like I have a good starting load once I rebuild the reloading bench.


____________________
“Keep on keepin’ on…”

 

[Helislacker]

Looks like I have a good starting load once I rebuild the reloading bench.


____________________
“Keep on keepin’ on…”

42.0g is the highest I think I’d go and still probably be Walmart safe.

 

[Q_Sertorius]

42.0g is the highest I think I’d go and still probably be Walmart safe.

Yeah, I haven’t compared that load with my books yet. That may not be my starting point, but it’s around where I thought I would end up.


____________________
“Keep on keepin’ on…”

 

[Helislacker]

Yeah, I haven’t compared that load with my books yet. That may not be my starting point, but it’s around where I thought I would end up.


____________________
“Keep on keepin’ on…”

Here’s the brass for reference. I didn’t notice anything of concern but let me know if you guys see it differently.

 

[Natebonebusta]

First 10 round group out of my 6.5 Tikka in its new Rokstok. I used this method with once fired Hornady brass. 140gr ELD’s loaded to factory length with 42.0gr h4350.

I’m a 130tmk over 42.6gr of h4350. I’d say you’ve hit a great spot to load up and go hunting.

 

[Harvey_NW]

Here’s the brass for reference. I didn’t notice anything of concern but let me know if you guys see it differently.View attachment 930699

I don't see anything concerning, especially with Hornady brass. IME it's softer and shows signs earlier than tougher brass. What action are you shooting that load in?

 

[Helislacker]

I don't see anything concerning, especially with Hornady brass. IME it's softer and shows signs earlier than tougher brass. What action are you shooting that load in?

Tikka

 

[wind gypsy]

Yeah, I haven’t compared that load with my books yet. That may not be my starting point, but it’s around where I thought I would end up.


____________________
“Keep on keepin’ on…”

41.5 H4350, 140 ELD or hybrid = peanut butter and jelly. No concerns of being hot in hornady, lapua, alpha, Norma, Sig brass. Peterson and ADG have smaller capacities.

 

[NWBLKTAIL]

Both loads are functionally the same for my purposes, however out of curiosity. In a 243 Winchester that I am working on, the 95 grain nosler balistic tip shoots 1.67 MOA at 100 yards for 10 shots. The 103 ELDX shoots 1.9 MOA for 10 shots.

At what range will the higher BC bullet begin to win out? Assuming it is a dead calm zero wind day.

I run both those bullets in my 243win, just a quick glance at my ballistic charts. MV for your loads is important to know.
Mine seems to be a wash to 500yds then the 103eldx seems to start pulling away past that.

Edit: JBM ballistics is free and has a huge library of bullets to play around with this very idea.

 

[wind gypsy]

Both loads are functionally the same for my purposes, however out of curiosity. In a 243 Winchester that I am working on, the 95 grain nosler balistic tip shoots 1.67 MOA at 100 yards for 10 shots. The 103 ELDX shoots 1.9 MOA for 10 shots.

At what range will the higher BC bullet begin to win out? Assuming it is a dead calm zero wind day.

Win out in which way? Primary benefit of BC IMO is wind deflection, second is velocity retention. But a 243 should drive a 95 fast enough to have sufficient velocity beyond where 99% of people should shoot at animals.

 

[huntnful]

Here’s a quick load I developed on my 7-300 NMI.

195 Berger’s and N570 powder

Pressure ladder to find pressure and see if it would like the bullet/powder combo. I shot the ladder at .030 off the lands.


Picked 87gr. Loaded 15 rounds, starting with all of them touching the lands. Went to the range with my mobile seater.

First 3 with the bullets touching the lands



Seated them .009 deeper off the lands. They started stacking, so I ended up shooting 5 for a group.


I seated the rest of them to this depth, zeroed the scope based off the 5 shot group and just trued data at long range. It shot great at long range as well.

 

[HuntHarder]

@huntnful I notice that you use quite a bit of VV powder. Have you noticed any big temp stability problems with it. I have not loaded VV in over 15 years because I thought it had pretty large temp swings. I pretty much stick to Hodgdon Extreme powders now. The speeds some of you are getting with VV is impressive, not to mention some of your groups. Great shooting.

 

[huntnful]

@huntnful I notice that you use quite a bit of VV powder. Have you noticed any big temp stability problems with it. I have not loaded VV in over 15 years because I thought it had pretty large temp swings. I pretty much stick to Hodgdon Extreme powders now. The speeds some of you are getting with VV is impressive, not to mention some of your groups. Great shooting.

The only VV powder that was pretty wild for me was N560, so I don’t shoot it anymore.

N555, N565 and N570 all seem to be pretty solid with temp stability. They aren’t quite H1000 stable, but they aren’t erratic by any means.

I still have a lot of H4350, H4831SC and H1000 and it’s great stuff for sure.

N565 gives like a grain of extra case fill and maybe 20-30fps over H1000. So it’s an awesome powder when you want to be in that range, and test them both and see what the bullet likes.

N570 pretty much just smokes everything and is a top performance powder to me.

N555 is close to 4831SC. So you can test those powders with a desired bullet to see if it has a preference.

 

[Harvey_NW]

@huntnful I notice that you use quite a bit of VV powder. Have you noticed any big temp stability problems with it. I have not loaded VV in over 15 years because I thought it had pretty large temp swings. I pretty much stick to Hodgdon Extreme powders now. The speeds some of you are getting with VV is impressive, not to mention some of your groups. Great shooting.

I've done some temp testing with 10 shot groups in 29°-88°F with N565 in my 6.5 PRC, and have it calculated out to .77fps/1°F for my temp factor. It's been very reliable since I got my AB profile trued up in my rangefinder.