N150 has become by preferred powder in my 16.5 inch barreled Tikka. It is accurate, and gives good velocity. A drop tube is needed for a max load.
N140 was okey, but not as accurate as N150 or N135.
N135 works well, but I have to go over book max to approach the velocity I can get with N150 (0.5 gr above max matches N150 at 1.0 gr below max). On principle, I don't like loading over max, even without pressure signs. (Edit: Had some blown primers today with max N150 load and Fed 205 primers, so, I don't recommend loading to max. It was on some once fired Federal 5.56 brass, I think the work hardening of the head for lighter loads on that brass had masked pressure previously.)
All of this is with 77 TMKs. Both CCI 450s and Fed 205s work well with about 20 fps faster using the CCIs. With CCIs, I get intermittent pressure signs at max N150 load.
H4895 did not give me great velocity.
I have 8208 XBR, but have not tried it yet.
Using a Lee Factory Crimp Die has improved my groups slightly. I'll have to play with it more to confirm, but at $17 it was worth a try. My reloading is pretty simple, RCBS press and dies, decap/resize, check case length, load. Someone using a fancier set up might not see any advantage.
These were not shot on the same day, but the group with the crimp is the tightest 30 (well 29, I over crimped one of the 30, so did not shoot it with the group) shot group I have ever gotten from that rifle, the non-crimp group was the second tightest prior to that. I've included what was the tightest, but it is a different powder charge weight.


