Reloading Manual or Powder Manufacturer Starting Loads

[powerspc]

I did search the forum first as I suspect this one of those "asked a thousand times" questions, but no luck.

When you are working up a new starting load, as a general rule (if there is a general rule) do you follow the Reloading Manual or the Powder Manufacturers recommendation?

 

[spife7980]

Both. They should generally be pretty close to one another, start at the lowest of them and work up

I generally go off of powder manufaturers first just because they have the most varied data online
http://www.hodgdonreloading.com/data/rifle

http://www.alliantpowder.com/reloaders/RecipeList.aspx?gtypeid=2

Nosler
https://www.nosler.com/nosler-caliber-index

 

[powerspc]

Brilliant! Thank you!!

 

[Supersubes]

I do exactly what spife does. I tend to use hodgdon the most, because I like their layout, and they post pressures. I sometimes look at several bullet weights on either side of my target bullet weight, to see how my powder of choice scales. A good example is hodgdon 6.5 creed data with 130 Accubond, 140 amax, and h4350. They both pressure out really early, and make poor velocity. Totally fucked data points. But if you look at 123 smk, 142 smk and 143 eld, it makes for a nice trend line.

 

[918v]

Go with whoever developed their data using your specific components, meaning your bullet your brass.

 

[powerspc]

So not to flog this to death but here’s a quick example:

300 Winchester Magnum

• Hornady 178gr BTHP Match bullet
• Winchester WLRM primer
• Hornady Brass 300WM Unprimed
• Hodgdon H4350

Hornady 9th Edition –

• 58.2gr (2500 fps)
• 61.0gr (2600 fps)
• 63.9gr (2700 fps)
• 66.7gr (2800 fps)
• 69.5gr (2900 fps/Max Load)

Hodgdon –

• Starting Loads 62.1gr (2730 fps)
• Max Loads 66.8gr (2916 fps)

What would you use for a starting load? Max Load?

 

[918v]

It depends on freebore length. Hodgdon uses Win brass which is similar in capacity to Hornady so the only variables left are powder lot number, freebore length and oal. If you’re gonna start .010” Off the lands then use Hornady’s data. If you’re gonna load to saami oal, use Hodgdon.

 

[flyer]

Yeah, find as much information as possible.

Some times you can find a recipe for the same bullet, brass and barrel to compare against the book data.

If you have two book sources and an internet source (a guy who reloads that is trustworthy), and the internet source says his final load was 43 grains of H4350 but the books say starting load 34 grains or 37 grains of H4350, it's probably safe to start at 37 grains of H4350.

I regularly ask about recipes for calibers I'm interested in just to get an idea of the ballpark it's in. If you see an outlier, ask for details to figure out what is going on.

Always start low but I design a ladder that climbs to where I expect to end up.

 

[powerspc]

Yeah, find as much information as possible.

Some times you can find a recipe for the same bullet, brass and barrel to compare against the book data.

If you have two book sources and an internet source (a guy who reloads that is trustworthy), and the internet source says his final load was 43 grains of H4350 but the books say starting load 34 grains or 37 grains of H4350, it's probably safe to start at 37 grains of H4350.

I regularly ask about recipes for calibers I'm interested in just to get an idea of the ballpark it's in. If you see an outlier, ask for details to figure out what is going on.

Always start low but I design a ladder that climbs to where I expect to end up.

Yeah, that's what I was wondering. If you look at the above again comparing the Hornady data and the Hodgdon data I'm thinking you would be okay to start at the Hodgdon number (62.1gr) since it is still well below the Hornady max load.

 

[flyer]

Probably, this is where I would look for people reloading with exactly the components you intend to use in the same or similar gun.

Another thing is try some decent box ammo if you're starting with an unfired gun. If you see pressure signs there, you'll know to either start very low or send back the rifle/barrel.