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Compressed Loads

Mlutz60

Private
Minuteman
Aug 8, 2019
89
14
I am loading 7-08 rounds with PPU brass, H4350, and ELD-X 150gr. I am seating the bullets 30 thousands off the lands. Hornady doesn't list H4350 in their manual with their 150's so I went to Hodgdon's site and they have a load listed with a 150gr Sie HPBT with a starting load of 42gr. I was increasing powder by .4 and at 43.6gr it started to crunch the powder but I still got the desired seating depth but at 44gr and 44.4gr the bullet was seating 3-4 thousands longer. Max listed load is 45.4gr so I still have a couple more increments to go.

Is this an issue? Should I decrease the seating depth by 10 thousands and move it to 20 thousands off the lands? If I decrease the seating depth by 10 thousands and find an accurate load in the higher end powder charges I wouldn't have much room to play with seating depth to fine tune the load.
 
Yeah, try tapping the powder down. Even just gentle taps of the case head against a hard surface will settle the powder a decent bit.

As for your seating question, no, backing the bullet out 0.010” won’t stop the crunch, esp if you keep going. When I get what you’re getting, I just adjust the seating die deeper and keep going until things get ridiculous. When it comes time to light them off, watch all of the loads for pressure signs very carefully.

Generally, compressing extruded powders a bit is acceptable; I wouldn’t compress ball powders at all. Finally, your safety is your responsibility, this advice has a warranty worth what you paid for it.
 
Use of a drop tube will help for sure, I personally do not like super compressed loads, I stop and back up a bit as soon as i see my seating depth change. May research some on case volumes, PPU might be significantly less then another brand. Hornady or Winchester. Try a slightly faster powder? Also agree with the thought is if you seat closer to the lands, to make room for more powder, This give you less room to adjust seating depth tuning, I have had a few were they needed to be 20-30 thousandths shorter to come in.
 
I did some searching and people seem to be getting less capacity with PPU brass although it wasn't with 7-08 brass I found a couple of people who did comparisons of it next to another manufactures brass and had up to 2gr less capacity.

Question now is should I buy new brass or try and make the PPU brass work? Grafs has some lapua in stock.
 
Well????? buying new brass is up to you to decide??? LOL Hope that helps!! HAHA!!

It comes down to how much PPU you have, and volume of rounds you would need, for use of whatever the rifle is for. Got a few spair $$$ to spend for good brass? Its a Performance/Qty/Cost point. I assume its a hunting rig as you are loading the ELD-X? So i also would assume 100-200 brass would last you a long long time. Personally i would get some lapua and be done, But I have no proof that it would help with the volume issues.
 
Maybe PPU has less capacity than the brass used to develop Hodgdon’s data.
 
I did some searching and people seem to be getting less capacity with PPU brass although it wasn't with 7-08 brass I found a couple of people who did comparisons of it next to another manufactures brass and had up to 2gr less capacity.

Question now is should I buy new brass or try and make the PPU brass work? Grafs has some lapua in stock.

What makes you think Lapua is going to have more capacity than PPU?
 
Well????? buying new brass is up to you to decide??? LOL Hope that helps!! HAHA!!

It comes down to how much PPU you have, and volume of rounds you would need, for use of whatever the rifle is for. Got a few spair $$$ to spend for good brass? Its a Performance/Qty/Cost point. I assume its a hunting rig as you are loading the ELD-X? So i also would assume 100-200 brass would last you a long long time. Personally i would get some lapua and be done, But I have no proof that it would help with the volume issues.
Thinking about it everything I have ready about Lapua is their cases are thicker so I might have the same problem.
 
Have you shot any of the loads yet? Can you chrono, them? might be best to got shoot the PPU and see what you have? Maybe stop at the 44-44.4 for now.
 
Have you shot any of the loads yet? Can you chrono, them? might be best to got shoot the PPU and see what you have? Maybe stop at the 44-44.4 for now.
I have not shot any yet. Just loaded them up last night and stopped when I started seeing the seating depth increase.
 
Proceed with caution, IMO you are entering the Danger Zone. Pay attention to what the fired case and MV tells you not what the data says is possible.
I have a 06 load using Mil Cases that is 2 grains less than book max, it is a hot load based on the case capacity being less. The load is 50 fps faster the the book max charge and the fired case tells me "I'm Giving You All I Got!"
 
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Different brass, different bullets = different results due to brass capacities and bullet bearing surfaces / engagement. Hodgdon site clearly states Rem brass, Barnes or Sierra 150gr bullets. You're not going to find reloading data with PPU brass and Hdy bullets. Your best bet is to look at, if it exists, 7-08 load data in the Hdy manual for that bullet and start somewhere at bottom of recommended load or middle.
 
If you are compressing loads you really should be using a faster powder.
 
I don’t know much about 7mm-08 but with 308 brass PPU and Lapua have the same capacity. Remington has more. If 7mm brass follows that pattern then no wonder you’re crunching grains with less than max loads.

Back off the charges.
 
I’m going to load some up starting at 40gr and work up just to be safe. I do have some H414 and a friend has some Varget I can try if the H4350 doesn’t work.
While thinking about it last night will I have below average velocity with a case that won’t hold the same amount of powder? It’s going to be a hunting round so I’m not looking for a hot rod I just want something accurate. I’m also trying H4350 first because I have a bunch of it that I use for another gun.
 
If it's a hunting round then don't worry just get under the compressed load weight and get a load that shoots well. If you're hunting like most people shots are under 100 yards and even if it's slower you should still be capable of making a 200 yard shot. So long as your bullet was designed to operate at the speed you're shooting at range you shouldn't have an issue.
 
While thinking about it last night will I have below average velocity with a case that won’t hold the same amount of powder? It’s going to be a hunting round so I’m not looking for a hot rod I just want something accurate. I’m also trying H4350 first because I have a bunch of it that I use for another gun.

No you won’t have below average velocity. You’ll have the same velocity as in a lighter case but with less powder. Lighter cases hold more powder and have more velocity potential but often that potential is not realized because of inefficiency and/or multiple other factors that dictate you load less powder becsuse that’s where the accuracy ends up being.
 
Well I decided to switch to IMR 4064 because max load is listed at 40.7gr so I was hoping to avoid the issue I'm having with the H4350 compressing 43.6gr. After purchasing the IMR 4064 I realized its a larger powered so I though I was going to have the same issue but thankfully I can get around 40gr in there before it starts to compress.