My rifle really liked the factory 120s so I am going to stick with what works. Box says 39 grains of Varget Fed 210M C.O.L. 2.715" Has anyone tried the recipe printed on the box and had the same or pretty dam close results?
- Thread starter Bigzams
- Start date
I shoot the 140s. My rifle likes the factory loads. When reloading I use the information printed on the factory box.
Yep and it took a hell of a lot more powder to get the same muzzle velocity. This was with the 140's. ended up at 42.6 h 4350 to equal the manufactured stuff. I think it was over 2 grains more than they had listed
YMMV - From what I understand, Hornady tests each new lot of powder for burn-rate and pressure to achive consistent velocity in their ammo. So, what's printed on the box is a starting point....but it's a good starting point. I'm running the 142SMK with 42gr of H4350 around 2743fps out of a 26" tube.
I just weighed 10 factory loaded rounds and took an average. Then I weighed ten sets of case,primer, bullet and took that average too.
The spread of factory loads was 4 grains. Spread of components was 2.3 grains.
The average difference was 42.76 grains. If I threw out the high/low weights of each group, the average was 42.59 , which is what I'm guessing will be the magic number.
I'll be starting at the factory recommended 41.5 just in case...........
Did I understand that right? The factory loaded powder charge varied by 0.4 grains? That's about twice what I would have expected. I can't do much better (a little better) than that with my harrell's. I guess I thought the factory had some magic sauce powder measure.
Last edited:
No it does not. It only shows an approximate guess. I just thought it was interesting that my figure matched Aimsmall55's tested numbers almost exactly.
I used 1x fired brass from the same lot as the rounds I measured. That's still an approximated 1.7 difference in powder weights.
Just using these figures to ballpark what I think will be the sweet spot. Like I said, I'll be working my way up to it.
I was really tired last night. I'm not sure how I missed OP was using 120's and Varget.
MY MEASUREMENTS WERE DONE ON 140 Amax FACTORY ROUNDS FULL OF H4350.
NOT 120 Amax and VARGET
Edited to add: I measured the COAL of the factory rounds at 2.805 as opposed to the 2.810 they suggest on the box which may be why they suggest 41.5 grains of powder.
Last edited:
