What powder does Honady use in their 300wm match rounds?

[sht4brnz]

I have some new 178g 300wm match Hornady rounds that don't group very well for me.
My thoughts are to disassemble the rounds and install some different bullets. I'd like to use the powder that's in them, adjusting appropriately, but would like to know what kind of powder it is so I don't find myself in a bad way.

 

[ksthomas]

sht4brnz,

You're off to a good start to finding yourself "in a bad way." The information as to what powder a particular company uses for a particular load is almost always considered proprietary, and never given out for public consumption. The internet rumors or guesses are exactly that; internet rumors and guesses, nothing more. On top this, there's the very distinct possibility that whatever powder they ARE using, is a non-canister grade or completely proprietary powder that isn't available on the open commercial market.

Go to suitable reloading data as the source, select an appropriate powder for your application, and go from there. Don't worry about what the factories are using, because you probably can't get there from here. Not safely, anyway.

 

[turbo54]

While KsThomas is 99.9% on point in his post.....

I'd still say that a jacketed 175gr match bullet is *pretty much* a jacketed 175gr match bullet.

If the charge is safe with the Hornady 178gr hpbt, it is exceedingly unlikely you'd have unsafe pressures by simply replacing the bullet with, say, a 175smk or 178amax. It is even more unlikely you'd have issues if you tried a LIGHTER bullet such as 168smk, 168amax etc etc etc.

Still, it'd be safest to pull the ammo down and measure the charge weight of several of them... Then, "start low and work up" a new load with the pull down powder.

 

[ksthomas]

Turbo,

No problem with "Mexican Matching" ammo, and bullet substitutions like that are usually not a problem. Especially true with lighter bullets, as you mention. I just get a bit squeamish when I see guys trying to identify powders by appearance, or duplicate a load that someone gave them via barfcom or Wikipedia, and swears that that's the powder they use.

I'm sure you know the feeling.

 

[GhostFace]

Call Hornady and ask them, they are about the most open and friendly company out there. They should tell you it's non canister grade and give you the over the counter equal to it. I know their .308 TAP line used to use non canister grade Varget, not a SWAG but I heard that from the horses mouth over the phone.

ETA damn iPhone spell assist

 

[Rob01]

Call Hornady and ask them, they are about the most open and friendly company out there. They should tell you it's non canister grade and give you the over the counter equal to it. I know their .308 TAP line used to use non canister grade Varget, not a SWAG but heard that from the houses mouth over the phone.

Good advice.

 

[sht4brnz]

I disassembled and measured the powder of 10 rounds of the 178g:
low-75.6g high-76.0g mean-75.7g mode-75.6 velocity stated on box-2860fps

I also disassembled some Hornady 300wm match 195g to try and get some relevance to what the Hornady reloading manual states and try and narrow down what powder loads matched.
low-75.3g high-75.8g mean-75.5g mode-75.3g velocity stated on box-2930fps

I reference the Hornady manual for both bullet weights at 2900fps.
The 178g closest powder charge is 75.2g of IMR7828
The 195g doesn't even list IMR7828 as an option. The closest listed velocity and weight is for the 208g AMAX which states 73.0g IMR7828 for 2850fps.

The Hodgdon manual states 75.0g of IMR7828 for 180g bullet at 2900fps.
73.0g of IMR7828 for 200g bullet at 2900fps.

Hodgdon manual for IMR7828 loading a 220g bullet, the starting load is 70.0 and max is 72.0
Hornady is 62.1 - 69.9max
Berger is 61.0 - 68.1max

Hodgdon 250g bullet states 67.0 - 71.0max

If Hornady tells me it is most comparable to IMR7828 do I:
1. load moderately using 230g Berger's.
2. Throw away the powder, make a desirable round using a known powder and heavier bullet
3. put them back together with same powder and less desirable bullets
4. shoot what's open and sell the rest

 

[FLIGHT762]

Since you asked, this is my .02¢.

Stop disassembling the factory ammo. You don't know and will not know what powder was used in the ammo. If the factory ammo doesn't shoot well for you, put the ammo back together and shoot what you took apart. Sell the ammo you didn't mess with and get something else.

If you want to reload, then do it properly.

 

[armorpl8chikn]

What Flight said is absolutely spot on, he said it nicer than I could have.

I have pulled down M2 ball and I do save the powder. If I ever use the powder it will be put back in the same cartridge, using the data I compiled from a weight average I determined from random rounds. The exact weight of bullet will be used, no farting around with different weights.